The Duke's Bride (31 page)
Authors: Teresa McCarthy
Tags: #Romance, #Historical, #Regency, #Teen & Young Adult, #Historical Romance, #Inspirational
Jane could not contain her laughter. She picked up
George and turned to the little girl. “Uh, Gabby, I think we should let Uncle
Dukie sleep. He’s a bit tired.”
Roderick looked up. “A bit?”
Jane smiled. “Would you believe Mr. Picklehammer had
babies?”
“Oh, yes,” Gabby said, putting her cat near Roderick’s
head. “He is not a Mister at all. He’s a Miss! That’s a girl cat, you know!”
Roderick’s chest started to rumble. “I think you mean
Mrs.
Picklehammer.”
“What’s the difference?” Gabby’s voice sounded
troubled. “A girl cat is a girl cat?”
Roderick lifted his gaze to Jane’s. “Will you please ask
Jared to explain it to her?”
“Explain what?” Jared said as the rest of the
Clearbrook siblings and their spouses paraded into the room.
Roderick rolled his eyes. “Is this a family reunion?”
Jane snorted with laughter. She had to admit, this was
a little much, even for her. She tried to gently guide everyone toward the
door, including Gabby.
“Oh, thunderation,” Roderick shouted. “If you are all
going to have babies like Agatha said, I suggest you look to Mrs. Hobbs for
extra care.”
The entire crowd froze. It seemed the ladies had yet
to tell their husband’s anything. Since they all had previous trouble carrying a
child to term, they wanted to wait a few months before they announced their
good news.
However, Jane could only stare at her husband.
Had
she heard him correctly? Mrs. Hobbs?
“What?” he said, his gray eyes twinkling with mirth.
Still recovering, Jane opened her mouth to speak when
everyone started talking at once.
“You are going to have a baby?” Clayton shouted to
Briana.
“A baby?” Jared yelped, taking a seat beside the bed
as he stared up at Emily.
Stephen twirled Elizabeth around in a circle. “A baby!
A baby! This is wonderful news!”
But Marcus plopped
in
the bed, taking the space
beside Roderick. “I say, perhaps Mrs. Hobbs will know how to handle a daughter
of Milli’s.”
Milli leaned against the bedpost and giggled with
laughter.
Roderick stared at Jane in disbelief.
Jane stood beside the bed, staring back at him. “Your
family is wonderful, Your Grace.”
Laughing, Roderick opened his arms wide. “They are
your family too, wife! Come here and join the party!”
Jane smiled and walked toward him with George still in
her arms. But before she could make it to Roderick’s side, Gabby had jumped on
the bed with Mrs. Picklehammer. “Oh, my goodness, Uncle Dukie! You do have the
best parties in the whole world! Everyone is soooooooo happy!”
Roderick took Jane’s hand in his and grinned. “Confound
it, Jane. I believe Gabby is right. We have the best parties in the whole
world.” He placed Jane’s hand on his heart and gazed tenderly into her eyes.
“And who would have thought, we have the best love in the whole world too.”
Jane put George in the crook of her husband’s arm and
smiled. The baby kicked his feet and waved his hands, seeming to enjoy all the
noise in the room.
Gabby shrieked with glee. Marcus moaned. Mrs. Picklehammer
meowed. Milli was still laughing. Agatha was swinging her parasol. And the rest
of the Clearbrook family was happily chattering away.
Roderick looked about and chuckled. “Confound it. What a
family!”
Smiling, Jane scooted on the edge of the bed beside Roderick
and baby George. Her heart was bursting with happiness. This was life. This was
love. And it was wonderful. She wiped the tears from her eyes and kissed her
husband’s cheek. “Confound it, Uncle Dukie. What a family, indeed.”
Thank you for reading about Roderick and Jane in
The Duke’s
Bride
, which is the fifth book in
The Clearbrooks
. I loved writing
about the couple and their journey. Each sibling in the duke’s family has a
book in this series. In fact, I hope to write more stories about this family
and their friends. Check for updates!
I’ve also written a contemporary romance series,
Colorado
Clearbrooks,
which includes three handsome brothers who live in the US and
are descendants of the duke’s family.
Look for more stories from this side of the ocean too!
