The Heart of a Hellion

by Jess Michaels

  The Heart of a Hellion

  The Duke’s By-Blows Book 2

  Jess Michaels

  Copyright © 2020 by Jess Michaels

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  The Duke’s By-Blows

  Excerpt of The Matter of a Marquess

  Also by Jess Michaels

  About the Author

  For Mackenzie Walton, the most amazing editor and terrific friend a girl could ask for. Thank you for always pushing me a little further.

  * * *

  For all the readers who told me what I do matters during this difficult time.

  * * *

  And for Michael. If I could write a hero who accepted the heroine for everything about who she was, it's only because you have always accepted me for everything I am. Thanks for being my quarantine buddy and best friend.

  Chapter 1

  1816

  Selina Oliver sat on a chaise in the corner of her brother Robert’s parlor, a drink clenched in her fingers as she watched the rest of the room from a distance. It was an elaborately embroidered seat, stitched with peacocks strutting across vistas. She was fairly certain some of the threads were real gold. No wonder it felt so uncomfortable beneath her bottom.

  Not because it wasn’t comfortable. No, her brother and his wife had never been one for show and not substance. But more because Selina knew she didn’t belong on a chair that was possibly worth the wage some people made per annum. Most of the time when she encountered such luxury she was trying to figure out some way to…

  Well, it didn’t matter what she would normally be trying to do. She wasn’t about to do that here.

  She continued to watch the room. Her brother Robert and his wife, Katherine, were the Duke and Duchess of Roseford. He was the only legitimate son of the long-dead and never-mourned last duke. And Selina…well, she was one of many bastard children that terrible man had left in his wake. Ones who had been taken care of financially, but never welcomed into the fold.

  Until now. Until Robert had opened his arms and his home to them with varying degrees of success.

  Even now, Robert stood with her two older half-brothers, Morgan Banfield and Nicholas Gillingham. Although one could see the similarities, neither of them looked as like to Robert as she herself did. She shared his sleek, thick dark hair, the angles to the face. Only her eyes were her own, blue when her brothers shared Robert’s dark brown ones.

  She shook her head as Nicholas turned toward her and speared her with a smile. He moved across the room, slowly and with a pronounced limp that made her heart ache. He had entered the army and served admirably. Until he was nearly killed in battle nearly two years before. He was still recovering from the injuries.

  She forced her reaction from her face as he reached her and settled in beside her on the settee with a grimace. “Is this where the outsiders sit?” he asked.

  She shot him a side glance. “The only outsider here is me, Nicholas. You belong anywhere you go. You’ll belong even more if they grant you that title for your bravery.”

  His lips thinned at the comment, but she thought she saw a flutter of emotion in his eyes. He shrugged. “That isn’t certain.”

  “It should be,” she said softly. “No one deserves recognition and land and a pile of money more than you do.”

  “Hmm,” he murmured, and shifted as if uncomfortable, though she wasn’t certain if the discomfort was more physical or emotional. “Well, I think we’re both outsiders now, if only because the couples there are so exquisitely happy.”

  She followed his stare back to their brothers and their wives. Robert had been married to Katherine for years, but there remained a chemistry between them that one would have to be blind not to see, even if they didn’t always seem to need to touch each other.

  And their other brother, Morgan, had very recently married his wife, Lizzie. Less than six months before, actually. The newlyweds were clearly blissful and had been enjoying their time in London before they returned to the estate of Lizzie’s brother, where Morgan now worked as his man of affairs.

  Robert looked across the parlor at Nicholas and Selina with a smile, and his voice elevated to reach them. “I was just telling Morgan and Lizzie how sad Katherine and I are that they cannot join us for our fete in Roseford next week.”

  Morgan smiled, and Selina was happy for him in that moment. Her once-wild brother had always had a strained relationship with Robert. Now they were growing closer and he was obviously much…happier now that he was settled. She would have been jealous of that, perhaps, except she had no interest in being settled. It wasn’t her nature, after all.

  “We are disappointed as well, but I know my brother and Amelia require our help now that the baby is so soon to be born.” Lizzie’s face lit up with happiness for her own beloved brother. “And I do want to be there.”

  “Of course you do,” Katherine said with a reassuring smile. “But unlike the two of you, who have a prior engagement, I think Nicholas and Selina might be able to join us. Won’t you both?”

  Selina stiffened and felt her brother do the same beside her. Though she guessed their reactions had very different origins. Nicholas cleared his throat as he slowly pushed to his feet.

  “I-I’m afraid I am not in any shape to travel, at present,” he said, motioning to his body. “It is…difficult still.”

  Katherine’s cheeks paled. “Of course.”

  Robert’s brow wrinkled. “Have you seen that doctor the Duchess of Willowby suggested? She’s a great healer, Nicholas. She knows of what she speaks.”

