Only a Duke Would Dare by Collette Cameron

Author:Collette Cameron
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2018-10-16T21:00:00+00:00

Torn between anger and frustration, and after having stayed up the entire night, Victor approached the parish’s front gate. Though not quite nine o’clock, too early for a social call, he would wait no longer to approach Reverend Brentwood with a unique proposition.

He intended to ask for Thea’s hand in marriage, and dower Jessica too.

Only a cod’s head would pass up such a generous offer. If that didn’t prove incentive enough, he’d keep enhancing his proposition until Brentwood agreed.

No official betrothal announcement had been made yet, no banns read, so Leadford couldn’t claim breach of promise. Even if he tried, Victor would pay him off. He’d do anything to remove the wretch from Colchester and from Thea’s life.

From her traumatic reaction last evening, she clearly had no notion her father had arranged a match with the curate.

Such anger had engulfed Victor toward the reverend for her public humiliation. What kind of father sprang something of that importance on his daughter during a dinner party? Given the smug satisfaction on Leadford’s face, he’d known in advance and had enjoyed Theadosia’s mortification.

Whilst sitting beside her on the settee last night, Victor hadn’t missed her shudders of repulsion when Leadford pressed near. She couldn’t stand the man.

Under no circumstances could she be forced to marry and bed that maggot.

Glancing around, Victor shifted the crate of oranges and gave the door a sharp rap.

The promised marmalade provided him the perfect excuse to call. Not that he really needed one. His position afforded him many privileges, and in this instance, he didn’t hesitate to take advantage. He should have done so earlier, but out of consideration for Theadosia and her worry about his reception, he’d yielded to her wishes.

A quaint white arched gate covered in untamed white and pink roses stood ajar at the side of the house. Beyond the flagstone footpath visible through the opening, neat vegetable and flowerbeds basked in the morning sunlight. Chickens clucked, and a rooster crowed somewhere beyond the old, weathered, dry stone wall surrounding the grounds.

A flash of pink and green chintz appeared momentarily on a stone bench only partially visible from where he stood.

Thea?

He knocked again, hoping to avoid seeing her until he’d spoken to her father. Victor wanted to tell her himself of the change in plans for her future. Surely, if she must submit to an arranged marriage, she’d be more amendable to wedding a duke instead of Leadford.

After all, she at least knew Victor, and from that stirring kiss they’d shared, she wasn’t unaffected by him. Perhaps sexual attraction wasn’t the best foundation to build a marriage upon, but it was better than him proposing to a stranger or her marrying a lecherous rotter.

Victor had seen Leadford’s kind before. London teemed with that sort of vermin.

A man whose public façade hid an evil side. He hadn’t missed Leadford’s attempted peeks down Thea’s bodice or the cawker’s brushing against her. It had been all Victor could do not to pick the degenerate up by the scruff of his neck and shake him until his nice teeth rattled.

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