If you would like to be notified when my next book is
released, you can always
SIGN UP
for my newsletters, which are sent about 4-6 times a year. If you would like
more information about other books, please visit
my WEBSITE
or follow me on
FACEBOOK
.
Life can be crazy sometimes, and my hope is that my stories
will whisk you into another world, away from the daily grind, at least for a
little while. I appreciate any reviews, if you would like to post them, and I love
hearing from readers. Thank you again. I’m honored that you let me into your
world.
All my best,
Teresa McCarthy
Book 1, Colorado Clearbrooks,
(Contemporary series)
Excerpt. Copyright © Teresa McCarthy, 2012
All rights reserved
Chapter One
Y
ou’ll find your soulmate, honey. At
the stroke of midnight, on a mountain road, when all seems lost, he’ll come
like a knight on his white horse.
Twenty-eight-year-old Hannah Elliot dropped her head to the
steering wheel of her old two-door coupe as she thought about her mother’s
dream. Okay, it was almost midnight, and her car had just died on a mountain
road. That part was right. But soulmate? Knight on a white horse? Nope, she
didn’t think so. Things like that didn’t happen in the twenty-first century in
the middle of Colorado.
With a groan, she lifted her gaze and stared straight ahead
as a cool June breeze rustled through the nearby pines. Shadows danced in the
moonlight, giving the place an almost magical charm. She had to admit, a knight
on a white horse who knew something about cars would look pretty good right
now.
Her cell phone was dead. She was going to charge it last
night, but of course, she had loaned the recharger to a neighbor a few days ago,
and it had never been returned. Besides, the cell reception didn’t work to well
on these mountain roads anyway.
For a moment, she pictured a white horse dashing out of the
dappled darkness and onto the road. She sat back and tried to smile. It was
more likely she would see a white-tailed deer jumping in front of her car. Or
maybe even a white rabbit.
She looked up and sighed. Stars twinkled in the sky,
reminding her of the same sight outside her tiny balcony apartment, a place
where she wished she were right now.
The inventory at the library could have waited. But no,
she’d insisted on finishing it tonight. She needed the overtime. With her
mother’s past medical problems and the lady’s debts, along with her own school
loans, there were too many bills left unpaid. Now, with this car, there’d be
more.
She didn’t know much about what was under the hood of her
car, but knew she should take a look before she made any decisions about what
to do. She had her fingers on the door handle when a pair of headlights flashed
behind her. She turned in her seat. The vehicle was stopping.
Her heart beat a little faster as she fumbled for the door
locks. The driver began to exit while headlights beamed in her direction. She
squinted against the light. Was that a stretched limo? A white stretched limo?
Well, this was a back road to the airport, wasn’t it? Not many people took the
back way, but—
She stiffened. White limo? Knight on white horse? No, it
couldn’t be.
An owl hooted eerily in the distance, and she rolled up her
window to within an inch of the top. Good Samaritan or not, she couldn’t be too
careful these days. And she highly doubted some knight in full chain mail was
going to save the day if anything else went wrong.
She watched from her side view mirror, only able to see
below the man’s shoulders as he walked toward her. The limo’s headlights lit
his way, giving her the impression of one tall, powerfully built man. Though he
seemed to be wearing a dark suit, his nicely tailored clothes didn’t ease her
apprehension. She would not let down her guard.
I can handle this
, she told herself, breathing
slowly, trying to relax.
Just don’t do something stupid, like get out of the
car. And this has nothing to do with Mom’s dream. It’s merely a coincidence.
But please God, let me get home tonight, safe and sound.
Yet no matter what she told herself, panic welled in her
throat when a set of wide shoulders bent her way. This man, well, goodness, he
was—
“Are you all right, Miss?” The compassionate timbre of his
voice floated through the car like a swirl of smoke.
“W-what?”
“I said, are you all right?” The man lowered his face.
She blinked, not able to generate a coherent thought as a
pair of liquid silver eyes pierced her senses. “I’m having trouble with my
car.” Oh, good thing to say to a strange man on a mountain road when she was
alone without a charged cell phone. Yeah, good thinking, girl.
His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “Will it turn over?”
“Turn over?”
He smiled. “Will the engine start at all?”
