Chapter 16

The duke stared down in to his brandy glass. He should be upstairs by now, waiting on his new wife, not in the library. gathering his courage, he poured another glass and drank. This was not how the day was supposed to run. He’d had no desire to take a wife and certainly not to yoke himself to the odd duck that had washed up on the doorstep yesterday. Eventually, he would have had to make a decision, but he had been enjoying the relative quiet in the house without the presence of his mother. He would get the estate back in order first. And something would have to be done about Achie. An uneasy truce at

least. They’d need to work through enough of the old problem so they would not be at each other’s throats. He had no real desire to throw his only living relative from the house for good, but it might be necessary if no solution could be

found.

He’d never intended to bring a wife into the mess that existed now. But one had forced her way into it and now he had another problem to deal wi