REGENCY: Loved by the Duke (Historical Billionaire Military Romance) (19th Century Victorian Short Stories) by Tencia Winters & Serena Vale

Author:Tencia Winters & Serena Vale
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2016-07-11T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 1

Christmas Day, 1843

The stage coach hit another rut in the road, sending Eleanor bouncing off of the seat only to land again with a painful thud. Surreptitiously, she rubbed her aching backside. Even with all the layers of petticoats and the fabric of the green dress itself, every jolt rattled through her, and the further west they travelled the worse it seemed to get.

She hoped desperately that her own life would not follow a similar pattern. Not that I have a choice, she reminded herself sternly. It was a lesson she had learned long ago. Life is never fair, it’s best to just accept what’s in front of you and make the most of what you can’t change. Much less heartache that way.

A sigh flew out of her lips before she could stop it. Although sometimes, it did seem to her that life had just heaped an extra helping of unfair onto her. She pushed her pixie like chin high up into the air, throwing back her shoulders. She had survived worse, Eleanor reminded herself. She would no doubt have no trouble at all with her new husband.

With every ounce of will she had, which was considerable, she shoved down the trembling sense of fear and uncertainty that kept trying to invade, reminding herself over and over that she was strong, that she would survive. She really had lived through just about the worse that a person could.

Despite herself, the memories swirled. Jack Fontaine. Dear Jack, sweet Jack. Hah! Drunk, mean Jack was more like it. Sure, he had been nice to her at first, wooing her with sweet words. Until they got married, that is. And then, it was if he had become a different man. A monster. A monster that couldn’t stay away from the booze or the women.

One night, she had overheard him laughing to his good for nothing friends that he had only married her because he thought she’d had money. Well, the joke was on him. She’d been almost as poor then as she was now, whatever meager scraps she’d been able to save had gone straight down Jack's throat.

Which was why she hadn’t been surprised when she had received the message telling her that Jack had broken into some fancy new factory and got himself killed. Eleanor remembered that night so vividly, it was like it had happened just yesterday instead of almost two months ago.

She had received the message to go to the Wilder factory immediately, that it was urgent. The messenger, one of Wilder’s employees had driven her there on an old wagon that smelled of animal, but she had barely noticed. Her heart had pounded slow and painful in her chest, warning her that something bad was coming.

She had looked at the letter, trying to feel some remorse for the loss of her husband, but underneath the fear, all she could feel was relief, and she had hated herself for that. But the honest truth was that the last three

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