She shook her head. “No, but it clicks a little.”
He nodded toward the front of the car. “Pop the hood. I’ll
take a look.”
Hannah did as he said, but still stayed in the car, her
mother’s dream not far from her mind.
She anxiously went over the facts. It was midnight on a
mountain road. Okay, she would be the first to admit her car wasn’t in the best
of shape. She also lived in Colorado where mountains were numerous. As for
help, there was a fifty percent chance a man would come to her rescue.
This...this person in the white limo was purely coincidence.
“You have a flashlight?” he asked.
She realized she had been staring at him. “I, uh, might have
one in the trunk.” There was no way she was getting out of this car, knight in
a white limo or not.
He looked at her as if he could read her mind. “Do you have
a trunk button you could push? See if it works.”
Hannah almost smiled. Of course she had a trunk button. That
was probably the only good thing about this tin can she owned. She pushed the
button and the trunk clicked open.
“Thanks.” His mouth curved into an irresistible smile, and
the dimple in his chin only added to his charm. Tawny-gold hair gleamed against
the moonlight. She blinked as if she were hypnotized. Had she seen this man in
town?
Yes, hadn’t she’d seen him at the hospital when she had
brought her mother in last week?
Or was her mind playing tricks on her?
She heard him moving a few things in the trunk, acting as if
every day he helped a stranded woman on a two lane mountain road. The trunk
snapped closed, and after returning to his limo, the man made his way toward
her hood, flashlight in hand.
She immediately noticed he had taken off his jacket. His
shirt sleeves were rolled up, his tie was missing, and his collar was open at
the neck.
He disappeared beneath the hood and after several minutes,
he came toward her, wiping his hands on a handkerchief he’d pulled out of his
pocket. A handkerchief? Who used a handkerchief these days?
“Okay, Hannah, I think it was a loose connector to your
alternator.”
The flashlight shone into the car. Her shocked gaze met his amused
one. “Pardon me?”
He chuckled. “Hannah Elliot. I saw the name on a notebook in
the back.”
“Oh,” she said, wanting to smack herself. Of course, she had
put her name on her notebook.
She had probably left her notes in the trunk from her last class
the other day. She had been moving books from the library and must have
forgotten about it.
“Does that mean it’s fixed?” she asked.
“No, I’ll have to bring my limo around to jump it. The
battery was being drained because your connection to the alternator was loose.
You had just enough juice to click your trunk open. I’m betting your lights
probably dimmed before your car stopped.”
She frowned. It had to be the battery. It had happened just
as he said. Her lights had dimmed to nothing.
He leaned against her car. “Once the alternator is
connected, all we have to do is give the battery a little kick to get it going.
If you don’t mind, I’m going to link up my battery with yours.” He cleared his
throat.
Hannah felt herself blush. “I see.” Right. She really hoped
this man knew what he was doing.
It seemed he did. Within minutes, he had jump started her
car, and the engine was purring like a kitten. For some reason, she knew that
wouldn’t last long. Still, she wanted to repay this man in some way.
It had been kind of him to stop. He seemed harmless, but one
never knew. He appeared to be in his early thirties, his good boy looks
reminding her of Nick.
Nick.
Reality slapped her hard. She didn’t need any more Nicks in
her life.
After putting away his tools and asking her to open the
trunk again to return the flashlight, he walked up to her window.
She swallowed. “Um, thank you. I don’t know what to say. Can
I pay you?”
“Don’t worry your pretty head about paying me.”
Pretty head?
He shifted his gaze in the direction of the limousine and
shook his head. “Good thing I stopped by. I usually take another route to the
airport. I don’t think the police comb these areas too much after ten o’clock.
You would have been left out here like a lamb in the woods.”
“A lamb?” she murmured to herself, avoiding the man’s
reaction by turning to the side.
Lamb and a wolf maybe.
“I didn’t hear that. You know, we could talk better if you
rolled down the window a bit.”
He didn’t seem to think she had needed to roll the window
down before.
Keeping her safety of the utmost concern, she eased the
opening wider by another inch. He leaned closer, so close in fact that she
detected the musky scent of cologne. She wished he would move back a few feet.
His nearness was overwhelming, making it hard to think.
