Today we’ve got an exclusive excerpt from Jayne Fresina’s latest release, How to Rescue a Rake, which is the third book in her Book Club Belles series! We hope you enjoy this excerpt and pick up a copy of How to Rescue a Rake today!

They were about to go in to dinner when more guests arrived and were shown in by the footman.

The group of three entered the drawing room—first a small elderly lady in mourning ribbons and a younger woman displaying abundant cleavage, too much jewelry, and hair a suspiciously bright shade of copper.

But behind them, tall, lean, and magnificent in a dark green evening coat with an ivory silk cravat was none other than…a man the very image of Nathaniel Sherringham.

How could it be?

Diana felt stuck to her chair.

His gaze swiftly traversed the room and stumbled to a halt when it found her.

There was a moment of confusion, which assured Diana that he had not come there on purpose to follow her, and then he blinked and looked away.

What was he doing at Wollaford? Oh Lord. Had ever a woman been so abused by fate?

Diana wound her fingers together in her lap and finally remembered to breathe. She was a new woman today, a brave woman. Not sitting in a corner, hiding in shadow.

The lady in mourning—Mrs. Ashby—explained in a faint, sad voice, “This gentleman was good enough to escort my niece to Bath. I persuaded the two of them to join me this evening. I do hope you don’t mind.” She directed this last sentence at Mrs. Plumtre, who hastened to assure her that it was no trouble at all to accommodate two more at her table.

“We always have room at Wollaford Park, do we not, Jonty?”

“Of course, Mama. Plenty of room at the trough, what ho?”

Diana saw her cousin Elizabeth wincing as if someone had stood on her foot and belched in her face.

While Nathaniel bowed to each lady in the room, Diana’s pulse skipped and danced. She almost didn’t dare look up at him, but she had to. How could she not? How could her eyes ignore his male beauty?

Each time she saw him, it was as if his looks had improved yet again—or perhaps it was simply because she dared look longer. His manners certainly had changed for the better since their first meeting ten years ago. He did not fidget restlessly the way he once had when he entered a room. He now exuded a quiet confidence, that demanded attention.

“This is my wife’s cousin,” Sir Jonty boomed pleasantly. “Miss Diana Makepiece came to us all the way from the wilds of Buckinghamshire.”

Her eyes met Nathaniel’s. A slight smile turned up one end of his lips. “Miss Makepiece, I am delighted to make your acquaintance.”

So he meant to pretend they’d never met.

She was relieved. They could act as if they were strangers. It would be a clean page for both of them.

Her cousin Elizabeth would not know of their connection. Although she’d met Rebecca Sherringham during brief visits to Hawcombe Prior, she would be unlikely to link the captain to his sister. Elizabeth was not the sort to remember names unless they were attached to nobility or great wealth, and she had considered Rebecca too uncouth and far below her notice.

In fact, Diana was amused now to watch Elizabeth inspect Nathaniel with transparent appreciation and flap her fan hard enough to be in danger of taking flight. Her cousin was not the only one instantly rendered breathless, of course. The young Miss Plumtres gazed up at him with enormous calf eyes and completely forgot to say anything for ten minutes, which was the longest they’d been silent since Diana arrived.

When Nathaniel introduced his companion as Mrs. Caroline Sayles, Diana realized this was the infamous adulteress. She tried not to care. After all, it was, as she’d said to him, none of her business.

The moment Mrs. Sayles’s name was spoken aloud it had an echo effect, speedily circling the room on a fraught whisper. The woman’s infamy must have spread far and wide because even the Miss Plumtres seemed to know of it. They glanced at each other and then at the colorful guest with unconcealed and lurid inquisitiveness. Diana hoped her own expression had not betrayed her too. It would be far more ladylike to pretend she did not know the things that were said about Mrs. Sayles. A proper lady never listened to gossip or let down her guard to stare in complete horror—the way cousin Elizabeth was currently doing.

Keeping her own composure as best she could, Diana felt Nathaniel’s wondering gaze touch her frequently. This coincidence of them being thrust together again must be just as bewildering to him as it was to her. However calm she kept her expression, Diana was bursting inside with startling and intense pleasure at seeing him. His company and his warm smile were unexpected gifts that caught her with her drawbridge and her defenses down.

Although he spoke with his usual self-assurance during the introductions, Nathaniel seemed subdued, as if he was making an effort to be less effusive. She couldn’t imagine why, because he should have been in his element, surrounded by heaving bosoms and pretty, adoring faces.

But a curious thing happened. He looked most often at Diana and saved his smile for her alone. It was tempting to imagine she was the only woman he saw tonight, but that would be foolish vanity.

That did not mean that Diana, the virgin goddess, shouldn’t smile back at him.

Hadn’t she made up her mind to be more sociable here, to venture out of her shell and be brave?

When he caught her responding smile, he looked askance, touching his cuffs with fingers that suddenly seemed endearingly nervous. She couldn’t think why he would be. It was only a smile, for pity’s sake, and he must be accustomed to many of those from women.

Testing her power, she smiled at him again, and he almost tripped backward over the edge of a rug.

Clearly he wasn’t prepared for the newly improved Bath and Somersetshire version of Miss Diana Makepiece.

Jayne Fresina sprouted up in England, the youngest in a family of four daughters. Entertained by her father’s colorful tales of growing up in the countryside, and surrounded by opinionated sisters – all with far more exciting lives than hers – she’s always had inspiration for her beleaguered heroes and unstoppable heroines.

Jayne can be found on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and her website.