Book: DUCHESSES DON’T CRY - Victorian Outcasts, Book 8
Character Name: Her Grace Eve, the Dowager Duchess of Gloucester, and please spell my name correctly. It’s not Eva. I’m an Englishwoman, not an ancient Roman, for goodness’s sake.
I’m Anthony Beaufort’s grandmother and a proud member of the ancient Beaufort family. My ancestors fought alongside King Harold II against William the Conqueror. Yes, well, we lost that battle, but that was our first and last failure.
My dear grandson is in need of a wife, and I will find the perfect bride for him. I won’t let an unprepared, undeserving girl become the 18th Duchess of Gloucester.
I found the perfect lady, Helen, the daughter of the Earl of Montrose. She speaks multiple languages, plays the piano, and, most importantly, always agrees with me.
But to my surprise, Anthony doesn’t find her fascinating in the least. He says Helen is too submissive. I don’t understand what could be wrong with that. To my horror, he’s completely smitten with Isabella, Helen’s young sister.
Heavens, where do I even begin?
Isabella is a gardener. A gardener! She likes pink gowns and is a suffragette. Do I need to say more? Can you imagine a suffragette becoming the new Duchess of Gloucester? England would fall.
She’s the worst disaster that has ever happened to my family since that Norman king invaded England.
And from the moment Anthony met Isabella, he’s changed. Now he wants to have fun, as if dukes had fun. He wants to go on a holiday to the sunny island of Mytos in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and he asked me to come as well.
I don’t want to go. On Mytos, the sun is too strong, the food is too spicy, and the locals are too friendly.
Between the ladies’ skirts getting shorter every year and the women wanting to vote, everything is changing for the worse. My duty is to turn a gardening, romping young woman into a proper duchess.
I will be successful because duchesses never fail.
Victorian Outcasts #8
Anthony Beaufort, Duke of Gloucester, is in need of a wife, and his grandmother is in charge of choosing the perfect lady for him.
But when he meets Helen, he finds her lack of personal opinions and her affected manners too daunting for his taste. Instead, Isabella, Helen’s sister, impresses him with her laughter and spontaneity.
Clever, spirited, and beautiful, Isabella will be a great duchess, someone he could rely on and trust to share his work with.
His grandmother disagrees. Isabella is a romping young woman with delusions of adequacy. Not to mention she supports women’s suffrage.
Isabella enjoys Anthony’s company, but marriage isn’t her priority, and Helen’s biggest wish has always been to marry a duke.
How could Isabella hurt her own sister? But how could she refuse a duke?
Romance Historical [Oliver-Heber Books, On Sale: May 27, 2025, e-Book , / ]
Love stories have always captured my imagination. What’s better than two people falling in love with each other? I write steamy romance, usually with a paranormal twist in an historical setting. Add a touch of suspense and mystery and a pinch of darkness. I love stories with strong, sexy heroes and mischievous heroines who pull no punches.
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