“Smart girl, Hannah.” A smile lit his eyes as he inspected
the sparse opening. “Doesn’t pay to be too careless.”
Her lips parted in surprise, and she bristled, wondering if
he knew the direction of her thoughts. “I don’t think that’s funny, Mr.—”
“Tanner,” he said, his eyes still twinkling with mischief.
“Just call me, Tanner. And I didn’t think it was funny at all. I think you’re
smart not to get out of the car. But you should have a cell phone. Do you? It’s
a stupid thing for a woman not to have a cell phone. If you were—”
“If you don’t mind,” she said interrupting him, not wanting
to hear about her stupidity from a stranger. “I’d like to get on my way. Thanks
again for helping me.”
His smile widened in what seemed to be a look of respect,
and if she didn’t know better, she would have thought he’d made some deal with
the moon, making it shine down on them with such pointed brightness she wished
she’d put on her lipstick.
“No need to thank me any more than you have. I always enjoy
helping a lady in distress.”
Oh, he definitely had one of those knight complexes. Maybe
her mother had been right about that, but he was definitely not her soulmate.
“But I will take down your phone number.”
Hannah blinked. “My phone number?”
“Yes, your phone number. Does that surprise you? It’s not
like I haven’t seen you in Clearbrook Valley. But you don’t know me, do you?”
He studied her intensely, as if letting her know he wouldn’t forget her face.
Heat flew to her cheeks. So, he remembered her too. She did
live in town, so perhaps he had seen her.
Yet why in the world would he expect her to know him? She
didn’t have a lot of time to socialize with her busy schedule - but what an
ego!
Clearbrook Valley wasn’t the biggest place in Colorado, but
she guessed that with such a small community, many people knew everyone’s
business. But not her. She didn’t have time to do much but go to work, go to
school, and take care of her mother. The lady wasn’t an invalid by any means,
and her mother was rather independent, but recovering from cancer had taken a
toll on her. And staying off the dating scene was just fine with Hannah.
Even though it seemed obvious that she and this man Tanner
had seen each other from afar, he was still a stranger. And though a helpful
stranger, she didn’t want to give him her phone number. There were too many
crazies out there.
He leaned in further and cleared his throat. “Thought I
could give you a call sometime and we could go out to dinner.”
Dinner? In your dreams, buddy.
So, there was a price to be paid, just not in money. Though
there was a slight vulnerability in his voice that was there for only a second
or two, she wasn’t about to let that sway her.
But what if she said no? Would he get mad?
Despite his handsome looks, her past had taught her well.
Maybe he wasn’t crazy, but she would never make the mistake of falling for a
man like him again. Good looking, sure of himself, and acting like he owned the
world. No, he was Nick all over again.
She forced the corners of her mouth to curl upwards. His
silver gaze was trance-like, and she almost gave in to his request.
“So, you want my phone number to ask me out on a
date?”
That irresistible dimple almost made her forget where and
who she was.
“That’s usually how it goes. I know it seems a bit crazy,
but I’d like to give you a call some time. It seems fate was with me tonight.”
Crazy? He got that right. The nerve of the man, asking her
for a date in the middle of the night.
And fate? She knew all about that.
At twenty-eight, she had known enough men like Mr. Limo to
last a lifetime. Why couldn’t they be nice, just for the heck of it, and not
ask for anything in return?
She dropped her gaze and searched through her purse for a
pen and paper. “And this has nothing to do with paying you back?” She wanted to
make sure she understood his intentions.
“Hannah, Hannah, Hannah.” Despite the unorthodox situation,
the way he said her name sent goosebumps down her arm. This man was more
dangerous than she had first thought.
“I already told you, I’m not going to ask you for anything,
but your phone number.”
Hannah pulled out her three-inch day planner and threw it onto
her lap. It was loaded with more receipts, grocery lists, and medical bills.
Finally, she found what she was looking for, a small flyer from her landlord
with all the information she needed for emergency and non-emergency
information. She found a hotel pen in her cup holder and wrote down a phone
number on another scrap of paper, handing it to him.
“To tell you the truth,” she said, batting her eyelids. “I
thought I remembered your face from somewhere too, but I just can’t place
where.”