BOOK SUMMARY
In Megan
Frampton’s captivating new Dukes Behaving
Badly novel, we learn the answer to the question:
Why do dukes
fall in love?
Michael, the
Duke of Hadlow, has the liberty of enjoying an indiscretion . . . or several. But
when it comes time for him to take a proper bride, he ultimately realizes he
wants only one woman: Edwina Cheltam. He’d hired her as his secretary, only to
quickly discover she was sensuous and intelligent.
They embark on
a passionate affair, and when she breaks it off, he accepts her decision as the
logical one . . . but only at first. Then he decides to pursue her.
Michael is
brilliant, single-minded, and utterly indifferent to being the talk of the ton.
It’s even said his only true friend is his dog. Edwina had begged him to marry
someone appropriate–—someone aristocratic . . . someone high-born . . . someone
else. But the only thing more persuasive than a duke intent on seduction is one
who has fallen irrevocably in love.
TBR/BUY LINKS
EXCERPT
Chapter 1
1844
The
Quality Employment Agency, London
“He left
you with nothing?”
Edwina
glanced to the side of the room, a tactic she knew full well wouldn’t disguise
the moisture in her eyes, especially not from Carolyn, her oldest and dearest
friend. They’d met when Edwina’s late husband had wanted to find a respectable,
but inexpensive, maidservant, and Carolyn’s agency had found the perfect
person. And Edwina had finally found a friend she could actually talk to.
The
room was as familiar to her as her own lodgings—and definitely more welcoming.
A kettle was heating up water on the small stove, the tea things—the chipped
blue cup for Carolyn, the cup with the handle that was always too hot for
her—waiting until the water boiled.
Cozy,
comfortable, and everything else she was not.
“No.”
She spoke plainly, unable and unwilling to disguise the truth of it.
Eight
years of marriage to one of the most boring men of her acquaintance, and he
didn’t even have the decency to leave her financially comfortable when he died.
“I can
help you, you know,” Carolyn said in a soft voice. She got up as the kettle
began to whistle and started preparing the tea.
Edwina’s
throat tightened. “I won’t take your money.” Fine words for a pauper—they both
knew that if the choice came between accepting charity and letting her daughter
starve, Edwina would take the money. Gertrude sat on the floor, playing with
her dolls. Was she already getting thinner? Edwina’s heart hurt at the thought,
and she had to bite the inside of her cheek not to start fretting aloud. That
would do nothing but worry her daughter, who wasn’t old enough to understand.
Edwina
wasn’t entirely certain she was old enough to understand, either.
“I wasn’t
offering to give you any money,” Carolyn replied in a dry tone of voice,
glancing over her shoulder as she spoke.
Edwina’s
gaze met Carolyn’s.
“Well,
what then?” she asked in an unsteady voice.
“Employment,”
Carolyn replied, returning to her task.
“Employment?”
Edwina echoed, an uneasy feeling settling somewhere in her gut. The gut that
was remarkably close to her stomach, which hadn’t eaten today, and had only had
some porridge and some hard cheese yesterday.
So the
uneasy feeling would have to ease.
“You do
know I run an employment agency.” Carolyn gestured to the room they sat in.
“Since you have used my services.”
“Yes,
back when I could afford them,” Edwina replied in a tone that was both wry and
pained.
She
took a deep breath, and looked around her. It was undeniably pleasant, if
modest. The cozy, comfortable room of the Quality Employment Agency, filled
with books, papers, mismatched chairs, and an enormous battered desk, where Carolyn
normally sat, welcomed her, made her feel safe in a way her new lodgings did
not.
“Yes,
but—” and then Edwina felt both foolish and snobby, since the answer was
obvious, and yet had not occurred to her because of who she was. Who she had
been.
“But
what?” Carolyn picked up the teacups, wincing as she felt the heat from the
offending handle. She brought them over to where Edwina was seated, placing
them on the desk and sitting back down in her usual spot. “You need a job, Edwina.
No matter who you are. Even ladies—especially ladies, judging from my experience—need
to have enough money to eat and to live. Even if their husbands were so
disappointing as to leave them bereft of anything but their good name.”
