A Bluestocking for the Duke

A Bluestocking for the Duke A STEAMY HISTORICAL REGENCY ROMANCE NOVEL MAYBEL BARDOT Contents Before You Start Reading… Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Epilogue Extended Epilogue Preview: A Duke to Ruin her Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Also by Maybel Bardot About the Author Before You Start Reading… Did you know that there’s a special place where you can chat with me and with thousands of like-minded bookworms all over the globe?! Join Cobalt Fairy’s facebook group of voracious readers and I guarantee you, you’d wish you had joined us sooner! Let’s connect, right NOW! Just click on the image above! ⇧ About the Book “You need me. Do not act as if it is not true.” To assure her younger sister’s happiness, Miss Emma must marry first. Finding a match is easy enough, but keeping it proper proves to be impossible when she meets the maddening duke. Duke Colin must find a quick solution. With a sister about to debut and an immeasurable debt left by his father, his salvation comes in the face of one most infuriating woman. One he is unable to resist… Their deal is simple. He must act like he is completely in love with her if he wishes to have her dowry. Yet money is the last thing on his mind when he tastes her lips at last. And as their wedding draws near and lies become reality, living for the happiness of others might just prove destructive… Prologue Colin Weston rose his head up from the mess of documents on his desk and squinted as his study door opened. Colin certainly hadn’t expected visitors, especially ones who so boldly entered the study without so much as a knock. Adam, his younger brother, stepped past the threshold, rubbing the sleep off his face. “It is eleven o’clock,” Colin muttered, looking at the twenty-five-year-old who should have better controlled his alcohol intake the evening prior. He was certainly old enough to know better but incapable of showing it. Adam shrugged lightly, looking out the window at the far of the study. Light rain pattered against the glass and sent ripples across the pond on the property. Back when they were just boys, Colin recalled playing in the water and capturing frogs from the shallows. That was a much simpler time. Now, life was about money, status, and family. Adam was starkly similar to his older brother. His hair was dark and slightly waved. His eyes were a rich hazel color, and he was tall and thin. The difference that marked the two of them apart was the contrast between their facial features. Colin was sharp, intense, and handsome, and Adam had softer features—a rounded nose, well-shaped lips that were always smiling, and an impish sparkle in his eyes. Eight months prior, their father had sat down at the dinner table as they had each evening. As soon as the footman set the pheasant soup down, the previous Duke of Radford’s face blanched. In his hand, his spoon tottered, clinking again and again against the bowl. Only the whites of his eyes were visible as he shook, hand gripping his shirt. He died right there at the table without so much as a parting word. Eight months wasn’t long. In fact, Colin still felt like a boy clomping around in his father’s shoes. If you asked anyone who had known his father well enough to dislike him, Colin was doing his best with the challenges that had come. Maybe his own criticisms of himself were unwarranted, but Colin was still teetering on the precipice of denial. That morning, much of his focus was on the financial hellscape littered across the desk. Colin had spent his entire life knowing that one day, he would become the Duke of Radford. He had never foreseen it to be like this, however. It seemed that each passing week brought new debts incurred by his father’s gambling habit. Adam yawned, stretching his arms out and standing on the tips of his toes for a moment. He quieted, leaning over the desk and looking at the mess of papers. “Is that…” he trailed off. He had never been one to dampen a good mood. Most everyone would agree that Adam was the life of the party, and Colin was usually observing passively from behind a wine glass. “More debts,” Colin sighed, tapping his quill against the desk. “He hid it well, did he not?” Adam chuckled shortly. It truly wasn’t that funny at all. “To everyone else but us. Is that not where you got it from?” Colin set his quill down and looked up, his brow twitching with annoyance. “What, pray tell?” Adam pressed his lips into a thin line like he was choking back some mischief. He waved his finger around, gesturing at his brother’s appearance. “There’s an air about you.” Colin glowered. “If anyone is like father, it is you. Everything is an amusement.” “Yes, yes,” Adam said. “And I have bad habits too, I am willing to admit, but I am hardly charming enough to hide it. But that is what you do. Morose for those who love you and charming towards the world. If anything, he taught you to be a fantastic actor.” As much as Colin wished for it to not be true, it was. Colin was a great actor, but that was because he wasn’t naturally likable like his brother was. Adam’s life was about enjoyment, but Colin’s life was about duty. For as long as he could remember, he had been treated with different expectations than his siblings. He was destined for the dukedom. It seemed sort of cosmically cruel that his father had raised him, knowing full well the mess Colin would have to clean up when he passed. Colin didn’t have