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No Groom at the Inn
Dukes Behaving Badly #2.5
Megan Frampton
Releasing Nov 10th, 2015
Avon Books
In this Dukes Behaving Badly holiday novella, a
young lady entertains a sudden proposal of marriage-to a man she’s only just
met.
What does a lady do when a man she’s never seen
before offers his hand in marriage? Lady Sophronia Bettesford doesn’t scream
and run away. Instead, she accepts the shocking proposition. After all, what’s
her other choice? To live with her cousin, caring for six children and a
barnyard full of chickens?
James Archer has roamed the world, determined
never to settle down. He’s faced danger and disaster…he fears nothing and no
one except his mother and her matchmaking ways. So when ordered to attend a
Christmastime house party filled with holiday cheer and simpering young misses,
he produces a fiancée!
Sophronia and James vow to pretend to be in love
for one month. But when they each promise to give each other a Christmas kiss
it becomes clear that this pact made out of necessity might just be turning
into love.
“Excuse
me, miss,” a gentleman said in her ear. She jumped, so lost in her own foolish
(fowlish?) thoughts that she hadn’t even noticed him approaching her.
She turned and looked at him,
blinking at his splendor. He was tall, taller than her, even, which was a
rarity among gentlemen. He was handsome in a dashing rosy-visioned way that
made her question just what her imagination was thinking if it had never
inserted him—or someone who looked like him--into her dreams.
He had unruly dark brown hair,
longer than most gentlemen wore. The ends curled up as though even his hair was
irrepressible. His eyes were blue, and even in the dark gloom, she could see
they practically twinkled.
As though he and she shared a
secret, a lovely, wonderful, delightful secret.
Never mind that all those words were
very similar to one another. Her word-specific father would reprimand her—if
that gentle soul could reprimand someone, that is—if he heard how cavalierly
she was tossing out adjectives that all meant nearly the same thing.
But he wasn’t here, was he, which
was why she was here, and now she was about to find out why this other he was
here.
Far too many pronouns. Her attention
returned to the tall, charming stranger.
Who was talking to her. Waiting for
her response, actually, since she had spent a minute or so contemplating his
general magnificence. And words, and her father, and whatever other
non-chickened thoughts had blessedly crossed her mind.
“Can I help you, sir?” Sophronia asked.
He was probably lost on his way to the Handsome Hotel where they only allowed
Exceedingly Handsome guests.
That he might think she’d know where
the Handsome Hotel was gave her pause. Because she was not handsome, not at
all.
But what he said was next was even
more unexpected than being asked to provide directions to some establishment
where one’s appearance was the only requirement for entry.
“Would you marry me?” he said in a normal tone of voice
as though he hadn’t just upended Sophronia’s entire world.
Cute and sweet novella! James and Sophronia are both likable characters and even though the story is short, I got a good sense of who they are. The plot is somewhat predictable, but I enjoyed the story as well as the humor provided by James, Sophronia, and his mom. Can be read as a standalone.
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteCrystal, Tasty Book Tours