One Tiny On Dit Later by Sandra Sookoo EPUB & PDF – eBook Details
- Author: Sandra Sookoo
- Language: English
- Formats: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Available for Download
- Series: None
- Price: Free
- File Size: 1 MB
October 20, 1816
Rogue’s Arcade Club
London, England
Edward Marlowe—the 12th
Duke of Lockwood—stared morosely into
his brandy glass as if the amber depths would provide him the answers to life
and solace therein.
Despite the fact he was due to attend a rout in a few minutes, he
couldn’t summon the energy—or the interest—required to leave his club and
make his way through Mayfair to the designated address. After all, attending
any event within society wasn’t his idea, but in order to quiet his mother’s
haranguing and not-so-subtle hints, he’d agreed.
Of course, he couldn’t blame his parent for her concern. He had
reached the ripe old age of nine and thirty a few days ago, and still he was no
closer to marrying or begetting an heir than he’d been ten years before. Not
that it was of particular concern to him. Love and romance were much an
abstract concept at this point. Oh, he’d had many short-term liaisons with
women, had taken a few mistresses over the years, but only once had he
given his heart to a lady… to disastrous results.
It would have been so much easier had said woman died and left him
to just memories, but no! Fate didn’t work that way, and it especially hated
him, for when he’d offered for the lady in question, he’d been a spy for
England, sent regularly to France on clandestine missions. Public opinion
being what it was during the long, dragged-out war with Napoleon, having a
spy as one’s fiancé apparently meant societal suicide, and she’d declined in a
rather hysterical—and quite public—fashion. That had been nine years ago.
Now, each time he agreed to make an appearance in society, there
was every chance that she would be there as well, for that lady had gone on to
marry an earl—despite his reputation as a rogue—and from all accounts, they
were quite the outgoing, sought-after couple for dinner parties and to ensure
numbers at various functions would prove a success. It mattered not that
she’d borne her husband the required heir and spare; she was always
society’s darling.
Bah! Love and romance can go hang.
Edward drained the brandy from the cut crystal glass in one swallow.
He welcomed the burn of the spirits in his throat, for it kept him anchored to
the present. Which wasn’t much better if he was here at the club yet again.
Hiding.
Though retired from military service as well as the spy life nearly
three years ago, he still carried copious amounts of guilt, remorse, and anger.
For the things he’d done under orders. For the trespasses made against him
for the same. For rotten fortune. For the pain he’d had no choice but to live
through. For missed chances. For the death of dreams he’d never talked
about. No one—not even his family or his closest friends at the club—knew
about those emotions he’d stuffed so far down inside him they would never
find their way out.
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