The Duke and the Dressmaker by Eva Devon EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Eva Devon
- Language: English
- Genre: Regency Romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
If another young woman stuffed a hairpin in his pocket, accidentally dropped
a jewel before him, or allowed a handkerchief to flutter in front of his boots,
James Blakefield, the new Duke of Ashbridge, was going to go mad.
Quite frankly, he’d had enough.
The machinations of the English aristocracy were a thing to behold. He was
fairly certain that if the mamas of the ton had been put in charge of the
English army during the Revolution, the Americans never would’ve had a
chance, and that was saying something.
James had been chased, cornered, and manipulated by those infernal
mamas. The attempts to get him into a private room or behind a hedgerow
was shocking, and he was not easily shocked.
Sea captains seldom were.
Now, granted, he was not a usual sea captain. After all, he had been born in
Boston not long after the Revolution. He had a host of ships and sailed the
world, running his company.
But an inheritance had come: an English dukedom. It astonished him, but
he had not turned it down. Turning such power down would be sheer
foolishness.
London had called, and he had come. Whereupon he had discovered that
the running of the vast estates of a dukedom was, for all intents and purposes,
similar to running a large company. Or a small country.
But the darkest part of the entire thing was the way in which every single
English mama seemed certain that he was in want of a wife.
He was not in want of a wife; he had no desire to marry. He’d seen the way
marriage could ruin people, and he had no desire to add to the misery of
another person by marrying them.
Still, attendance of balls was necessary. He was trying to garner support for
his goals in London: one, to open a shipping office here; and two, to go, if not
to war, then at least into opposition with the East India Company and its
bloodstained hands.
That beast of a company controlled most of the seas and far too many
lands. It needed to be restricted, and as a duke, he had some power and the
ability to say what should and should not be done with it. He could have
sway if he wished it, but only if he attended events such as these blasted
balls.
The Earl of Derby smirked at him. “You look as if you’re drowning.”
“I am drowning,” he agreed. “In lace, perfume, and ridiculous chatter.”
“It’s not so very terrible,” Derby said unconvincingly.
James snorted. “Then why don’t I see you out there on the dance floor?”
“Because the right ladies have not shown up yet. I don’t dance with
debutantes.”
“No?” He arched a brow.
Derby shuddered. “No, I have no wish to marry at present. The mamas
know this. I’m only here as your friend and ally to guide you through the
storms of society.”
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