Broken Boundaries: A Sweet Regency Romance Read online

  “I would like to raise a toast to my son and his beautiful new bride. I wish them long and happy lives together. I know I can rest easy knowing that the duchy will be in fine hands. Lady Christine has a formidable head for business which reminds me a little of my distant ancestor, Bess of Hardwick, a cannier woman has not lived before or since. I wish them love and much happiness.”

  He raised his glass, and everyone present did the same. “Hear, hear,” the nobles agreed politely, whilst the villagers all cheered and clapped loudly. Christine giggled. She wondered if there had ever been such an assorted wedding party and doubted there had.

  Nathaniel looked down at his new wife and pulled in a deep breath. He stood looking at her solemnly and then shook his head. “I am so thankful we have made it to this day. Breaking the boundaries of Society took a while but it was worth the wait.”

  “I most wholeheartedly agree, my lord.” Christine giggled a little and then realized people were watching. Putting a hand to her mouth quickly, she regained her composure.

  The musicians began to play, and Nate took her in his arms. “Well, Lady Sheffield. How does it feel to be nobility?”

  “Much the same as it did to be a commoner,” she admitted. “I do hope you are not expecting me to change. I am not sure I can.”

  “We will soften off the edges,” he teased, “nothing more. You are too perfect just the way you are.”

  Preview - The Earl’s Marriage of Convenience

  Kelly Anne Bruce

  Chapter One

  It was a dreary day in late September when Lady Catherine Adair reached the very end of her tolerance for gentleman callers. Lord Coddleston, a man old enough to be her grandfather had just ruined her teatime with an outrageous comment about her child-bearing prospects. And on top of everything he was a short, fat, dribble-mouthed man, with a shock of fading red hair. The sight of him was distasteful in so many ways.

  Upon announcing himself, Lord Coddleston had eyed her up and down, as though she were a prize pig at market. Their conversation had only declined from there. After seeing him out as swiftly as politeness would allow, Catherine scrubbed at his lip-print on the back of her hand with a linen handkerchief, feeling the pangs of a headache settling between her brows. After the ordeal, Catherine knew it was time to retire for the day.

  “I cannot bear any more,” she said to her companion, Anna, as they made their way back up the staircase to her chambers. Anna was a distant cousin, from Catherine’s mother’s side. She had more Irish than English in her, and it showed in her round, merry face and russet hair.

  “No more gentleman callers, Anna.” Catherine put her hand up in mock protest. “I mean it. I do not care if they offer me a coffer of gold and jewels, or even the keys to the kingdom. I am quite fagged by the lot of them.”

  “I cannot say I envy you, you poor soul – all those wealthy and powerful men falling at your feet,” Anna teased. “Though I do think he was the very worst of them all. It is such a burden to be wealthy and an orphan in London society these days. I am glad I am penniless and too old to be considered a prize.”

  “You are blessed,” Catherine said fervently. “I do not know what madness grips the men of the ton when they come courting young women,” Catherine said, shaking her head.

  “It certainly seems to make vulgar, boring, and condescending fools of them all,” Anna said, and the two women laughed.

  “Well, they certainly seem to lose all their manners when there are no parents in the picture to marshal them,” Catherine agreed.

  Not to mention, their self-restraint, she thought as she wiped at her hand again. The memory of Coddleston’s withered, cold and chapped lips made her skin itch. She shuddered involuntarily and breathed out.

  “Should I bring you a brandy, once you are settled?” Anna grinned and winked at Catherine.

  “Ah, do not tempt me,” Catherine sighed as they reached the landing and turned towards the west wing, and her chambers. “But, if I were to resort to the drink every time I have to endure an ardent and unsuitable gentleman call, I will end up a tippler in no time.”

  Catherine wondered if Anna meant what she said about not minding that she was always overlooked. They had been good friends all their lives, despite the difference in their ages and were as close as sisters, but two more different looking souls it would be impossible to find.

  As a lady’s companion Anna tended towards plain gowns, today she wore a slate-coloured silk that contrasted starkly with Catherine’s brilliant poppy red. Anna was small and well-rounded while Catherine had inherited her father’s height and slim frame. Until just a few years ago, she had been as gawky as a baby deer. She had finally grown into her legs and could approximate some semblance of elegance, but only if she did not move around too much. Catherine still tended to bang her shins against chair legs and table edges all the time.

  Catherine’s colouring was as different from Anna’s as night from day. Her jet black, slightly wavy hair and wide brown eyes, so dark they could be mistaken for being black, came from her mother’s Spanish heritage, though she had her aristocratic father’s pale skin. She had, thankfully, not inherited his beak of a nose. Otherwise, her distinct resemblance to a stork would have left her with an even narrower, and considerably less suitable, pool of suitors.

  Catherine was regularly called handsome and occasionally as fetching, though such words were often attached to some complaint about her bookishness or outspoken nature, but nobody would ever accuse her of being pretty. She accepted both the compliments and the thinly-veiled criticisms graciously and with equal levels of skepticism, knowing that the most attractive thing about her amongst the ton was her substantial inheritance.

