She took an involuntary step back and nearly tumbled once again into the ditch.

He reached out and steadied her. His fingers lingered before letting go, and he offered his arm. “Wherever you wish to go, please allow me.”

“Thank you. You’re very kind.” She practically sighed the words. The truth was, she could have stood there looking into those eyes all day. “But I should be able to manage…now.”

Taylor carefully stepped across the soft ground and moved away from him. Her boots were heavy. Her dress sagged on her body. Her wet, filthy hair stuck to her face. She put one foot resolutely in front of the other, looking straight ahead as she passed the carriage. The grooms were already handing up the trunks to get underway.

Her father was calling from the direction of the tree. She passed a magnificent black stallion pawing the earth. A cloak and hat had been tossed onto the saddle. She didn’t slow down. She had to keep going. She had to disappear. She shut her ears to everything and forged onward.

Memories riffled through her mind like pages of a book open in the wind. Ballrooms. Standing on the edge of dance floors, hoping for a look, a glance, a flirtatious gesture. Like any other young woman, she’d wanted to be noticed. That wish had never been granted. Empty dance cards. No one even addressed her, let alone held her or called her liebling.

Her father had always been quick to identify everything that was wrong with her. Happy to enumerate why no suitors sent up their cards. Too tall. Too fat. Too pale. Too smart. Too outspoken. So, after two long, disastrous Seasons, she closed her heart. She needed no romance. It was too painful.

Taylor slipped as the road rose again, but she stayed upright. The rain-drenched Highland countryside blurred around her, but she continued on.

Fortunately, after two years with not even the hint of a suitor, she became an heiress. As a rich and independent woman, she was secure for the rest of her life.

With the money came attention. Her modest dowry had become a fortune, but she had no interest in a husband. She busied herself in the financial affairs of her family, visited her trusted friends, and ignored the social invitations that arrived every day.

At twenty-seven years old, Taylor thought she was immune to men.

Until this man. His chivalry. His strength. His kindness. His eyes. That liebling. And those absurd moments of clutching and falling and supporting each other in the mud.

Don’t be a fool, she told herself, picking up the hem of her dress and increasing the length of her stride.

“My lady. My lady, please stop.”

Her maid’s distressed call cut into her thoughts. Taylor waited until she caught up with her.

“You’re going to catch your death.”

Taylor took her cloak from the older woman, who proceeded to fuss over her in an attempt to make her presentable. Taylor knew it was a lost cause.

“They’re coming, my lady.”

Taylor glanced back down the hill and was surprised at how far she’d walked. She caught a glimpse of a cloaked man astride his black steed, riding away. As he disappeared around a bend in the distance, she felt oddly disconcerted, as if a beacon on the shore had suddenly vanished. He was here, and then he was gone.

The handkerchief was still miraculously clutched in her fist. She tucked it into her sleeve.

“His lordship said to wait. They’ll pick us up here.”

Taylor watched the men finish strapping down the luggage. Her father and Clay had to be inside already. She felt drained, exhausted. She was not looking forward to climbing into that carriage. She had no stomach for any more arguments. Whatever had been said, whatever she’d done, it all meant nothing. This was simply another day in the wearying life she led with those men. What she really wanted to think about now was a pair of grey-green eyes.

A few minutes later, the driver stopped the carriage, and Taylor and her maid climbed in. With the exception of her father looking disdainfully down his nose and Clay shifting his position so that his knees wouldn’t brush against hers, nothing else was said. Taylor looked out the window, wishing for one more glimpse of their rescuer, but he was long gone.

“Looking for the duke?” Clay asked.

Duke? Taylor tried to think of the dukes she’d met in her life. Not one had been like him. And he’d come to their aid. She didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry. A duke had helped them while an earl and a viscount stood by and did nothing. If she lived to be a hundred, she would never forget the feel of his powerful arms around her.

“The man was a duke?” she asked finally.

“Franz Aurech, Duke of Bamberg.” Her father was thumbing a card.

“Bamberg,” her brother clarified. “In Bavaria.”

The accent. Liebling. It all made sense. “He left his card? Are you going to see him again?”

“Indeed,” Lord Lindsay replied curtly, tucking the card into his waistcoat pocket. “He mentioned that he traveled here from the continent to find a suitable wife. I offered you to him. And as strange as it seems, he might be interested.”




