Addicted to the Duke (Imperfect Lords #1)(87)

It appeared trouble had caught up to him.

As the brothers left to attend to Stephen, she rose to go to Christopher, but she wondered what devil was driving the Marquis of Clevedon.





For anyone who fights addiction. May you find the power of love and understanding.





Acknowledgments


I want to thank my patient editor, Sue Grimshaw. I hope the book was worth the wait. My thanks go to the whole team at Penguin Random House Loveswept.

Thanks also go to my family, who helped me through a trying time and kept my spirits up.

Sarah Younger, my agent, thank you! You’re the best.

Finally, an apology to my two little dogs, Brandy and Duke, who have missed out on a few walks as I tried to get the book finished. We have been walking up a storm the past week and quite a few bunnies are once again being chased.

As always Read. Feel. Fall in Love.

Bronwen





BY BRONWEN EVANS


The Disgraced Lords Series:


A Kiss of Lies

A Promise of More

A Touch of Passion

A Whisper of Desire

A Taste of Seduction

A Night of Forever

A Love to Remember (coming soon)





The Imperfect Lords Series:


Addicted to the Duke





PHOTO: ? MALCOLM BROW





USA Today bestselling author BRONWEN EVANS grew up loving books. She has always indulged her love of storytelling and is constantly gobbling up movies, books, and theater. Is it any wonder she’s a proud romance writer? Evans is a three-time winner of the RomCon Readers’ Crown and has been nominated for an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. She lives in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.

bronwenevans.com

Facebook.com/bronwenevansauthor

@bronwenevans_NZ





Read on for an excerpt from


A Love to Remember


A Disgraced Lords Novel



by Bronwen Evans

Available from Loveswept





Prologue


CLEVEDON, SOMERSET, ENGLAND, JULY 1815

I’ll wear your memory proudly

My honorable brother…my true friend

May my love for you reach Heaven above

Until we meet again



His youngest brother Maxwell’s words barely penetrated Philip’s consciousness. Standing over Robert’s open grave, he felt the blame-filled stares of friends and family. He knew they all thought, Why could it not have been Philip killed instead of Robert?

Robert was born to be the earl. He was his father’s firstborn favorite, yet he never lorded it over his siblings. He loved them, took care of them, and stood up to anyone who would hurt them. Robert was perfect. Once Father died, Robert turned around the fortunes of the estate and proudly and earnestly took his seat in the House of Lords, participating in making England great. Everyone loved him. Everyone wanted to be him.

So why did he go to war? Why risk his life?

Everyone standing around the grave in the pouring rain knew why. Because Philip, against Robert’s advice, had taken a commission. There was no way Robert was going to let “he who made a mess of everything” go to war alone. Robert had no faith that Philip wouldn’t accidentally run himself onto a French bayonet.

Philip had never done anything right in his life. He’d been trouble since the day he was born. When he was a boy, he’d almost burned the house to the ground one year by deciding to light a campfire in the nursery. As a young lad, he’d cost his father his champion horse by trying to make him jump the river. He failed and the horse broke his leg and had to be shot. A year later he’d taken Portia out and decided to tease her by losing her in the forest, only he did really lose her, and when the storm broke they took hours to find her, she caught cold, and almost died. And only last year, he’d invested in a “sure thing,” only to lose his year’s allowance.

Philip was a genuine walking, talking, breathing disaster.

If anyone was going to die on the battlefield of Waterloo, it should’ve been him. But it was his older brother, Robert, the late Earl of Cumberland, who lay cold as stone in the coffin before him.

At Waterloo, in a blink of an eye, Philip had watched as if in a macabre dream, the French bayonet delivering its mortal blow when Robert stepped in front of the Frenchman set on killing Philip. Robert, selfless to the last, had died saving him. He still did not understand why.

Philip remembered seeing his shock and disbelief mirrored on their friend Grayson Devlin’s face. He remembered falling onto Robert’s body, pressing his ear against the blood-soaked jacket and hearing Robert’s final words, “Look after the family, you’ll make a fine earl.”

Robert only took up his commission to ensure his younger brother came home safely. To everyone’s horror, Philip had come through the battle without a scratch. Instead, it was Robert who lay in this grave, and here Philip stood, the new Earl of Cumberland.

You don’t deserve the title. Everyone at the graveside knew that. Was thinking it. It’s your fault he’s dead.

Philip’s stiff shoulders almost buckled under his guilt. He understood that he was solely responsible for this tragedy. He should have tried harder to make Robert understand that he should stay home, that his duty was to his family. A second son’s duty was to his country. But he had done no such thing. He’d selfishly loved having Robert with him. It made him feel safer having his perfect, indestructible brother riding by his side. His selfishness cost the finest man he knew his life.