Author: Kerrigan Byrne
Publisher: St. Martins Press
Publication date:August 2019
Buy-book link
These
men are dark, bold, and brave. And there is only one woman who can bring them
to their knees...
Famed and
brilliant, Lady Alexandra Lane has always known how to look out for to herself.
But nobody would ever expect that she has darkness in her past—one that she
pays a blackmailer to keep buried. Now, with her family nearing bankruptcy,
Alexandra strikes upon a solution: Get married to one of the empire’s most
wealthy eligible bachelors. Even if he does have the reputation of a devil.
LOVE
TAKES NO PRISONERS
Piers
Gedrick Atherton, the Duke of Redmayne, is seeking revenge and the first step
is securing a bride. Winning a lady’s hand is not so easy, however, for a man
known as the Terror of Torcliff. Then, Alexandra enters his life like a bolt of
lightning. When she proposes marriage, Piers knows that, like
him, trouble haunts her footsteps. But her gentleness, sharp wit, independent
nature, and incredible beauty awakens every fierce desire within him. He will
do whatever it takes to keep her safe in his arms.
Enjoy this excerpt:
Chapter One
Maynemouth, Devonshire, 1890 Ten years later
Alexander,
Accept the invitation to Castle Redmayne. I’m in danger. I
need you.
—Frank
Alexandra Lane had spent the entire train ride from Lon- don
to Devonshire meticulously pondering those fourteen words for two separate
reasons.
The first, she had been unable to stop fretting for Fran-
cesca, who tended to give more than the appropriate amount of context. The
terse, vague note Alexandra now held was more of a warning than the message
contained therein.
The second, she could no longer afford a first-class, pri-
vate railcar, and had, for the last several tense hours, been forced to share
her vestibule face-to-face with a rough- featured, stocky man with shoulders
made for labor.
Alone.
He’d attempted polite conversation at first, which she’d
rebuffed with equal civility by feigning interest in her cor- respondence. By
now, however, they were both painfully aware she needn’t take four stops to
read two letters.
It was terribly rude, she knew. Her carpetbag remained
clutched in her fist the entire time, except when her hand would wander into
its depths to palm the tiny pistol she always carried. The sounds of the other
passengers in ad- joining vestibules didn’t make her feel safer, per se.
But she knew they would hear her scream, and that pro- vided
some relief.
For a woman who’d spent a great deal of the last ten years
in the company of men, she’d thought these painful moments would have relented
by now.
Alas, she’d become a mistress of manipulating a situa- tion
so, even if she had to endure the company of men without a female companion,
there would be more than one man. In the circles she tended to frequent, people
be- haved when in company.
It had worked thus far.
Alexandra braced herself against the slowing of the train,
breathing a silent prayer of relief that they’d finally arrived. She’d been
terrified that if she’d glanced up once, she’d be forced into conversation with
her unwanted com- panion.
Rain wept against the coach window, and the shadows of the
tears painted macabre little serpents on the conflict- ing documents in her
hands. One, a wedding invitation. The other, Francesca’s alarming note.
A month past, she’d have wagered her entire inheritance
against Francesca Cavendish’s being the first of the Red Rogues to capitulate
to the bonds of matrimony.
A month past, she’d assumed she’d had an inheritance to
wager.
Their little society had seemed destined to live up to the
promise they’d once made as young, disenchanted girls to never marry.
Until the invitation to an engagement masquerade— given by
the Duke of Redmayne—had arrived the same day of her friend’s cryptic and
startling note.
The invitation had been equally as ambiguous, stating that
the future duchess of Redmayne would be unveiled, as it were, at the ball.
Included in Alexandra’s particular envelope was a request for her to attend as
a bridesmaid.
The subsequent plea for help from Francesca—Frank— had
arrived in a tiny envelope with the Red Rogue seal they’d commissioned some
years prior.
Alexandra hadn’t even known Francesca had returned from her
romps about the Continent. Last she’d heard, the countess had been in Morocco,
doing reconnaissance of some sort. Nothing in her letters had mentioned a
suitor. Not a serious one, in any case. Certainly not a duke.
Francesca had a talent for mischief and a tendency to
interpret danger as mere adventure.
So, what could possibly frighten her fearless friend?
Marriage, obviously, Alexandra thought with a smirk.
A risky venture, to be sure.
From How to Love a Duke in Ten Days. Copyright © 2019 by
Kerrigan Byrne and reprinted with permission from St. Martin’s Paperbacks.
Author Bio:
Whether
she’s writing about Celtic Druids, Victorian bad boys, or brash Irish FBI
Agents, USA Today bestseller Kerrigan Byrne uses her
borderline-obsessive passion for history, her extensive Celtic ancestry, and
her love of Shakespeare in every book. She lives at the base of the Rocky
Mountains with her handsome husband and three lovely teenage girls, but dreams
of settling on the Pacific Coast. Her Victorian Rebels novels include The
Highwayman and The Highlander.
