The Other Duke (25 page)
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Take a Sneak Peek at
The Scoundrel’s Lover
Book 2 of the Notorious Flynns:
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April 1814
The rain slid down the windowpane like tears down a woman’s face and Annabelle Flynn turned away with a shudder. She didn’t want to think about weeping at present. She didn’t want to think about heartbreak or failure or humiliation, either. Not on the eve of her first Season in the highest of Society. Instead, she smiled at her brother Rafe and his wife of less than a year, Serafina.
It was hard not to smile at them, standing across the room, heads close together, her once-rakish brother’s hand resting protectively on the swell of his wife’s pregnant belly as they waited for their son or daughter to kick again. They were the picture of domestic bliss and true, passionate love.
Things Annabelle didn’t want, nor expect, as she prepared herself to wade into the deep waters of the ton.
“Serafina, do you have any advice for tomorrow’s ball?” she asked.
Her sister-in-law blushed as she looked up from her belly. But it was her brother who laughed.
“You do not ask me?” he teased as he managed to remove himself from his wife’s side. “The duke? Your chaperone?”
Annabelle rolled her eyes. “Your title is only good to gain entre, my dear brother. But you’ve not yet been a duke for a year, so what would you know?”
He staggered back, gripping his chest with both hands as if he had been shot. Annabelle saw Serafina flinch a little at his playful act. Her brother had been shot not long ago and his wife still thought of that day, as she had told Annabelle time and again.
“You wound me,” he teased. Then he shrugged and walked to the sideboard to fetch a glass of port. “But you are correct. My wife is certainly the better guide for you.”
Serafina moved toward Annabelle, taking her hands gently. Annabelle smiled. She had grown deeply fond of Rafe’s wife over the months. They had become friends and sisters of the heart, as well as marriage. It was a lucky thing, no doubt, as Annabelle had many friends who despised the mates of their siblings.
“You and I have gone over the rules and expectations so many times since you announced your interest in a Season, you know them like your own hand,” Serafina reassured her. “Be your lovely self beyond those rules and no one could dare do anything but adore you.”
Annabelle kept a smile plastered to her face, but inside her heart sank. Be herself. Oh no. That was the very last thing she would ever be. The last thing she would show anyone.
Herself was a very dangerous creature, indeed. One best kept hidden.
“I do wish you could be there,” she sighed.
Serafina touched her belly again. “I show too much or I would.” She smiled at Rafe. “But your brother has been reminded time and again to be on his best behavior. And you have become friends with Lady Georgina. She won’t steer you wrong.”
Annabelle nodded. She had met Georgina at one of Serafina’s gatherings a few months ago. Although a few years younger than Annabelle, the daughter of the Marquis of Willowbath was well versed in everything Society. They had become friends of a sort.
So she would not be alone. Even though it sometimes felt very much that way.
Annabelle shook off her thoughts when she caught Serafina watching her closely. It would not do to worry her sister-in-law.
“Mother was very sorry she couldn’t make it with me tonight,” she said as a way to change the subject. “She has not been sleeping well and she is overly tired.”
Rafe’s smile fell at that statement. “Yes, she looked tired the last time we called. What keeps her up?”
Annabelle arched a brow. “Would you like to hazard a guess?”
Rafe let out a long breath. “Crispin?”
She nodded slowly. “Our brother’s troubles seem to mount each day. I have never seen him so wild.”
Serafina dipped her head. “Since we married, he does seem to struggle.”
Rafe turned on his wife and shook his head. “Crispin’s decisions are his own, do not take responsibility for them, my love.”
“It’s true,” Annabelle tried to reassure her as she reached out to squeeze her hand. “Our brother has been adrift for some time, you and your marriage did not change that.”
“Only magnified it,” Serafina said softly.
Rafe shrugged. “He will overcome it, he always has.”
Annabelle tensed. That was what Rafe had been saying for months, and yet she didn’t feel that Crispin was overcoming anything.
“How can we help him? What should we do?” Annabelle asked.
Rafe arched a brow at her. “There is nothing we can do. If Crispin wants to wreck himself, all we can do is wait for him to come to his senses.”
He paced away and Annabelle’s shoulders rolled forward. She’d had this conversation with Rafe, Serafina and her mother enough times that she knew her brother wouldn’t change his thoughts. He had always been so close to Crispin that Annabelle feared Rafe might be blind to the truth.
That their brother was spiraling out of control, to his detriment, but also potentially to her own. Their family’s tenuous inroad into societal acceptance was predicated on Rafe’s newfound title, inherited the year before from their rotten cousin.
But Annabelle’s chance at a good match and a calm and ordinary future hinged on behavior as well as rank. Both her brothers had endangered her standing before and Crispin might do so again if his antics grew too out of control.
She didn’t want to see either of them hurt by his current woes.
Serafina wrapped an arm around her and drew her back to the present.
“Will you stay with us tonight?”
Annabelle smiled. It had become a common occurrence for her to sleep at Rafe and Serafina’s, chatting half the night and enjoying long mornings at Serafina’s side.
“Of course,” she said with a smile. “I have heard from Rafe that you are finished now with the nursery.”
Serafina’s face lit up and her beauty, which had always been at the highest level, was almost too much to look at. “We have.”
“Well, I would love to see it,” Annabelle said as she took her sister-in-law’s arm and hugged her.
“Come then,” Serafina said as she led her from the room with Rafe at their heels. “I would love your opinion on the colors.”
But as Annabelle smiled and nodded at Serafina’s joyful descriptions of her future child’s future chamber, she couldn’t help but have her thoughts wander again. And again they landed on deep and abiding fears that her Season’s debut would be nothing but a failure and her future would be destroyed in one broad brushstroke…
Coming March 2015
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The Scoundrel’s Lover (Book 2 – March 2015)
The Widow Wager (Book 3 – 2015)
A Matter of Sin
A Moment of Passion
A Measure of Deceit
Taken By the Duke
Pleasuring The Lady
Beauty and the Earl
Beautiful Distraction
Everything Forbidden
Something Reckless
Taboo
Nothing Denied
Jess Michaels raffles a FREE Kindle or Amazon gift certificate EVERY month to members of her newsletter, so sign up on her website:
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Jess Michaels writes erotic historical romance from her home in Tucson, AZ. She has three assistants: One cat that blocks the screen, one that is very judgmental and her husband that does all the heavy lifting. She has written nearly 50 books, enjoys long walks in the desert and once wrestled a bear over a piece of pie. One of these things is a lie.
Jess loves to hear from fans!
So please feel free to contact her in any of the following ways (or carrier pigeon):
PO Box 814, Cortaro, AZ 85652-0814
Email:
[email protected]
Twitter
www.twitter.com/JessMichaelsbks
Facebook:
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Jess Michaels raffles a FREE Kindle or Amazon gift certificate EVERY month to members of her newsletter, so sign up on her website:
http://www.authorjessmichaels.com/join-the-jess-michaels-newsletter/
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The Notorious Flynns Book 1
Copyright © Jesse Petersen, 2015
ISBN-13:
978-1502862075
ISBN-10:
1502862077
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For more information, contact Jess Michaels
PO Box 814, Cortaro, AZ 85652-0814
To contact the author:
Email:
[email protected]
Twitter
www.twitter.com/JessMichaelsbks
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/JessMichaelsBks
Jess Michaels raffles a FREE Kindle or Amazon gift certificate EVERY month to members of her newsletter, so sign up on her website:
http://www.authorjessmichaels.com/join-the-jess-michaels-newsletter/
