by Kruger, Mary
Mary has, alas, never danced with a dashing duke or flirted with a rake, but she hopes that you, the reader, can have those experiences through her books. A librarian, she lives in Massachusetts with her daughter. She enjoys reading, crafts, walking, and, of course, chocolate. She is currently at work on her next book.
Please email Mary at [email protected]
If you enjoyed Alex and Cecily’s story, you might also enjoy A Summer Folly, available in all ebook formats. Keep reading for a preview.
A Summer Folly
Mary Kruger
Chapter One
The mists lifted, and suddenly, there it was. Land. England, at this distance only a cloud on the horizon, but land, all the same. Standing in the bulwark of the ship, Anne Templeton felt a lump come to her throat. Home, after all these years. Her family. Dancing and assemblies and the best of society. Sophisticated clothes in colors she could wear, now that she was a widow past the first blush of youth. Home. Facing down the scandal she’d left behind years ago. Facing Giles again.
“Mama!” A small boy careened across the deck, nearly knocking down a sailor. “Diah says we can see England!”
“So we can, pet.” Anne lifted her son, whirled him around, and then settled him on her hip. Jamie, one of the few good things that had happened to her these past years. He favored her; his reddish gold curls gleamed in the sun, and his skin had acquired the same golden hue that life in Jamaica had given her. He looked like a little heathen, she thought affectionately. God only knew what the proper people of English society, particularly his father’s family, would make of him. Or her.
“It’s only a cloud,” Jamie said, and wriggled in her arms.
“You’re too heavy for that, lovey,” Anne said, and set him down. “We’ll be there soon enough. You’ll see.”
“Will I like England?” he asked, for the thousandth time.
“Mm, I think so. The grass is very green and you’ll have your own pony. And we’re going to live in a castle with the duke.”
“With a moat and a drawbridge?”
“Yes, but no knights in armor, I’m afraid.”
“I’m going to be a knight when I grow up. Diah!” He dashed back across the deck, and the tall man walking barefoot toward them with a peculiar grace, lifted him, his head, completely bald, glistening mahogany in the sun. “Diah, does that look like land?”
Obadiah shaded his eyes with his hand. “I see signs in the clouds,” he intoned, in a sepulchral voice that sent shivers down Anne’s spine. “I see hauntings, a dragon, and a fair knight.”
“Really?” Jamie said. “Are there ghosts in the castle, Mama?”
“No, Jamie, Tremont Castle is not haunted. You are a complete hand, Obadiah,” Anne chided, but she was smiling. She had caught the glint in his eyes that told her that this prophecy, at least, was made in jest.
Obadiah inclined his head. “Thank you, lady.”
“Though the Tremonts do tend to live in the past. I fear the next weeks won’t be easy, Obadiah.”
“How long will we be staying, lady?” he asked, in cultured tones that would not have been out of place in a Mayfair drawing room.
“I don’t know. Jamie, lovey, why don’t you see how Nurse is?”
“I don’t want to,” Jamie said.
“But she’ll want to know we’re near land. Hm, maybe I’ll go tell her—”
“No, I’ll go!” Jamie wriggled free of Obadiah’s grasp and ran off. Anne smiled as she watched him go, but her eyes were worried.
“I don’t know,” she said again. “It depends on the duke. And if I know him...”
“A hard man, lady?” Obadiah said, when she didn’t go on.
“No. Oh, no. A good man, and fair. Or he was. It’s been a long time.” She fell silent again, and this time, Obadiah stayed equally silent, while the crew stepped around them, eyeing them with wary respect. Obadiah was in her employ, but he was far more than a servant. He was confidante, advisor, and, above all, friend. When Freddie had died last year, leaving her with a plantation poorly run and saddled with debt, Obadiah had helped her straighten matters out. He was the best overseer Hampshire Hall had ever had; he was respected by servants and house folk alike, and he had consulted with her on a program that had the plantation running well again. Until the duke had meddled, sending an overseer of his own to replace Obadiah, undoing all the changes they had made, and ordering her back to England. That he was now guardian of her son and had the right to do what he had made no difference to Anne’s resentment. Thus she had asked Obadiah to accompany her, ostensibly to get his position back. She wondered what the Tremonts would make of him.
