How I Married a Marquess
Page 33
The daughter of an earl, she was born to be the wife of a peer, and her future—and choice in husbands—had never been her own. And in truth, she’d never made any commitment to him.
Still, he pursued her in that reckless manner he possessed when he was younger, with the devil and his consequences both be damned. But he’d been too young, too inexperienced with women and the world, and far too arrogant to realize there were some things he’d never be able to have. No matter how much he wanted them. And he’d wanted her, not just for an affair but for the rest of his life, yet he never suspected she didn’t share the same desires for a future together. So one warm afternoon as they lay tangled in the sheets of an unused guestroom at Hartsfield Park, he told her he loved her.
His eyes pressed shut against the memory. From ten years away, he could hear the sound of her nervous laughter and stunned voice as clearly as if she were still in the room with him…
Love? At least she’d had the decency to cover her mouth with her hand in apologetic shame as she murmured, Surely, you cannot seriously think that I could ever marry an army officer—oh, Edward, no…Her wide-eyed disbelief melted into a soft expression of pity. I thought you understood…
Apparently, he hadn’t understood at all.
One week after that, he left for war, to put as many miles as possible between them, with no intention of ever returning.
And two months later, his brother Stephen, Duke of Strathmore, announced his engagement. To Jane.
Despite the fires of war and his anger at her betrayal in marrying his brother, it took several years to purge her from his mind. He’d led reckless charges into battle and offered to take the place of men of lesser rank in dangerous missions, not because he had a death wish but simply because he no longer cared what became of him, if he lived or died. Eventually, he purged her from his body, too, with a string of nameless women.
All of this he kept from his brother, who had once been his best friend and closest confidant. At first, he was too ashamed to share with Stephen how he’d fallen for a woman he should have realized all along could never be his. Then, when he learned of the engagement, this second, deeper humiliation by the woman who became his sister-in-law changed everything between the two men, and Edward knew he would never be able to tell him. The confidence they’d shared in each other since they were boys had been irrevocably destroyed, costing him not only his heart but also his brother.
The result, he calculated, was a distinguished military career and an immeasurable distrust of women. He would allow himself to enjoy their flirtations and attentions and gladly take whatever pleasures they willingly gave, but he would never again trust one with his heart.
Then, in an instant, his world ended.
Stephen and Jane had gone to London to celebrate the long-awaited news that she was with child. But drunk and angry from a night losing money at cards, Phillip Benton raced his phaeton through the narrow streets, blindly speeding around a corner and into the oncoming carriage. The two teams collided in a mangle of wood and metal, blood and flesh. Stephen and Jane were cut down in the prime of their lives, while Benton walked away without a scratch.
Edward had been a country away when it happened, oblivious to the horrific and monstrous changes that fate had flung at his family.
The full weight of the Strathmore legacy descended upon him like an avalanche, ripping him from his command and forcing him back to England and into a life he’d never known nor wanted. Overnight, he’d become one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, responsible for estates and all their tenants and employees, bank accounts worth small fortunes, a seat in Parliament, and the private confidences of the Prince Regent himself.
His brother and Jane had been killed, but Edward had been sent to hell.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Also by Anna Harrington
Praise
A Preview of DUKES ARE FOREVER
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Newsletters
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Anna Harrington
Excerpt from Dukes Are Forever copyright © 2015 by Anna Harrington
Cover art by Chris Cocozza
Hand lettering by Ron Zinn
Cover design by Christine Foltzer
Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance
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ISBN 978-1-4555-3407-4 (mass market); 978-1-4555-3406-7 (ebook)
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