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    A Scottish Duke for Christmas: The Duke of Strathmore, #4
    A Scottish Duke for Christmas: The Duke of Strathmore, #4
    A Scottish Duke for Christmas: The Duke of Strathmore, #4
    Ebook118 pages1 hour

    A Scottish Duke for Christmas: The Duke of Strathmore, #4

    By Sasha Cottman

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    About this ebook

    A night of scandalous passion has come at a high price for Ewan Radley, Duke of Strathmore. His headstrong fiancée has fled; and he is now left to raise their love child on his own.

    Lady Caroline Hastings isn't about to forgive the man who threw her over for her sister, but when Ewan begs her to come to Scotland and help save his son, she cannot refuse him.

    Trapped together within a snowbound castle, they struggle to come to terms with their past. Ewan seeks to win Caroline back, but she is determined not to be a convenient solution to his problem.  

    As Christmas approaches, Ewan searches high and low for that one special Christmas gift to give to her. But it will take more than mere jewels or fancy clothes, because Caroline's heart desires the one thing money cannot buy. The only gift she longs to receive on Christmas Day, is the love of a Scottish Duke.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSasha Cottman
    Release dateNov 1, 2017
    ISBN9781386430230
    A Scottish Duke for Christmas: The Duke of Strathmore, #4
    Author

    Sasha Cottman

    Born in England, but raised in Australia, Sasha has a love for both countries. Having her heart in two places has created a love for travel, which at last count was to over 55 countries. A travel guide is always on her pile of new books to read. Her first published novel, Letter from a Rake was a finalist for the 2014 Romantic Book of the Year. Sasha lives with her husband, daughter and a cat who demands a starring role in the next book. She has found new hiding spots for her secret chocolate stash. On the weekends Sasha loves taking long walks while trying to nut out the latest plot point in her writing.  

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      Book preview

      A Scottish Duke for Christmas - Sasha Cottman

      Chapter One

      London, April 1789

      Dear Reader,

      Your intrepid correspondent has it on good authority that a certain duke, with lands north of the Scottish border, has had the unfortunate luck to be jilted by his lady love. Rumor also has it that the lady in question, the eldest daughter of a lesser nobleman has fled London to be with her secret lover.

      Members of London’s elite are said to be in total disbelief at the news...

      Ewan Radley, Duke of Strathmore, screwed up the scandal sheet and threw it headlong into the fireplace. He watched as the flames hungrily ate it up.

      He didn't need to read anymore. All that mattered was that the rest of London society now knew the scandalous secret he had managed to keep hidden for the past month.

      Lady Beatrice Hastings had called off their engagement and disappeared. His life was in complete disarray.

      "I'll be the laughingstock of the ton," he muttered.

      In drawing rooms and at breakfast tables in the very best homes in London, he would be the main topic of discussion this morning.

      By rights, he shouldn't care. It wasn't as if theirs had been a love match. Lady Beatrice was the eldest daughter of an old family friend. With a fine bloodline and burdened with a substantial dowry, she had been the perfect candidate for the position of his duchess. The only other candidate with such an impeccable background was her younger sister, Caroline, the woman he had at one time planned to marry.

      Events were still too recent for him to fully comprehend, but Ewan sensed that at some point soon the full extent of the damage caused by his rash decision to take Beatrice to his bed, would be laid bare before him.

      He pushed his breakfast plate away; food offered no comfort to the cold pit of his stomach.

      Shall I have your carriage brought around your Grace? asked his butler.

      The House of Lords was sitting that day. As Duke of Strathmore, Ewan had responsibilities that even a scandal such as this could not hold at bay.

      Yes, Hargreaves. Let us get out into the maelstrom as soon as we can, he replied.

      With the House of Lords soon to rise for the Easter break, he only had a week in which he would have to maintain a low profile. Once Parliament was in recess, he could escape London and seek refuge at his castle in Scotland.

      And knowing London society as he did, by the time he returned, yet another juicy scandal would have taken the place of his in the public mind.

      Chapter Two

      London, November 1789

      Lady Caroline Hastings sat and stared at her cold toast. She had long given up on the question as to whether she should put butter on it or not. She simply didn’t care.

      At the other end of the table her parents, Lord, and Lady Hastings, were having their usual daily discussion.

      The Beatrice Briefing, she had privately dubbed it. Every morning for the past eight months, her father had received a daily briefing from his agents as to any developments in the ongoing search for her older sister.

      The lead down in Cornwall has turned into another dead end, noted Lord Hastings.

      His wife closed her eyes before letting out a dejected sigh.

      Caroline silently gave her mother her dues. Without fail, the countess left the house every day and went about her business as a leader of London's haute ton. Not once; since Beatrice's disappearance had she missed a single event or declined an expected invitation. She had maintained the stiff upper lip so valued by the elite class.

      No one but the immediate Hastings family knew the truth. That, in the months following Beatrice's disappearance Lady Hastings had come close to a full emotional breakdown. But being the fighter that she was, she had managed to keep her tears and pain private.

      Caroline excused herself from the table and headed out into the hallway intent on retiring to her room. Her fervent hope being that her mother did not expect Caroline to accompany her to any social gatherings this day.

      She did not need yet another day of having to endure the spiteful whispers at social gatherings. The ones which wagered as to whether the wild nature of the eldest Hastings daughter would someday surface within the younger one.

      It hadn’t taken long for acquaintances, and then disappointingly, friends to begin avoiding her company. No one wanted to be associated with an unmarried young woman who had a fallen sister.

      It wasn't the first, nor she expected, the last time that her sister would make life more than a little difficult for her.

      As she reached the bottom of the staircase which led up to the second floor of the elegant townhouse, there was a loud knock at the front door.

      Caroline stopped and waited. It was most unusual for anyone to call this early in the morning, not unless it was a matter of grave urgency.

      Her heart sank as she caught sight of the visitor. It was, Ewan Radley, the Duke of Strathmore. He handed his hat and cane to the Hastings family butler.

      This was the man Caroline had loved and once thought she would marry. The man her sister had stolen right from under her nose.

      The duke was still as handsome a man as he had been the first time, Caroline had set eyes on him some five years earlier. His dark brown hair had been ruffled by his hat, and it stood up in places. Ewan was not a man given to vanity, and he made no effort to bring it under control.

      While the butler went into the breakfast room in search of his master, Ewan waited in the foyer.

      Caroline indulged in a private study of her sister's former fiancé. The man she had long loved from afar.

      If only you had been mine.

      She watched him pick a piece of lint from his long black greatcoat. He rolled it between his long fingers. Fingers she had once dreamed would touch her naked skin. Caress and stroke her as Ewan taught her the pleasures of the flesh in their marital bed.

      He should have been her husband.

      Lady Caroline.

      She blinked away the heartbreaking dream, composing herself before taking an uncertain step toward him.

      Your Grace, it is good to see you. I trust that you are well?

      Ewan dipped into a gracious bow as Caroline reached his side. She offered him her hand, making every effort to still the tremble which always threatened to overcome her whenever he was close.

      I am well, thank you for asking. I have come to see your father, he replied.

      The door behind her opened and her father stepped out into the hall.

      Strathmore. I take it you have a purpose in visiting at this unsociable hour?

      Caroline swallowed down a protest at her father's curt behavior. The Duke of Strathmore had once been a bright, beacon of hope for the earl. Someone to marry and tame the reckless Lady Beatrice. It had been hard for him to bear that loss.

      My apologies for the uncommon hour of my visit, Lord Hastings, but I have news which could not wait until a more civilized time, replied Ewan.

      He glanced at

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