Just like his precious Jemmah.
With the sun shining upon them, bees busy gathering nectar, a frog or two croaking in the ponds’ underbrush, while various birds called to one another, he would ask her to be his duchess.
“Jemmah, you are the jewel I’ve carried in my heart since I was a wee lad of ten. No one else makes me smile like you do. You consume my thoughts, and I cannot imagine any greater joy than spending the rest of my life with you.” He smiled into her shining eyes. “Will you marry me?”
Jemmah squatted and extended her left hand.
Leave it to her to do something wholly unexpected.
“I shall, Jules. I’ve loved you for so long, I don’t remember what life was before I did.” She gave a little self-conscious laugh, as he slipped the ring on her finger.
“As a little girl, I imagined myself a princess, wearing a sapphire and diamond tiara, and locked in a tower. And you were the handsome prince who rescued me. On a white steed, of course, and carried me off to his castle to live happily ever after.”
“Well, the duchy has a castle, and I believe several tiaras too. I own a white horse or two as well,” he said assisting her upright. “And I shall strive every day to make you happy.”
“I need nothing but to be with you to be deliriously so.”
Then, in typical Jemmah fashion, she levered onto her toes, and kissed him.
On the mouth.
In public.
And it was perfect.
Chalchester Castle, Essex, England
July 1810
“Darling, Teodora giggled again.”
Grinning in her excitement, Jemmah, holding her three-month-old daughter, gingerly picked her way between the smooth stones to Chalchester Lake’s edge. The afternoon sun’s rays reflected off the water as if a thousand brilliant diamonds had been cast across its surface.
She’d believed she couldn’t be happier when she married Jules just over a year ago; after Mama had finally agreed to the match, because Adelinda found herself scandalously pregnant.
But Jemmah had been wrong.
Each day as Jules’s wife brought her a new measure of joy and contentment she’d only dreamed of.
Oh, there’d been worries in the beginning, but not between her and Jules.
He’d kept his word and settled Mama and Adelinda in a charming cottage in Sussex, with a generous monthly allowance. But after Adelinda lost her babe and ran off with a traveling performer, Mama had fallen gravely ill, dying shortly thereafter.
The rancor and bitterness she’d harbored for so long, combined with a broken heart killed her, the doctor said.
On her death bed, Mama had pleaded for Jemmah’s forgiveness, and she’d given it. She refused to harbor malice, for eventually, it would corrupt her soul as it had Mama’s and Adelinda’s.
Jemmah had no idea where her sister was now, but truly hoped she’d found even a small degree of the peace and joy Jemmah had.
Her bonnet’s lavender ribbons stirring in the faint breeze, and the gravel crunching beneath her half-boots, she made her way to her husband.
Jules, standing knee deep in the gently-flowing current, and holding a fishing line, glanced behind him.
Teodora cooed and waved her little fists.
“She’s a happy darling. Like her mother.”
“Like her father too, although you do your best to convince people otherwise.”
“Well, how else can I maintain my dour reputation?”
He chuckled as he stepped from the river, and after laying his pole beside the blanket spread upon the shore, extended his arms.
Jemmah laid Teodora within his sturdy, secure embrace.
The baby promptly smiled at her father, her almond-shaped eyes the same unusual topaz as his, and seized his forefinger in her tiny grasp.
She yawned and blinked sleepily.
Jules adjusted the infant then draped his other arm across Jemmah’s shoulders. “We are happy, aren’t we?”
Blissfully so.
Her head resting against his brawny shoulder, Jemmah nodded. “I’m so glad we decided to live here after marrying, rather than in London. I never realized how much I didn’t like the hubbub. I enjoy visiting once in a while, especially since Aunt Theo won’t venture to the country, but honestly, I never want to live in the city again.”
“Did you really love me all that time we were apart?” Jules gazed down at her with such adoration, her heart stuttered a bit. “When you never spoke to me or even saw me?”
Jemmah poked his rib. “I’ve told you so dozens of times. I think it puffs your head to think so.”
“It puffs other things too.” He looked meaningfully at the bulge in his trousers.
“Well, husband, I believe I might have just the cure for what ails you.” Jemmah took their sleeping daughter from him and once she’d tucked Teodora into her basket beneath a tree, extended her hand. Asleep in the shade, their daughter would be safe. Besides, they were but a few steps away. “There’s a lovely little grove yonder.”
“Duchess, do you mean to have your way with me in broad daylight?”
The seductive twinkle in Jules’s eyes and tugging at his delicious mouth told her he liked the notion every bit as much as she.
Following an animal trail through the grass, she arched him an invitation over her shoulder as she began to disrobe.
“I do, indeed, Your Grace.”
Before you go, if you enjoyed A DIAMOND FOR A DUKE please consider leaving a review on Google.
USA Today Bestselling Historical Romance Author, Collette Cameron, pens Scottish and Regency Romances featuring rogues, rapscallions, rakes, and the intrepid damsels who reform them. Mother to three and self-proclaimed Cadbury chocoholic, she’s crazy about dachshunds, cobalt blue, and makes her home in Oregon with her mini-dachshunds. You'll always find animals, quirky—sometimes naughty—humor, and a dash of inspiration in her novels.
Explore Collette’s worlds! Join her VIP Reader Club and FREE newsletter. Giggles guaranteed!
FREE STARTER LIBRARY: Join Collette’s The Regency RoseTM VIP Reader Club to get updates on book releases, cover reveals, contests and giveaways she reserves exclusively for email and newsletter followers. Also, any deals, sales, or special promotions are offered to club members first. She will not share your name or email, nor will she spam you.
Follow Collette on BookBub
Dearest Reader,
I never set out to be a romance author.
It’s true. I am, like you, first and foremost a devoted romance reader. That’s what led to this journey. And what a journey it’s been! A Diamond for a Duke is my seventeenth book, and the first of a new Seductive Scoundrels series.
I had so much fun writing the story, I decided to create a new series featuring devilish and dashing rakes and rogues.