Here’s the opening of my story for the August release Dukes All Night Long. It’s called With a Valet in a Wardrobe at Midnight.
***
“Tell me again why I am helping you do this, Garry” grumbled the Earl of Wolverton, as they rode up the carriage way to the home of the Earl of Congleton.
“Because I am the little brother you never had,” Gareth Viscount Versey cheerfully. “I say, Wolf. I’ve just had a thought. If this lady and I find we will suit, you and I might become brothers in truth.”
Wolf, as most of his friends called him, clapped a large hand over his face and sighed. “Doomed. I am doomed, I tell you. I should have drowned you when they gave you to me the day you started school.”
As a new pupil at Haddow, Garry had been assigned to Wolf—who was in his second to last year—to fetch his firewood, run his errands, and clean his boots, in return for Wolf’s protection and mentoring. They had hit it off, despite the six year age gap.
“And what if the Earl of Congleton finds out that my valet is the Duke of Dellborough’s grandson, and turfs us both out on our ear? And I lose Sabina?”
Garry shook his head. “No chance of that. The Earl wants the match between you and Lady Sabina as much as he apparently wants the one between me and Lady Jenna. Besides, Wolf, I’m not planning to be seen by the Earl or by his daughters. That’s why I’m pretending to be your valet.”
“I still don’t get it,” Wolf grumbled. “Surely you do not expect to actually meet Lady Jenna, let alone fall in love with her.”
Garry did not expect to fall in love at all, let alone in the week they would be here. Wolf had love on his mind, for he was head over heels for Lady Sabina, and his purpose in making this trip was to propose to his beloved, whom he had been courting for the entire Season. Garry’s purpose was quite different. “The idea is not to meet her but to watch how she interacts with her family, and how she behaves when only the servants are around. Wolf, you know how hard it is for people like us to find out what young ladies are really like. They are always acting. I want to know if I can like her, respect her.”
“Desire her,” Wolf offered.
“That, too, since I plan to be a faithful husband. Mama says love will come, if Lady Jenna and I are suited, and if we both enter the marriage determined to treat the other with affection and respect.” He shrugged. “I hope she is right, but once I meet the girl formally, I have lost all chance to figure out if I can even tolerate her.”
“What is the rush to get you married, infant?” Wolf asked. “You said the duke has ordered it, but you are only nineteen. Can you not tell him you want to wait?”
Was Wolf serious? He had met that force of nature currently wearing the coronet of Dellborough. What made him think anyone could argue with the man? “His Grace has decided his days are numbered.” Which was probably true, but not something the duke’s grandson wanted to think about. “He wants to see his great grandson before he dies.” If at all possible, His Grace had said, but a wish from the duke was a command.
Garry shrugged. “He has passed his eightieth year, Wolf. He is an old man.”
The indomitable and mighty duke of Garry’s childhood was a shrunken, hunched shadow of himself. He walked slowly, using a cane for stability. His speech was slower now, as if he needed more time to craft the still elegant, coherent, and frequently sardonic sentences that even yet moved the House of Lords and even royalty.
No, Garry could not tell the grandfather he loved and worshipped in equal measure that he wanted to wait. Not that he was being forced. Both Pater and Mama had said Garry could refuse the match and they would support him—which perhaps he would do if the girl was impossible.
But otherwise, Garry was marrying Lady Jenna Elliot, and doing so soon, so they could begin the great grandson project without delay.
Ah. Here was the house, coming into view around the curve of the drive. Another few minutes, and they would arrive, and then no more joking around with Wolf. Garry had to disappear into the persona of a valet.
Let the play begin.