Page 1 of Married to the Highland Devil
PROLOGUE
Gentlemen of the ton, it is yet another wondrous London Season, and the exquisite balls and dinners are about to begin again with passionate romances blooming in the spring and scandalous alliances scorching the inner corners of our town.
In this time, as our debutantes thrive to find the perfect match of the Season, our very own Duke of Brandon is set to make it the most charming and romantic yet to come.
He has announced his intentions to wed his daughter the young Lady Amelia Milton to any eligible gentleman of her choosing by the end of the Season.
The competitive gentlemen of the ton have already begun calling on the young lady, for rumor has it that she is as beautiful as they come—Young, spirited and most importantly, the daughter and only heir of a duke.
Could you be the one to make her fall? The clock is ticking…
1
Amelia hated the artist playing for her father in his drawing room. She could hear the distant harmonics of the harpsichord, and she thought he could do better. Even Lily, her maid, who had absolutely never played the harpsichord, would do better.
“Terrible taste in music is it not, My Lord?” Lily asked, and her smooth tone cut into Amelia’s drifting thoughts.
Amelia sighed and again brought her attention to the man sitting in the room. She could not see him, but he sounded smug, and she already disliked that.
While Amelia sat behind the curtains drawn up to protect her, Lily sat with the gentleman intending for her hand in marriage. She preferred this arrangement as she did not wish to answer numerous questions on her own. Amelia preferred that only the gentleman of her choosing saw her properly.
It is much easier that way.
She wrung the fabric of her dress in her hands. She preferred to spend her day playing the pianoforte or strolling the gardens to pick herbs, but what she wanted didn’t matter.
It also did not matter that her father had practically sold her out to the gossip columns and brought every eligible gentleman in England to their door. All that mattered was that her father wanted her to wed.
“I find it lovely,” the man answered in his gruff tone. “I love when the strings come together to form such melodious sounds. Of course, My Lady is skilled at playing the harpsichord. I enjoy music a lot, and you will have to play for me and our children, of course, to entertain us.”
“And how do you entertain, My Lord?” Lily asked next. “Surely, Lady Amelia, whom you wish to wed, shall have moments in which she wishes to laugh too. Do you tell jokes, My Lord? Perhaps play the pianoforte yourself?”
“I do not entertain women,” the man answered with a light chuckle. “That is unheard of, is it not? Besides, I do not think Lady Amelia would need me to entertain her. There are other ladies of the ton to breakfast with and crochet with, yes?”
Lily snorted out a chuckle while Amelia rolled her eyes. Amelia wished she could see the man speaking for her. Lily was her eyes during this tedious process of finding a match. Regardless of Amelia’s objections, her father had accepted almost every caller that had come to their estate in the past week.
“Lady Amelia does not crochet, My Lord,” Lily was saying now. “But she can play the pianoforte—”
“I hate the pianoforte,” the man interrupted. His edgy tone made Amelia dismiss him even before he said any more words. “I intend my children to learn the harpsichord. It is your duty to teach them. Perhaps they can play the pianoforte once in a while too, but you should be skilled in both of them. Perfection is what I demand, My Lady. I’m sure you understand this as the daughter of a duke.”
Amelia cleared her throat now to stop the conversation. She spoke for herself this time. “Tell me, My Lord, what is the craziest experience you’ve ever had?”
That one question would determine if she intended to spare this man any more of her time. Amelia waited, her breath poised like she was expecting a different answer than what the other gentlemen who had called this morning had given.
None of the gentlemen in the past week could amuse her. They were all the same—rigid and boring.They all wanted their women to be the same—perfect and submissive. Amelia intended to be neither of those things.
I am a woman, but that does not mean I am an object to be acquired.
If her father was going to marry her off to a stranger, the least she could do was make certain she would not spend the rest of her life with an unfeeling man.
“The craziest?” he repeated.
“Yes, My Lord. Surely in all of your experiences and travels you must have experienced something exciting.”
“Ahh, yes,” he answered almost immediately, and Amelia suspected his eyes, whatever their color, would beam. “I once went horse riding with a man from the East. He was terrible at it, and he fell off his rose into the mud like an idiot.
“I think that was stupid. What kind of gentleman does not ride a horse? I learned horse riding when I was but nine summers. It was not the easiest task, but I perfected it. I learned to fence at two and ten summers. It was thrilling to have the blade in my hand and…”
Amelia’s mind drifted again as he spiraled back into talking about himself. She hated this. The corset of her dress started to constrict what was left of the air in her chest, and she needed to breathe, so she cut the gentleman short without hesitating. “Lily, I shall have my tea now, please. Lord Melbury was just leaving.”
