How to Catch a Duke

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2021 by Grace Burrowes

Cover design and illustration by Daniela Medina. Cover photographs © Trevillion; Shutterstock.
Cover copyright © 2021 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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First Edition: April 2021

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ISBNs: 978-1-5387-5383-5 (mass market). 978-1-5387-5384-2 (ebook)

E3-DA-20210205-DA-NF-ORI

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Chapter One

“I have come to ask you to murder me, my lord.” Miss Abigail Abbott made that announcement as calmly as if she were remarking on the pleasing composition of a still life with apples.

“Miss Abbott, good day.” Stephen Wentworth struggled to his feet so that he might offer his visitor a bow. “While it is my greatest joy to accommodate a lady’s pleasure wherever that quest may lead, in this instance, I fear I must disappoint.”

Miss Abbott had earned Stephen’s notice from the moment he’d met her several months ago. May she ever bask in heaven’s benevolent light, her unexpected call at his London abode renewed his delight simply to be in her presence.

“You are the logical party to execute this errand,” she went on, pacing before the library’s hearth as if he hadn’t spoken. “You’ll see the thing done properly, and you are in line for a dukedom. A man so highly placed will face few repercussions should he be charged criminally.”

That the butler had shown Stephen’s guest into the library was a breach of etiquette. Miss Abbott should have been received in the formal parlor, which faced the street and thus afforded a lady’s reputation greater protection.

Bless all conniving butlers. “Might we sit, Miss Abbott? My knee is—as it were—killing me.”

She glowered at him down the length of her magnificent nose. “I importune you to commit homicide, and you jest.”