Forbidden fruit never tasted so sweet...
DENYING THE DUKE
Lords and Ladies in Love #3
Callie Hutton
Releasing July 10, 2017
Entangled Scandalous
Four years
ago, Alex, a second son, had planned a life together with Lady Patience.
However, when Patience was betrothed to his brother, the heir, Alex left his
family’s estate and joined the military.
Alex returns to assume the title Duke of Bedford when his brother unexpectedly dies. He is unprepared for both his new responsibilities and the reunion with Patience. The horrors of war are a heavy burden, and when he learns that Patience never married his brother, he is stunned.
Patience withstood the bullying of her fiancĂ© and her father for four long years. She refuses to marry Alex just because he’s the duke, especially if he no longer loves her. How would that be better than what she has already endured? Promises made in their youth are not enough to overcome the changes life has wrought for them but love can grow and transform, if only Patience could believe that.
Alex returns to assume the title Duke of Bedford when his brother unexpectedly dies. He is unprepared for both his new responsibilities and the reunion with Patience. The horrors of war are a heavy burden, and when he learns that Patience never married his brother, he is stunned.
Patience withstood the bullying of her fiancĂ© and her father for four long years. She refuses to marry Alex just because he’s the duke, especially if he no longer loves her. How would that be better than what she has already endured? Promises made in their youth are not enough to overcome the changes life has wrought for them but love can grow and transform, if only Patience could believe that.
Excerpt
Dragging
his thoughts back to the present, he walked from the church graveyard where all
the Dukes of Bedford were buried in the family mausoleum, to the Abbey, his
boots making a sucking sound in the mud.
He
stopped on the stone pathway and studied the building. It looked exactly as it
had all his life, and for generations before that. He, however, had changed
significantly from the angry, brokenhearted young man who had left. War had
carved him into a bitter, bedeviled-by-ghosts man. No softness remained from
that addlepated young man in love.
Precisely
how he liked it.
Patience,
otherwise known as the Duchess of Bedford, would be holding court for the
mourners who had come to comfort her on the death of her husband. Since he’d
had no contact with his family in the four years he’d been gone, he had no idea
if she and Cyrus had children. Of course, there wasn’t a son, or Alex would not
have been summoned home to take up his duties as the new Duke of Bedford.
He
snorted. One could only hope the pater was spinning in his grave as the
prodigal son returned to assume the title he’d held so dear. He no more desired
to be the duke than his father would have wanted him to be.
His
thoughts returned to the Duchess of Bedford. It seemed nothing had changed
since he left. Under the law, as his brother’s widow, Patience was just as
off-limits to him as she had been as Cyrus’s betrothed. Of course, he had no
reason to believe he still felt the same about her as he had four years ago.
That Alex was dead, and he had the vile memories and dark dreams to prove it.
Before
he could reach for the front door latch, the door opened. A new butler, unknown
to him, stood there, stiff as a board. “Welcome home, Your Grace.”
Your
Grace.
Callie
Hutton,
the USA Today bestselling author of The Elusive Wife writes
both Regency and western historical romance, with “historic elements and
sensory details” (The Romance Reviews). Callie lives in Oklahoma with
several rescue dogs and her top cheerleader husband of many years. Her family
also includes her daughter, son, and daughter-in-law, and twin grandsons “The
Twinadoes.”
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