CHAPTER 2




How to Ditch A Duke

– Step 2 –

Maintain a Healthy Distance


The Abbey Hospital

Western Aberdeen, the Scottish Highlands

Three Months Later

NO WARNING. No knock. The door into Taylor’s rooms flew open, and in marched Lady Millie Pennington McKendry, preceded by her exceptionally large, round belly. True, she was nine months pregnant, but Taylor had never been in the company of an expectant woman so close to giving birth.

And her dearest friend was not happy.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Millie shut the door and leaned her back against it. “You didn’t come here to keep my company until this bairn is born. You came north to run away.”

The stung look in her eyes caused Taylor to shrivel a little with guilt. It was true that she’d traveled to this hospital tucked away in the Highlands in order to escape. It seemed the perfect place. A private asylum where Millie’s husband treated patients suffering from head injuries and mental disorders. She’d said nothing because she wanted to spare her friend some of the chaos that her life had become. Her silence had clearly been for nothing, however. Somehow, Millie knew.

“You’ve said not one word about it. A whole month and not one syllable about a suitor.” Millie pressed a hand to her lower back as she waddled away from the door. “And not simply a suitor. A man who’s made his intentions known to you.”

“I did come here to be with you…for the most part.” Taylor moved a chair and helped her friend sit down. “But if I wasn’t bubbling over with news, it’s because there’s nothing to bubble about. And besides, I didn’t see any point in mentioning my problem because I’m hoping it will disappear on its own while I’m…well, away.”

“What problem?” Millie breathed deeply and pressed the side of her belly.

“The problem with my father and this proposal. Yes, I have a suitor, but I want him to disappear.”

“Taylor, a real suitor doesn’t simply disappear.”

Lord knows, Taylor was aware of that.

“And people are saying you’re engaged.”

“Falsehoods, I swear it. A real engagement involves a proposal of marriage and an acceptance. It is a verbal agreement between a man and a woman. Not a father pressuring someone to take his unsightly harpy of a daughter off his hands.”

“You are neither of those things. You make me so angry when you talk about yourself like that.”

“Be angry all you want, but I need you to support me in this.”

Millie sat quietly for a moment. “I know almost nothing of the details, but from what I understand, the man is a duke. How can the earl influence someone of that rank?”

“The man stepped into a trap.” Taylor wrapped her arms around her waist, recalling the most embarrassing moment of her life. “The duke came upon us after a carriage accident and, out of sheer kindness, stopped to help. Naturally, my father thought it was the perfect time to throw me at him. I believe he tried to sweeten the deal with pair of goats.”

Millie smiled. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“I wish I were. I’m all too familiar with his methods. Influence, plead, beg, promise, lie, embellish. Stay after him like a hound on the scent of a fox. Whatever he had to do, he did over the weeks that followed…and somehow managed to succeed.”

It was only when they’d returned to Edinburgh that she’d been able to find out more information about the duke.

“Franz Aurech, the Duke of Bamberg, is financially strapped. His estates are on the verge of collapse.”

“I see.” Millie paused, her brow drawing together. “And he’s looking for a rich wife?”

“An heiress,” Taylor answered. “His Grace is looking for a woman with substantial wealth. And from what I gather, the moment he arrived and his intentions were known, he had invitations to every salon and assembly from London to Bath to Edinburgh. The social circles are still abuzz with a list of prospects.”

“But I doubt there’s any woman richer than you.”

Taylor cringed to think what exactly her father had revealed to this total stranger.

“Why would the earl want this?” Millie asked. “You and I both know that without you handling the business of the family estates, Lord Lindsay and your brother would be…well, ruined.”

It was true. They’d be lost. While Taylor was growing up, her mother had controlled the finances of the family. And when she’d grown ill, Taylor had taken over her role. She had an aptitude for it. She enjoyed the manipulation of funds and stocks, as well as the budgeting of estate revenues. Her father, who had absolutely no interest in such responsibilities, had been off somewhere serving in some ceremonial capacity during the war when her mother passed away. Since then, under Taylor’s management, the family’s fortunes had grown, and Millie was correct that the two men would squander their fortunes in no time without her.