“When I left he wasn’t the duke,” Anne said, abruptly. “His father was still alive and he didn’t have the responsibilities he has now. He and Frederick were cousins. We all grew up together. It was natural for Frederick to name him Jamie’s guardian, and I suppose we would have had to return to England sometime.” She grimaced. “I don’t know what the duke has in mind, but I have the awful feeling he’ll want us to stay. Jamie should be educated. The Templetons go to Eton, and then Oxford. Family tradition.”
“Not a bad one, lady.”
“No, perhaps not. But no one’s even thought of changing it. If things were done a certain way one hundred years ago, all the more reason it should be done that way now. Tremont Castle isn’t haunted, Diah. The Tremonts are too dull for it.”
Again Obadiah smiled. “You’re not dull, lady.”
“No.” Anne smiled back. “Scatterbrained and flighty, perhaps, at least Frederick said so, but never, never dull.”
“Mrs. Templeton.” Captain Warwick, short and portly, came up, touching the brim of his cap. “We’ll be making landfall in Portsmouth soon. When we’re docked I’ll find an inn for you.”
“Thank you.” Anne smiled at him. It wasn’t his fault, after all, that he’d been given the task of bringing her back to England. Like her, he’d had no choice. When the Duke of Tremont ordered something done, it was done.
Soon they were passing through the Solent, the narrow passage between the mainland and the Isle of Wight, and their destination was in view. Jamie pointed with excitement at the men of war in Portsmouth harbor, and all of them looked with awe at Victory, Admiral Nelson’s flagship. They dropped anchor, and, after the ship had been visited by a customs official and the quarantine doctor, a lighter was put over the side for the Templeton party. The odors of salt and tar, fish and horse assailed Anne’s nostrils as the boat was rowed to the quay, and another scent, elusive, but familiar. A fresh scent, a scent that reminded her irresistibly of spring, a scent she had never found in Jamaica’s lush tropical gardens. The scent of England. A feeling of rightness settled in her, and the lump rose in her throat again. She was home.
Captain Warwick gave her his arm as they walked up the stone stairs at Portsmouth Point, she and Jamie giggling at the way the land seemed to shift under their feet, so used were they to walking a constantly moving deck. He had found rooms for them at the George, the captain said, casting a look back at Obadiah, with a place in the stables for her servant. Obadiah, hefting a trunk on his shoulder, said nothing, but Anne’s lips tightened. She was about to demand better lodgings when she caught sight of a man at the end of the quay, and all other concerns flew from her head.
In contrast to the bustle around him, crew loading and unloading ships, people embarking or streaming toward the coaching offices, the man stood very still, his hands, in pearl- gray gloves, resting atop the silver knob of an ebony walking stick. His coat and pantaloons were black, his shirt white, his waistcoat the same pearl gray. He was hatless; the only sign of life, of color, in him, was his hair, still the color of ripe corn, ruffled by the breeze. It couldn’t be—
“Hello, Anne,” he said, and she stopped still, the lump in her throat lodging in her stomach. The Duke of Tremont. Giles, whom she had once thought she’d marry.
Books by Mary Kruger
Sabrina
An Unsuitable Wife
(originally published as A Gentleman’s Desire)
The Rake’s Reward
A Maddening Minx
A Summer Folly
An Intriguing Affair
Scandal’s Lady
In a Pirate’s Arms
Masquerade
Beyond the Sea
An Angel’s Wish
Marrying Miss Bumblebroth
The Reluctant Hero
Gifts of the Heart
The Crystal Heart
The Gilded Age Mystery Series
Death on the Cliff Walk
No Honeymoon for Death
Masterpiece of Murder
The Knitting Mysteries
Died in the Wool
Knit Fast, Die Young
