Welcome back for Sunday Snippet and the final snippet from No Duke of Mine!

Algernon climbed into his carriage, resigned to leave at last. Sims, his valet, was there already. Once Algernon was settled, he waved to his family, and the driver set off for their destination.

A stack of papers was immediately passed to him���a first draft of a marriage contract between himself and Lady Stephanie Kent to review.

He was sure she would say yes. He was certain he would get the money he needed from her. And he was also positive that she would have a great many demands and would want changes made to the contract, despite his diligence.

He went through each page for at least half an hour each, studying them intently, willing the time he needed to spend in the carriage to fly by.

The fastest he had ever traveled to London was four days and four nights, stopping at coaching inns, hotels, or the homes of friends along the way. This time, he intended to make the journey nonstop, changing horses at each posting house before proceeding on.

It was an insane rush, but given how much he had left behind at home to do, he still needed time to woo Lady Kent when he got there.

���I don���t like the look of that,��� his valet mumbled, breaking into his gloomy thoughts sometime later.

Algernon glanced at the man opposite and noticed the direction of his gaze. His valet���s face was fixed toward the horizon. Algernon looked too and saw dark clouds in the distance. Perfect.

He hated traveling in the rain. He hoped those clouds stayed far away.

But within an hour, the carriage and horses were pelted by a heavy fall, and their speed slowed as the horses struggled with the suddenly slick roadway.

Algernon and his valet had to brace themselves as they careened down a steep hill that led to a crossing. The banks were already licking at the roadway as they crossed, but they made it through without incident and pressed on to the next posting house. Knowing that the bad weather could change to good in an instant, he resumed his study of his papers.

But just as they reached a small village, the rain came down even harder still. The inn was shut up against the wild weather, and they pressed on for the next bridge.

���It���s getting bad out here for the men and horses, Your Grace,��� the coachman called down.

He checked his pocket watch. They hadn���t traveled nearly far enough for the first day, but there was no excuse for mistreating horses or men.

���Keep going,��� Algernon shouted up to the coachman. ���If we can clear the next bridge, we���ll stop for the night at the first village after that.���

You can catch up with all the previous��snippets for this story and do come back for more of No Duke of Mine when it continues next Sunday.

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5

I’ll begin posting something else next Sunday. Cheers and thanks for reading!

Heather

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?

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