  “I’m sure,” Nicholas said, and it was clear the words were pushed past clenched teeth. “I’ll be certain to look her up. But I cannot attend.”

  The eyes of the room moved to Selina and she got up to stand beside Nicholas. “I-I’m afraid I have things to do,” she said, and forced herself not to think of those things so she would reveal nothing on her countenance. Robert was good at reading people. Morgan was even better. She didn’t need either of them digging around in her affairs.

  Katherine shifted. “It won’t be a large party, Selina. Mostly friends.”

  Robert made a rude snort and speared his wife with a look. “The ridiculous Earl of Winford and his nasty wife are not our friends.”

  Selina stiffened at that name. “You’re inviting Winford and his wife?”

  “Yes,” Katherine said, distracted before she pivoted to face Robert. “Of course they aren’t. That woman is a nightmare and her husband has the personality of a trout. But you know why we’re inviting them.”

  Robert’s expression relaxed and he even looked chagrined. Selina watched the transformation in awe. He truly had been changed by love over the years. The Robert she knew once upon a time would have reacted quite dif
ferently. Not cruelly, of course, he’d never been like their father in that way. But he wouldn’t have softened.

  “For Baldwin and Helena, of course,” he said. “I realize Baldwin needs to secure Winford’s support for his latest venture with Grayson Danford. I just want to make it clear I do not like the man.”

  “No one likes the man, not even his own wife,” Katherine said with a small laugh. “The things we do for love.”

  “Indeed,” Robert said, playfully stern.

  “Is that what you do now?” Nicholas said softly. “Help the unfortunate?”

  Robert’s playfulness vanished in a moment as he jerked his gaze to Nicholas. “Are you referring to Baldwin?”

  Nicholas shrugged. “The Duke of Sheffield’s financial fall and the slow rebuilding of his empire are not unknown, even in lowly circles such as my own.”

  Robert’s eyes narrowed, and it was clear he felt defensive of his old friend. One of a group of dukes their brother had run with all his life. A club he was closer to than his own siblings, truth be told.

  “If you know he is rebuilding his empire, then you know he isn’t unfortunate. I help those I care about, Nicholas. Including you and our sister, if you two would not be so bullheaded at every turn.” Robert pushed his shoulders back. “I think I’ll take a turn on the terrace, if you don’t mind excusing me. I’ll be back momentarily.”

  Katherine sighed as Robert exited the room. She glanced at Nicholas briefly. “The way you hold yourself back from him, sometimes I fear you judge him for what he once was. I wish you could see him for what he’s become.”

  Then she followed where her husband had gone, leaving the remaining siblings behind. For a moment there was an awkward silence, then Morgan crossed the room and he and Nicholas stepped away to talk quietly.

  Selina found herself moving toward Lizzie. The younger woman lit up as she came near, and Selina couldn’t help but smile. No wonder Morgan loved her. She was light and sweet and everything his previous life had not been.

  “They’ll work it out,” Lizzie said as Selina reached her.

  Selina looked back over her shoulder. Nicholas’s jaw was set, but he was listening to whatever it was Morgan was saying to him. “I assume they will. I wasn’t worried.”

  “Weren’t you?” Lizzie asked softly. When Selina glanced back at her, she shook her head. “Of course, I would not presume to tell you how you feel. But I hope you’ll at least consider Katherine’s invitation to their fete.”

  Selina smiled at her, this woman who had lived such a sheltered life. Certainly she couldn’t understand what Selina was, who she’d always been. How she was proud of both those things, despite what Society would say to the contrary. “Well, Nicholas refuses him. Are you going to speak to him, too?”

  Lizzie laughed a little. “I think my husband is doing a fine job already. And he and Robert are very different. It might take some time for them to…find their way.”

  “Oh.” Selina blinked. “You think that Robert and I must find our way, that is why you encourage me to take the invitation.”

  Lizzie looked off toward Morgan, her expression softening with love. “I know the understanding Morgan and Robert have come to over the last few months has been very important to him. I would only wish an increased closeness like that on all the children of the last Duke of Roseford. For their sake and for Robert’s.”

  Selina considered the statement. She and Robert spoke, of course. The fact that she was invited to and had chosen to attend this gathering tonight proved their relationship wasn’t outwardly strained. But she wouldn’t disagree with the point Lizzie was gently making: that she and her brother were not close.

  “Perhaps my problem with Robert is that he and I are too alike. I’m as wild now as he once was,” Selina mused softly before she glanced at Lizzie again. “I’m surprised you want anything to do with me, Lady Elizabeth.”

  “Perhaps I just long to hear the stories you could tell.”