“And
even that was sullied, thanks to George’s entrusting of the accounts to his
brother as soon as it seemed the businesses were getting profitable, and worthy
of notice,” Edwina remarked in a bitter tone. She kept her tone low, so her
daughter couldn’t hear. “I told him I could handle them, that I had gotten them
to the state they were in, not to mention I told him how untrustworthy his
brother was—and yet he said he’d never ‘let a female deal with important
things,’ ” she said in an imitation of her late husband.
“More
fool he,” Carolyn remarked. “If he had allowed you to continue to oversee the
finances you wouldn’t be in this situation now, would you?”
It was
a well-worn discussion, but one that still made Edwina angry. George had been
so blind to her attributes he hadn’t seen she was skilled at maths, far better
than anyone in his own family, especially his debt-beleaguered younger brother.
He had been fine when she oversaw the accounts when they weren’t important—but
ironically, as soon as her skill had yielded results, he took them away from
her and handed them to a man. Simply because he was a man, and his brother, and
not a woman, and his wife.
And now
she and little Gertrude were being made to suffer for it. George’s brother
hadn’t done more than shrug when Edwina had told him how George had left her.
He already had a wife, he said, and he couldn’t afford to take her in, although
he had offered a place to his niece.
But Edwina
couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from her daughter; she was the
only thing keeping Edwina from stepping in front of an oxcart one day. That she
and Gertrude might starve to death was not something she wanted to
contemplate—what reasonable person would?—even though she had to.
Which
brought her back to why she was currently sitting with her closest friend in
said closest friend’s employment agency, realizing that perhaps she had to
consider employment herself.
“What
can I do?” she said at last, hating how pathetic and needy she sounded. Better
pathetic and needy than dead, a voice said inside her head.
Carolyn
chuckled, taking a sip of her tea. “What can’t you do? You can balance
accounts, drive hard bargains with tradesmen, oversee skittish maids, sort out the
temperamental discord among upper-class servants, and keep an older husband relatively
comfortable in illness. Not to mention you are extremely well-read—there are
benefits to having a neglectful husband—and your parents ensured you had all
the education you’d need to be an adept wife, whether you married a politician,
a solicitor, or even a lord.”
“Or a
businessman with lofty pretensions,” Edwina added. “They thought they had taken
care of me. I wish they were still here.” She shook her head. “I do not wish to
be married again, if that is the employment you are suggesting.” Once was enough,
and she would have said never would have been enough if it weren’t for
Gertrude. And it is not as though she had any other family to resort to; her
parents had both been only children, and she had no relatives that she knew of.
“I am
not in a husband acquisition business, Edwina,” Carolyn replied in a mocking
tone. “If
I were, don’t you think I
could afford a better office?”
They
both glanced around at the tidy but shabby room. “Excellent point,” Edwina
replied with a grin, picking up the cup with the still-hot handle and taking a
welcome sip of tea. “So what do you have in mind?”
CAT'S REVIEW
"Why Do Dukes Fall In Love?" by Megan Frampton. Once again, Ms. Frampton has penned an enjoyable tale that had me smiling throughout. Our Duke, Michael, is a lonely sort. Although, he seems to prefer it that way. He is a very interesting character. He is exceptionally smart. He only wants to do good and make things better. However, he is not the most social creature around. Edwina, a widow with a young child, just plows through his barriers, even if she doesn't mean too. I liked her as well. Although her life wasn't extremely tough, she has had her trials. I liked her spirit and determination to do what she needed to protect her child. The interaction and banter between the two often brought a smile to my face. Ms. Frampton has a knack of bringing the reader inside the character's mind so we hear their thoughts, especially Michael's. It was fun to watch him be so exasperated by many of his feelings! I have read the previous books in the series and have enjoyed them as well, although it is not necessary to read them to understand and enjoy this one. Ms. Frampton has rapidly become an author that I truly like - her style of writing, her plots and characters have all captured my heart and my mind. If you enjoy historical romance, check out "Why Do Dukes Fall in Love?" and the rest of the Dukes Behaving Badly series. (received copy for honest review)
★★★★
AUTHOR INFO
Megan Frampton writes historical romance under her own
name and romantic women’s fiction as Megan Caldwell. She likes the color black,
gin, dark-haired British men, and huge earrings, not in that order. She lives
in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son. You can visit her website at
www.meganframpton.com. She tweets as @meganf, and is at
facebook.com/meganframptonbooks.
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