Chapters (46)
- Front Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Epilogue
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgments
- Back Cover
“Yes. I suspect the new duchess will wish to have some input on the festivities, so I shall introduce you later this week.”
“I look forward to meeting her, Your Grace,” Mrs. Adams said with a tone of reverence. “I will see that the new duchess is put at ease as much as I am able. The staff will make every effort to please her, Your Grace.”
“I believe you, Mrs. Adams. For now, that will be all.” He looked to the clock. “Please have a footman bring my carriage around. I need to go to Hanover Square.”
“Of course. Yes, Your Grace.” She stood and curtsied again, then took her leave.
Rowles nodded to himself, pleased with all the tasks he had addressed. He set his quill to the side and stood. Next would be the securing of a date, finding a curate to oversee the marriage, and arranging for the banns to be read.
As he strode to the front of his home, he calculated when the wedding would take place. He stepped into the carriage and leaned back against the soft velvet upholstery. It was Thursday, so the first banns would be read in three days’ time. The reading was a mere formality, but an important one. It was an announcement, a declaration of intent. He shook his head in wonder. The gossip mill would certainly get word out before Sunday, but when the banns were declared to the whole parish, asking for any impediments to their marriage, such a statement made the couple as official as they could be without an actual wedding.
The banns would need to be read two more times before they could marry, so that would mean the wedding could take place the Monday after the final reading, at eight in the morning if they wished.
And he did wish.
If it didn’t seem suspect to have a hasty marriage, he would direct his driver to Doctors’ Commons to procure a special license so they could be married tomorrow. But as much as his impatient heart wished for it, he would gladly wait the weeks needed to make her officially his wife, because in the end that kept her reputation as clean as possible.
He could do that for her.
He would do that for her.
The carriage rolled to a stop before St. George’s Church, and due to the early hour, the square was quite empty and the church reverently silent as he walked through the open doors. Stained glass filtered the sunlight into prisms of color.
“May I be of assistance?” An older man in a curate’s robes approached him with a kind expression.
“Indeed you may,” Rowles answered, and in short work, he’d arranged for the banns to be read and for the wedding time on the first Monday after the final reading. He thanked the curate and returned to his carriage, the most important errand of the day accomplished.