  The dreaded sweating sickness had left her alone in the world. Not a day went past that she did not wish that her parents were still here, laughing with Anna and herself about the foolishness of old men around young attractive women. She missed Papa, even more than she missed Mama, though she would never admit such a thing to a single soul. Papa had been as kind as he had been awkward and beaky. And if the men who had filled her dance cards and beaten a path to her door were anything to go by, he had also been the last good man in London.

  The problem is, if I want to be able to ever gain control of the inheritance they left in their place, I have to marry one of those dreadful men – and soon.

  The thought was almost unbearable, but otherwise everything would go to her obsequious cousin, Earl Henry Davenport, who as the eldest male heir stood to gain everything due to a generations old entail upon the Adair estate. Henry had enough as it was and would be unlikely to offer Catherine so much as a place in his household, let alone be generous enough to provide an income for her.

  “Why are all men so beastly?” Catherine asked Anna in exasperation, as they entered her chambers. The rooms were small and plain compared to her parents’ sumptuous suite of rooms, but Catherine could not bear to move into them. Not yet, anyway. It felt as though she would be besmirching their memory by erasing them so quickly and she did not consider there to be a point until she was properly married and knew that she could stay in the house.

  Anna smiled sympathetically. “Well, my dear, not all of them are, though I am afraid that a good number would certainly seem to be. Certainly the ones you have met recently fit the bill.”

  “They are so shameless about it as to drown out nearly everyone else,” Catherine said with an exasperated sigh.

  “At least some of your suitors are handsome enough,” Anna said, raising an eyebrow as she spoke.

  “Handsome?” Catherine scoffed, as she breezed into the airy room with its tall balconette windows and piles of books she had taken from the library littering every inch of spare space. “A handsome face does little to redeem a man with a deficient personality.”

  “Well yes, but Lord Hartington is both attractive and seems rather ardent.” Anna’s voice trailed off.

  Catherine chuckled as she caught sight of her friend’s e
xpression as she sighed and flopped into Catherine’s reading chair. Anna had not yet lost her tendency towards the dramatic, and it was clear from her romantic swooning pose that Anna meant her words in jest only.

  “Lord Theodore Hartington is forty-five, prefers to marry girls in their teens and has seen four wives lost in childbirth thanks to his appetite for an heir. He has seven miserable daughters who despise him, and rumour has it he likes to keep women in line with his fists. No thank you,” Catherine said firmly as she sat down upon her bed and reached behind her to try and unbutton her gown.

  Anna frowned and sat upright. “Why would anyone let their daughter or sister wed such an awful man?

  Massaging her temples, Catherine smiled at her companion wanly. “I do not think I will ever know,” she said. “I doubt any of those poor girls went willingly, and I can think of no amount of wealth or position that should justify their actions.”

  “Nor me,” Anna agreed.

  “But, enough for today,” Catherine said. “I am so dreadfully tired. I feel as though my head might explode at any moment.”

  “I shall leave you in peace,” Anna said, jumping to her feet, and hurrying to the door, then rushing back. “Though I should help you undress, first.”

  Catherine nodded wearily and turned so Anna could deftly unbutton the long column of tiny silk buttons. Catherine stepped out of the gown and waited patiently as Anna unlaced her stays and assisted her out of her corsetry, so she stood in just a cotton shift.

  Anna moved across the chamber and hung the gown carefully in Catherine’s armoire, pulling a clean night dress from the linen trunk beside it. Catherine always felt like a little girl when Anna held the gown up over her head, as Mama had done when she was young, and waited for her to reach her arms up. Mama used to press a kiss to her hair as Catherine’s head had emerged through the neck of the garment. Anna did not, but Catherine could still feel the love and affection her cousin held for her. She was glad that there was still some love and affection that remained in her life.

  “Could I trouble you to have Mary bring up some tea?” Catherine asked as Anna turned to go.

  “Of course, my dear. Would you like a slice of seed cake, too?”

  Catherine nodded. Something sweet would ease away the tensions of yet another terrible afternoon. She watched as Anna went to ring the bell and smiled gratefully. She was blessed to have such a good companion – no, such a good friend.

  Laying down on the bed, easing her head against the pillow, Catherine tried not to think about the need to find a suitable match. In this moment, her eyes needed a cool compress, and her nerves needed hot, sweet tea. As for her need of a husband, well, she had no idea what to do about that yet, but she was working on it.

  Chapter Two

  Having dozed fitfully for what felt like no more than an hour, Catherine was surprised when she was woken by Anna shaking her arm gently.

  “Catherine,” Anna said softly. “Catherine, you should wake up now.”

  “Why? I cannot bear to even move,” Catherine said groggily. “Leave me alone, I’ve barely slept a wink.”

  Anna laughed. “You have been fast asleep for some ten hours, my dear. See, I have brought you your morning chocolate, and Mary sent up your breakfast. You can have it here.” Anna stood aside to reveal a tray carrying a steaming pot of chocolate and a plate of eggs.

