Duke and His Duchess (13 page)

Authors: Grace Burrowes

BOOK: Duke and His Duchess

6.19Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

“Esther, I love you, and I will always love you. You need not issue a proclamation. You need only ask.”

“Then I am asking for my Thursdays back.”

“I wasn’t aware Thursdays had been taken from you, Your Grace.” And yet they had—they’d been taken from him, too, and given to the ungrateful wretches in the Lords.

“Percival, I recall that trip we took up to Town only a few years ago, when Devlin and Maggie came to join our household. I was so worried then, for us and for our children, and one of the ways I knew my worry was not silly was that you’d forgotten our Thursdays. I’m not worried now, but I think we need our Thursdays back.”

Something warm turned over in Percival’s heart. He loved his wife, but it was wonderful to know he was still
in
love
with her too—more than ever.

“Parliament can go hang,” Percival said, stroking a hand over his duchess’s golden hair. “We shall have our Thursdays back, and no one and nothing shall take them from us, or from our children.”

The duchess’s proclamation stood throughout shifts in government, the arrival of more babies, the maturation of those babies into ladies and gentlemen, and even through the arrival of grandbabies and great-grandbabies—though given the nature of large, busy, families, Thursday occasionally fell on Tuesday or sometimes came twice a week.

Whether Thursday fell on some other day or in its traditional position, Esther knew she would always have her husband’s Thursdays, and his heart—and he would forever have hers.

If you enjoyed this tale of
The Duke and His Duchess
, then be sure to read more about Esther and Percival in:

The
Courtship
, a novella

And about the next generation of Windhams in:

The
Heir

The
Soldier

The
Virtuoso

Lady
Sophie’s Christmas Wish

Lady
Maggie’s Secret Scandal

Lady
Louisa’s Christmas Knight

Lady
Eve’s Indiscretion

Lady
Jenny’s Christmas Portrait
(October 2013)

Look for more Regency romance from Grace Burrowes, with her new Lonely Lords series:

Darius
(April 2013)

Nicholas
(May 2013)

Ethan
(June 2013)

Beckman
(July 2013)

And enjoy Grace’s Victorian romances set in the Scottish Highlands:

The
Bridegroom
Wore
Plaid

Once
Upon
a
Tartan
(August 2013)

Acknowledgments

My editor, Deb Werksman, is responsible for inspiring this novella. She read
The
Courtship
and liked it, but told me I’d left half of Their Graces’ early story untold—the more interesting half.

The fact that I had not one clue what that more interesting story might be was of no moment to Madam Editor. She has faith in my abilities, you see. Such high regard provides a powerful boost to the imagination, and the result is the story you’ve just read.

So please add Deb as an honorary member of the Windham family, for I certainly do, and I’m sure Their Graces do too.

About the Author

New
York
Times
and
USA
Today
bestselling author Grace Burrowes hit the bestseller lists with both her debut,
The
Heir
, and her second book in The Duke’s Obsession trilogy,
The
Soldier.
Both books received extensive praise and starred reviews from
Publishers
Weekly
and
Booklist
.
The
Heir
was also named a
Publishers
Weekly
Best Book of 2010, and
The
Soldier
was named a
Publishers
Weekly
Best Spring Romance of 2011. Her first story in the Windham’s sisters’ series—
Lady
Sophie’s Christmas Wish
—received the
RT
Book
Reviews
Reviewers’ Choice award for historical romance, was nominated for a RITA in the Regency category and also made the
New
York
Times
list. She is hard at work on a stunning new series beginning with
Darius
, more stories for the Windham sisters, and has started a trilogy of Scottish Victorian romances, the first of which,
The
Bridegroom
Wore
Plaid
, was a
Publishers
Weekly
Best Book of 2012.

Grace lives in rural Maryland and is a practicing attorney. She loves to hear from her readers and can be reached through her website at
graceburrowes.com
.