A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by KJ Charles EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
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- Author: KJ Charles
- Language: English
- Genre: Historical Fiction
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THE ISLE OF OXNEY, ROMNEY MARSH
APRIL 1823
Rufus d’Aumesty, nineteenth Earl of Oxney, twenty-second Baron Stone,
and inheritor of the ancient and unbroken d’Aumesty lineage, glared at his
uncle Conrad and said, “Balls.”
“Your vulgarity is regrettable.” Conrad wore a little smirk on his smug
face. Rufus regretted the twenty-year age difference that prevented him
knocking it off.
“We’ve been through this,” he said in lieu of violence. “The Committee
for Privileges took seven months to assess my right. You dredged up every
calumny and speculation you could think of against my mother and
invented God alone knows what nonsense about me in your effort to claim
the title, and you still lost. They said so, it’s done with, and you cannot start
it all again!”
Conrad’s smirk stayed in place. “Of course I have accepted the decision
of the Committee. I can scarcely be blamed for taking pains to ensure the
title continues down the true line in lawful fashion—”
“You speculated my mother bore a girl and switched me at birth with an
orphan boy, as though she were a Bourbon queen, not a draper’s daughter,”
Rufus said with all the patience he could muster, which was scant. “Then
you said I was an impostor who’d stolen a dying man’s identity on the
battlefield.”
“I merely raised the question.”
“You called my mother a liar and me a fraud, and I’ve had enough of it.
The title has been awarded. The matter is closed.”
“Then it must be reopened. Some very serious information has only
recently come to light, as a matter of chance. It requires investigation.”
Rufus’s back teeth were grinding together. “It does not, because the title
has been awarded. I’m the legitimate son of Raymond d’Aumesty which
makes me the sodding earl, and there is no more to be said!”
“Certainly you are Raymond’s son. The question is your legitimacy.”
Rufus clenched his fist to prevent himself saying something his uncle
would regret. He was going to stop trying to hold on to his temper very
shortly. “The Committee examined the proof thoroughly. My mother was
married to my father. That is incontestable.”
“Oh, the marriage is unquestionable,” said the man who’d spent months
questioning it. “I do not argue that Raymond went through a ceremony with
your mother. The question is whether he was legally able to do so.”
“Legally able to—what, marry?”
“Indeed.”
“He was twenty-seven years old and of sound mind, insofar as any
d’Aumestys are of sound mind, which—”
“He was already married.”
“What?”
Conrad plastered on a sympathy-shaped smile. “Or such is the
allegation. Raymond was my brother, but he was a rash, irresponsible,
foolish man, easily led, with uncontrollable enthusiasms—”
“What do you mean, already married?” Rufus demanded. “Get to the
point!”
“Before Raymond became…entangled with your mother, he had a
dalliance with a local girl. A housemaid who abandoned her duties to sport
with a son of the house.”
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