Vexing the Duke (WICKED WINCHESTERS #5) by Celeste Jones EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Celeste Jones
- Language: English
- Genre: Historical Romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 4.2 MB
- Price: Free
London, 1814
For all of Father’s claims about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
he had no qualms about parading his only daughter around as though I were
a prize mare at the county fair, regardless of my thoughts on my own life,
liberty or happiness.
Since my arrival in London, after a harrowing trip across the Atlantic no
less, I had been primped, prodded, and polished by the determined Mrs.
White, whom Father had hired to make me into a suitable bride for an
English gentleman. I shall certainly take Best In Show, whatever “the
show” might be.
In London, I was quite alone—a fact made evident to me during each
foray into public. My accent was the object of curiosity. Inevitably, the
locals subjected me to quizzical looks, some stares, plus an occasional
unfriendly query of “Are you an American?”
Damn right. I was no happier about being in their country than they
were at having me there.
But, I was a young lady. Miss Sarah Hancock, whose father had decided
to sell her off. No, not for money. My father hardly lacked financially. What
he hoped to gain by bartering me was prestige. His greatest wish was to call
me Lady Something.
My greatest wish was to simply not feel so alone.
A glimmer of hope flickered in my heart as I had been invited to visit
the home of Lord and Lady Winchester. Lord Winchester was an American
who inherited a title and came to London. My father, being as American as I
was, had a letter of introduction to Lord Winchester when we arrived and
made the man’s acquaintance shortly after we set up our household in
London.
I had no delusions that Lady Winchester, a proper English countess
several years my senior, would become a close confidante. However, after
calling upon Lord Winchester, Father reported that a young lady of about
my age resided with Lord and Lady Winchester. He did not have her name,
so like a man to ignore that detail, but he did report that she was Lady
Winchester’s goddaughter who was, like myself, engaging in the social
season in search of a husband.
I got myself properly attired for a morning call, descended the staircase
of our rented home and went to Father’s study to inform him that I was
ready for our visit to the Winchesters.
Not finding him in his study, I moved through the rooms on the first
floor, my concern growing as my efforts to locate him yielded no results.
Perhaps I had not understood the time and date of the invitation. A bit of
disappointment tweaked at me because I had built up the opportunity to
meet a young lady of my own age into a grand event.
Perhaps my new
friend, for of course we would become fast friends, would be able to
decipher some of the intricacies of the social hierarchy of London which
confused me to no end. A baronet? What on earth was a baronet? Was that
better than being a duke?
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