The Duke's Unexpected Bride. Lara Temple

      From country miss...to London duchess!

      Sophie Trevelyan has been enjoying her visit to London, even if her closest companion is an overweight pug! Then she encounters the dashing Duke of Harcourt, who intrigues her more than is strictly proper...

      Max knows he must marry. He’s looking for the opposite of his high-spirited fiancée, who died some years ago, so he tries to keep his distance from bubbly Sophie. But when her life is endangered, Max feels compelled to rescue her...with a very unexpected proposal!

      ‘What do we do now?’

      Sophie looked up at him, her eyes wide with anxiety and curiosity, and he realised that nothing would ever be the same again. Her question was so naïve as to be almost absurd. He knew he should answer her purely on a formal level, because there was indeed a great deal to do now.

      ‘We seal our bargain,’ he said instead, as his baser self elbowed its way to the front of the stage.

      ‘How do we do that?’ she asked seriously, and he laughed—more at himself than at her—swamped by relief that it was done, that she had agreed, and that he could now finally do what he had been waiting to do since that day in the gardens.

      ‘Like this,’ he said, raising her chin and bending to brush his lips across hers.

      LARA TEMPLE was three years old when she begged her mother to take the dictation of her first adventure story. Since then she has led a double life—by day she is a high-tech investment professional, who has lived and worked on three continents, but when darkness falls she loses herself in history and romance…at least on the page. Luckily her husband and two beautiful and very energetic children help her weave it all together.

      Books by Lara Temple

      Mills & Boon Historical Romance

      Lord Crayle’s Secret World

      The Reluctant Viscount The Duke’s Unexpected Bride

      Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk.

      The Duke’s Unexpected Bride

      Lara Temple

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      To Tom and Lia,

      who taught me the beautiful tension between chaos and creation. and who would have loved Marmaduke...

      Contents

       Cover

       Back Cover Text

       Introduction

       About the Author

       Title Page

       Dedication

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Chapter Sixteen

       Chapter Seventeen

       Chapter Eighteen

       Chapter Nineteen

       Chapter Twenty

       Chapter Twenty-One

       Chapter Twenty-Two

       Extract

       Copyright

       Chapter One

      London—1819, summer

      Sophie inspected her prey. The stout pug lay in the middle of an enormous chartreuse-velvet cushion placed strategically close to the fireplace in Lady Minnie’s back parlour, which was known as Marmaduke’s Parlour—though never within the hearing of the lady of the house.

      ‘It’s just you and me, Marmaduke. And I’m not backing down.’

      Nothing. Not a quiver of his pudgy body. She knew he was awake because his eyes were open, but otherwise he might have been in a trance, his frog-like eyes fixed on the faded gold and crimson wallpaper, his backside defiantly pointed in her direction.

      ‘It’s very simple, Duke. Either you let me walk you as per doctor’s orders or Aunt Minnie will probably put me on the next coach back to Ashton Cove and Awful Arthur will get to keep his record of longest sojourn in Aunt Minnie’s