The Duke's Brother by Claudia Stone

Author:Claudia Stone [Stone, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2017-05-30T23:00:00+00:00

A dark ceiling of cloud obscured the stars, as Sebastian made his way home a few hours later. One brandy had turned into rather a few, and he hoped that the cool night’s air would sober him slightly before he turned in to bed. The brandy had rendered him melancholy, and his thoughts drifted to Petra; the daughter of the Earl of Lancashire had been his first true love, or so he had believed at the time.

In the first year after he had returned from the Orient and was building his fortune at an alarming pace, he had been an object of curiosity for many members of the ton. Many of the old families believed that they were too dignified to become involved with the industries which were springing up in the North of the country or with the trading imported goods. But still they watched the wealth that people like Sebastian were accruing with greedy eyes and jealous hearts. They might have felt that sullying their hands with industry and trade was beneath them, but they needed money to keep their crumbling country estates running.

And so, Sebastian became a target – which was something he had never anticipated he would be.

Lady Petra Deveraux had been the epitome of his childhood fantasies. Blonde and petite, with large blue eyes, she had enraptured his thoughts and his soul in the instant that she brushed past him in a crowded ballroom. He had plagued Sutherland to make the introduction to the angelic looking young woman, and once all propriety had been respected, Sebastian began his courting of her like it was a campaign of war.

At every ball he filled Petra’s card with his name, reserving as many dances as was politely permissible, so that he could spend just a few minutes with the love of his life in his arms. If his brain had been working in any way, shape or form, Sebastian would have realised that as well as being exceedingly dull, vain and frivolous – Lady Petra Deveraux was a complete and utter snob. Something which Sebastian had always detested.

When he was dancing with Petra however, his brain was somewhere in the upper Highlands, and her caustic remarks about others went unnoticed.

That is until the one night at the Vauxhall Gardens, he discovered exactly what the object of his affections really thought of him.

He had hired a box where a lavish supper had been served for the Earl’s family, as well as a few other notable figures. When darkness had fallen and all the lanterns which lined the The Grand Walk had been lit, the Earl himself had suggested that the group take a stroll through the gardens. The romance of the beautiful, perfume filled gardens had inspired Sebastian, and as the group made their way down The Grand Walk he had decided there and then that he would propose to Petra. The only problem being that Petra seemed to have disappeared.

Halting in his tracks Sebastian had scanned the vicinity

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