  “Have I really slept so long?” Catherine asked, as she pulled herself upright, and accepted the tray from Anna. She ate quickly then poured herself a cup of chocolate. It was sweet and rich with cinnamon. “Mmm,” she sighed, leaning back against the pillows.

  “What about Abraham?” Anna asked her, as she settled into the chair across from the bed and picked up the little book-shaped silver vinaigrette from the dresser. Catherine normally kept it on a ribbon around her neck to revive her senses when she felt overcome. “He is honorable and handsome, and at least you know him.” She opened it and took a deep breath in and sighed contentedly.

  Catherine blinked at her, startled, then let out a laugh. “Bram? From next door? Anna please, I know you have never met him in person, but he was insufferable as a boy and he is even more insufferable now that he is grown to manhood. And he has gotten much worse since his own parents died.”

  “I thought he served at the front, a captain in the expeditionary forces?” Anna looked puzzled that a man who could generously serve King and Country could be as unpleasant as Catherine had just insisted.

  Catherine wondered whether Anna would ever stop conjuring romantic daydreams despite all the evidence they had both seen in recent months to the contrary but knew that it was probably unlikely. She shook her head and frowned briefly.

  “Oh, he did, but once his father died he returned to Scotland. I hear he has been making a nuisance of himself ever since,” Catherine said. “The man is arrogant, artless, reckless. He is every inch his unruly mother’s son. She was never one for kowtowing to the rules. Did as she pleased in every situation. And I suppose she could, given that she was the sole heir to her family’s estate.”

  “There some entail meaning it could only ever be inherited by a member of the Coyle blood, was there not?”

  “Indeed,” said Catherine. “And so her husband never took possession of the place, even after marriage, and upon her death it passed straight to Bram.” Catherine could not keep the contempt of the man from her voice as she spoke his name.

  “He must have some redeeming features, surely?” Anna narrowed her eyes and waited.

  “He redeems himself best to those who have never met him,” Catherine said drily.

  She did not add that her childhood tormentor Bram did possess the quite estimable qualities of intellect, honesty and his aforementioned good looks. They simply were not enough to erase an entire childhood of pranks and meanness for which he was never punished.

  “Why ever would you think of Bram, anyway?” Catherine asked.

  “Oh, I was wondering why he was back in town.” Anna glanced out of the window. Her eyebrows drew together in a line, but she did not say anything more.

  “He is back in London?” Catherine asked as she stood up and moved towards Anna, wondering what was causing Anna to look so stern. “Well, I doubt he will deign to visit me, not that I would wish him to. Besides,” she finished confidently as she reached Anna’s side. “It is not as if he has shown any interest in me. I have barely spoken to him in the last half-decade.”

  “Yes, well, about that,” Anna said hesitantly, peering out the window again. “I believe that is his coach?” She looked back at Catherine, her expression more than a little sheepish.

  Catherine looked where Anna was pointing. There was no denying it as she saw the familiar device of the Coyle family’s coat of arms on the grand coach sat on the street outside. “What is he even doing in London? Surely he has enough to keep him occupied on his grouse moors and forbidding mountains?”

  “We could have the servants send him away if he comes to call,” Anna ventured, as they watched a tall man in a smartly tailored coat and breeches step out onto the walkway and look around at his surroundings as though he were glad to be right where he was. His smile could not be missed. Catherine pulled Anna back away from the window. The last thing Bram’s overbearing sense of self pride needed was to think she was watching for him.

  The two women stared at one another, not saying a word. Surely Bram would just go inside his own townhouse, and they may never have to encounter one another. But, a loud knock on the front door soon disabused Catherine of such hope. “It’s him,” she said, feeling a writhing sensation begin to build in her belly.

  It was very tempting to turn him away. Bram’s sense of mischief had always been matched with a sharp tongue, and conversations with him had felt more like arguments. But after a moment’s consideration, Catherine shook her head. It would be rude of her to refuse him and Catherine had no intention of earning herself a reputation for being inhospitable.

  “We will just see
what he wants,” she said to Anna, “and we shall have to hope that it will not be anything too outrageous. Tell Mary to let him in.” She let her breath out slowly as she prepared her mood for her visitor.

  Anna nodded and disappeared for a few moments while Catherine pulled an emerald velvet gown from her armoire. She often chose her gowns almost as armor – a way to protect her inner self from the life she was now forced to endure – and this encounter would need every weapon she could muster.

  Anna returned and helped Catherine dress, pulling her corset so tight that Catherine’s waist looked positively tiny and as a result she could barely breathe. Catherine caught sight of herself in the cheval glass. She looked formidable. She would need to be exactly that to deal with Bram. Somehow, he had always got the better of her. She was determined that he would not do so today.

  Sweeping out of the room, trying to appear as regal and elegant as she could, Anna hurried behind her. Seeming to glide without effort, Catherine held her head high. Bram, what are you up to? she wondered. Of all the times for you to make a pest of yourself! This is the last thing I need, but I will dispense with him quickly and get back to my life.

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  Also By Kelly Anne Bruce

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