The Duke's Reluctant Bride
A Regency Romance of a Forced Engagement, a Defiant Bluestocking, and a Debt-Ridden Duke Learning to ListenBy Lewis M. Yarrow
Length7h 33m
About this audiobook
I spilled ratafia down a duke's waistcoat.
By the end of the night, my father had announced our engagement to a room full of strangers.
The Duke had never asked.
I am Caroline Ashworth, and I write pamphlets I dare not sign — arguing that a woman's consent at the altar ought to be more than a formality.
Better to be a spinster with a library than a wife with a cage.
I believed that with my whole heart.
Then I collided with Alexander, the Duke of Ashford, at the Serpentine Ball.
A war hero with a shattered knee and grey eyes that held no warmth.
A man drowning in debt, hunting a fortune to save his estate.
He should have been everything I despised.
Instead, when my father paraded my dowry like a horse at auction, the Duke said the one thing no man had ever said:
"She's a woman who's standing here, listening to you discuss her as though she were a horse at Tattersall's."
And then my father lied.
He stood before all of London and announced that His Grace had offered for me.
He hadn't.
I watched the Duke's shoulders go rigid across the ballroom, and I knew — he had been trapped as surely as I had.
Now we are bound by a betrothal neither of us chose.
A bargain I did not strike.
Forced into the same drawing rooms, the same carriages, the same unbearable nearness, both of us pretending in front of a society that feeds on scandal.
He needs my fortune.
I need my freedom.
And there is a serpent in our midst — a rival with a forged page and a grudge, waiting for one of us to break.
But the more nights I spend across the table from a man who treats my opinions like something worth examining, the harder it becomes to remember that this marriage is a transaction.
Regret is a splinter I cannot remove.
And a heart, once it starts to hope, does not ask permission first.
If we are going to survive the lie, one of us will have to risk the truth.
The Duke's Reluctant Bride is a tender, simmering Regency romance about a forced engagement, public humiliation, forbidden longing, family betrayal, a marriage of convenience, and a love that refuses to stay convenient.
Perfect for readers who love marriage-of-convenience romance, brooding wounded dukes, spirited bluestocking heroines, slow-burn forced proximity, and historical romance with a hard-won happy ending. A standalone Regency romance.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (1)
GenreRomance, Historical Fiction
Length7 hrs 33 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
2Dedication
3Chapter 1 - The Bargain I Did Not Strike
4Chapter 2 - The Price of a Duchess
5Chapter 3 - The Lion’s Den
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6Chapter 4 - The Secret in the Nursery
7Chapter 5 - The Thorn and the Thistle
8Chapter 6 - The Weight of Promises
9Chapter 7 - The Courtship Accord
10Chapter 8 - The Pamphlet’s Shadow
11Chapter 9 - The Serpentine Wager
12Chapter 10 - The Name on the Page
13Chapter 11 - The Pages Between Us
14Chapter 12 - The Vulture’s Trap
15Chapter 13 - The Longest Mile
16Chapter 14 - The Duke’s Race
17Chapter 15 - The Price of Forgery
18Chapter 16 - The Web Tightens
19Chapter 17 - The Mirror Shatters
20Chapter 18 - The Black Hour
21Chapter 19 - The Duke’s Confession
22Chapter 20 - The Enemy Revealed
23Chapter 21 - The Serpent’s Supper
24Chapter 22 - The Morning After Victory
25Chapter 23 - The Door We Both Opened
26About the Author
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