  Selina flinched. She could well imagine the censure she’d receive from this lovely woman if she told her stories. What would shock her more? Actions? Drives? Desires? Oh no, Lizzie could surely not be ready for any of that.

  “My stories aren’t as interesting as you might think,” Selina lied.

  Lizzie tilted her head, and for a moment Selina felt as though the younger woman could see through her. Then she smiled gently. “Well, then I suppose I will continue my pursuit of a relationship with you because you remind me of Morgan. And based on everything he tells me about you, I know your wild side is not your only side.”

  “Hmm,” Selina mused, suddenly uncomfortable with that idea. Not many people saw any other side of her than the one she chose to present. And that wild side was the one that reminded her she wouldn’t belong at her brother’s house party any more than she’d belonged at this gathering tonight.

  It was also the side that whispered she should go to Roseford. To have fun. To cause trouble. And to take care of something she’d been trying to do for weeks. The party offered an opportunity now. But should she take it and risk exactly the relationship Lizzie was speaking to her about?

  “Just think about it,” Lizzie said, and stepped away as Robert and Katherine returned to the room. Nicholas approached and the two men spoke softly before they shook hands. But Selina recognized the strain between them remained. It was a shame, really.

  Perhaps Lizzie was right, after all. This party afforded her the chance to get a little closer to her once-wayward brother. And if she was careful, he’d never have to know her ulterior motives.

  It couldn’t hurt, in the end. She would make sure it didn’t.

  “Have you seen Gillingham since the incident?”

  Derrick Huntington lifted his gaze from his paperwork to his partner, Edward Barber. The carriage they were riding in rocked slightly as they turned a corner, and he steadied himself before he spoke.

  “The incident,” Derrick repeated with an arched brow for his friend and partner. “Is that what we’re calling the moment where the man nearly died in battle for his comrades? For us?”

  Barber’s hand moved to touch the shoulder where he had been shot in the battle. Derrick’s own arm tingled as they spoke of it. Minor injuries, enough to put them both out of service, but most of the men in the company had survived unscathed thanks to Gillingham’s bravery. His injuries had not been minor.

  “Since his return to London, then,” Barber corrected himself. “Have you called on him?”

  “Once,” Derrick said. “At the beginning. He likely doesn’t recall it, he was in such a bad way.”

  Barber’s head bent and his lips pressed hard together. For a moment the carriage was quiet, and then Barber shifted the papers in his lap. “Well, if he is kind enough to help us, then it will make things easier.”

  Derrick nodded, but their conversation was cut off as the carriage arrived. He stepped out, stretching his back. Damned carriages were always hell on him because he was so tall. He preferred to ride a horse, but when it came to calls like this, the carriage was a necessity.

  They walked up together to the door and were greeted by a redheaded butler with a scar that slashed from his forehead, down under the patch on his eye and across his cheek below. Derrick caught his breath at the same time Barber did.

  “Evans?” they both said together.

  The butler gave them a grin and motioned them into the foyer. Once the door was shut, he extended a hand and the men broke normal protocol with a servant by shaking.

  “Aye, it’s me,” he said. “And a pleasure to see you both, it’s like old times.”

  “You serve Gillingham?” Derrick asked. “You weren’t the butler when I came to call right after his return.”

  “Still recovering myself,” Evans said, and some of his joviality faded. “But you know Gillingham. He’s too decent a lot not to help. He hired me…it will be a year on the fifteenth, actually. He doesn’t seem to care that his butler has a bit of a cockney twist.
Though I do try to…” He straightened his shoulders and stifled a grin as his accent went far more proper. “…intone with gravitas.”

  “That’s wonderful, Evans,” Derrick said. “He’s expecting us, yes?”

  Evans nodded and led them up a hall to a parlor. It was a fine room, elegantly appointed and neatly kept. Evans motioned to the tea that was already laid out on the sideboard and then disappeared to find their host.

  “He’s certainly bringing himself up in the world,” Derrick mused as he stepped up to a painting that hung on the wall next to the fire. A beautiful piece that must have been expensive.

  “But not forgetting those he left behind,” Barber agreed. “It speaks highly of him.”

  The door behind them opened and Nicholas Gillingham appeared. He leaned heavily on a cane and seemed stiff as he stepped into the room. For a moment, his expression was cool, distant, but then his dark eyes twinkled and he extended the hand not on his cane as he came toward them.

  “I cannot say how happy I am to see you both,” Gillingham said as he shook their hands in turn and then motioned them to sit. For a while they spoke, catching up on their time in the army, the whereabouts of old friends and the state of current military politics.

  At last Gillingham leaned back in his chair with a satisfied sigh. “That you were both to come to call today was a high point of my week, I assure you.”

  “We should have come sooner,” Barber said. “It’s been too long.”