The Bride of Black Douglas (MACKINNON-DOUGLAS #1) by Elaine Coffman EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Elaine Coffman
- Language: English
- Genre: Historical Romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2.1 MB
- Price: Free
Northumberland, England, 1785
Most women would go to any lengths to be married to the son of a duke.
Lady Meleri Weatherby was not among them. Betrothed to Philip
Ashton, the Marquess of Waverly, since birth, she would have done
anything to get out of her engagement…absolutely anything.
As a child, she had adored Lord Waverly. Philip was ten years her senior
and her idol. Tall, blond and handsome with a heart-thundering smile, he
could do no wrong. Those were the days when she considered herself most
fortunate.
But nothing remains the same. The years passed and she grew older.
Things began to change. It was through a woman’s eyes she viewed the
world now, and not those of a child. What she had once adored was nothing
more than a thin veneer, cracked and peeling away.
Thusly exposed, she saw the true man—one with a cruel side that he
frequently exhibited toward animals and underlings. Now she realized Lord
Waverly was not the man of her dreams. He was the last man in the
universe she would want to marry.
The awareness was gradual, but the realization came to her quite
suddenly one warm afternoon when she was on her way home after a long
ride. She no more than crested a hill, when she came upon a horrifying sight
that both shocked and filled her with revulsion.
Philip was holding the reins of his terrified horse and beating the poor
beast unmercifully with his riding crop. Blood was everywhere.
Instinctively, she alighted and ran toward him, screaming, “Stop it! For
the love of God, Philip, stop!”
When he turned toward her, with the crop drawn back, she thought for a
moment he was going to strike her, and she stopped stock-still, her eyes
wide at the sight of a side of him she had never before seen.
She saw the blood-rage in his eyes and the tightly clenched jaw. She
knew he fought against the urge to use the crop on her. “Stay out of this,
Meleri. It does not concern you.”
“I beg to disagree with you, but cruelty of this magnitude not only
concerns me, it concerns me gravely.”
Never had she seen such raw fury in human eyes. It was only when
Philip threw the crop to the ground and walked off that she noticed one of
his groomsmen, a young lad they called Will, standing nearby. He clutched
the reins of Philip’s horse tightly in one hand, while the other hand held a
kerchief to a bloody gash on his cheek.
“Will, what happened to your face?” she asked, although she feared she
already knew the terrible answer.
“I…I hit a branch, milady.”
Meleri went to him and pulled the kerchief back, then winced at the
deep gash. “That wasn’t done by a branch. He struck you, didn’t he?”
Will looked down. “I hit a branch, milady.”
“I understand,” she said softly, then gave his arm a pat. “You need not
worry that I will speak of this to Lord Waverly. Can you ride back by
yourself?”
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