Welcome back for Sunday Snippet and part 3 from No Duke of Mine. I hope you’ve enjoyed the snippets I’ve shared so far. More to come today. Enjoy!

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Her eyes narrowed. ���That is what you said yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. I���m starting to think you can���t bear to be parted from us.���

���The London season could arrive before he does, at this rate,��� Jasper teased. ���Do you want the carriage put away again?���

���No.���

���Do you think we should travel with him? Make sure he doesn���t get lost or waylaid,��� Stratford asked, adding his voice to the harassment.

���Yes, all right, I am going today. I���ll be back in exactly two weeks.���

Laura drew close and gently laid her hand on his sleeve. ���We���d come with you for moral support if you want us to, you know.���

���I know.��� If his family came with him to London now, though, he might as well ring every bell in London to announce that the Duke of Ravenswood was in pursuit of a bride. ���I can do this alone.���

���As you wish, but remember we���re only a letter and a fast horse away,��� Laura promised, patting his arm. ���We���ll prepare the duchess��� chambers discreetly while you are gone as well, so don���t worry about that.���

Algernon may be a duke, but in a house full of women, he had discovered that he rarely had to worry about the running of his home. This was, perhaps, a kind of preparation for the day when he was a married man. His wife would rule the roost, and he would not even be told of what she might do. His duchess would make all the decisions for the household in the future.

Nash returned, baby Isabelle in his arms and his sons hard on his heels. ���Aunt Violet wishes to speak with you before you leave.���

���Again? Damn her. What now?���

���It���s your own fault for trying to keep this trip a secret from her,��� Nash explained.

���Seymour probably told her. There will be no secrets left in this household soon,��� he complained. But Algernon squared his shoulders. ���Best see what the old dragon wants before I go.���

***

You can read last week’s snippet here and come back for more of No Duke of Mine next Sunday.

Scandalous Brides, Book 5

Algernon Sweet, Duke of Ravenswood, has a plan. Travel to London. Propose to the rich titled widow who can solve all his financial woes. Easy. Or it would be if he weren���t trapped at a country inn by rising floodwaters where he encounters a childhood friend who once read poetry to his dog and questioned him about everything under the sun. Margaret Black turned grown-up is a distraction, even more a bluestocking, and inconveniently attractive, too. When it becomes clear she needs help to reach her father, he offers a seat in his carriage���purely out of politeness, of course. And not at all because she makes him laugh like no woman ever has.

Maggie Black has never quite belonged���not in drawing rooms, not in London, and certainly not stranded at an inn with a duke. Trading stories about their very different lives and discussing books over bad stew and too much brandy late at night isn���t a good idea for a spinster traveling without a chaperone. But it���s hard to resist a man who���s both familiar and frustratingly handsome���especially when he hangs on her every word as if she were the only woman in the world. Somewhere between road delays, accidental confessions, and a scandalously intimate stop in a bookshop, Maggie finds herself falling for the one man who absolutely cannot be hers. Because dukes don���t marry poor bluestockings with a passion for books and a tendency to argue. Do they?

Available 7 October, 2025

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