The Duke and the Debutante |

I’m delighted to welcome Collette Cameron to the blog today, with her new release The Debutante and the Duke.

All she wants is her freedom. All he wants is her…

Rayne Wellbrook shouldn’t be living in a luxurious London manor. She shouldn’t be the step-niece to a powerful duke, either. And she most certainly shouldn’t be sneaking into the neighbor’s gardens–even if the house is unoccupied. Or so she thinks until a rakishly handsome Scot startles her one morning. Though she’s wary of men and even leerier of nobles, this man with his too-long hair and piercing blue-green eyes sends her heart to frolicking. When he insists on an introduction, Rayne flees but can’t get the enigmatic new neighbor out of her thoughts.

Fletcher McQuinton, Duke of Kincade, is only in London long enough to put the finishing touches on his new business ventures, and then he intends to head straight back to Scotland. His meddling English mother has other plans, however–namely finding him an appropriate blue-blooded wife to become the next duchess. Fletcher has vowed to never take an English aristocrat as a wife, but when he comes upon a delightfully intriguing woman climbing his garden wall, he begins to reconsider his reluctance.

Can two polar opposites who are so perfectly wrong for each other overcome all that stands between them? Only one thing is certain. The road to happily ever after is about to get very bumpy…

Meet Rayne

Chapter One Excerpt

17 Bedford Square
London, England
2 June 1810

Singing softly, Rayne Wellbrook gently swung the heavy wicker basket she held. She skirted the fountain burbling in the center of the paved circle bordered by a quartet of stone benches in her aunt and uncle’s elaborate gardens.

Between each ornate bench, marble statues of Greek goddesses and gods stood as majestic, silent guardians. Ribbons of morning sunlight cast them in luminous golden hues and gave each an ethereal appearance.

“I sow’d the seeds of love,” Rayne sang a little louder.

“And I sow’d them in the spring,

“I gather’d them up in the morning so soon…”

Mama had been an opera singer until she married Papa and had instilled a love for singing in Rayne from the time she was able to speak. Mama and Grandmama had been gone for nine years now—Papa far longer. Rayne couldn’t even remember her soldier father.

Closing her eyes for a long blink, she filled her lungs with the sweet fragrances of jasmine, peonies, roses, and other vibrant summer blossoms festooning the zealously maintained pathways. Patches of lush green grass complemented the fastidious flower beds—each diligently attended by the cheerful gardeners the duke employed.

Mostly cheerful, that was.

All except for the fussy, meticulous head gardener.

Heaven forbid that Fitzroy—the surly curmudgeon—should find a single insolent weed or impertinent spent blossom amongst his beloved lower beds. The wizened, stoop-shouldered man even groused when the “damned impudent birds”—his words, not Rayne’s— used his fountains as birdbaths.

In point of fact, he objected when they used the birdbaths as birdbaths.

At present, a pair of bluish-black feathers floated in the middle layer of the fount’s rippling water. Those avian offenders bespoke an early morning dip by a cheeky crow or raven, as the otherwise pristine water was too deep for smaller birds.

Chuckling, Rayne imagined the forthcoming scene.

Assuredly, Fitzroy would get his feathers ruffled as soon as he spied the evidence the trespassing birds had left behind. A string of colorful expletives would fill the fragrant air. Especially when he noticed the disrespectful droppings currently marring Zeus’s noble head and impressive shoulders.

Fitzroy would gripe and scold while suggesting several inspired ways in which to dispose of the feathered interlopers. Then he’d promptly send a younger, more agile gardener up a ladder to restore Zeus’s tattered dignity.

Rayne plucked the feathers from the fountain—a small act of kindness. She’d dispose of them near the garden’s back border.

Meet Collette

USA Today Bestselling, award-winning author COLLETTE CAMERON^® scribbles Scottish and Regency historical romance novels featuring dashing rogues, rakes, and scoundrels and the strong heroines who reform them. Blessed with an overactive and witty muse that won’t stop whispering new romantic romps in her ear, she’s lived in Oregon her entire life. Although she dreams of living in Scotland part-time. A confessed Cadbury chocoholic, you’ll always find a dash of inspiration and a pinch of humor in her sweet-to-spicy timeless romances^®.