Ewan Radley, Duke of Strathmore, screwed up the scandal sheet and threw it headlong into the fireplace. He watched as the flames hungrily ate it up.
He didn't need to read anymore. All that mattered was that the rest of London society now knew the scandalous secret he had managed to keep hidden for the past month.
Lady Beatrice Hastings had called off their engagement and disappeared. His life was in complete disarray.
'I'll be the laughing stock of the ton,' he muttered.
In drawing rooms and at breakfast tables in the very best homes in London, he would be the main topic of discussion this morning.
By rights, he shouldn't care. It wasn't as if theirs had been a love match. Lady Beatrice was the eldest daughter of an old family friend. Of fine bloodlines and burdened with a substantial dowry, she had been the perfect candidate for the position of his duchess. The only other candidate with as impeccable a background was her younger sister, Caroline.
Events were still too recent for him to fully comprehend, but he sensed that at some point soon the full extent of the damage caused by his rash decision to bed Beatrice, would be laid bare before him.
He pushed his breakfast plate away, food offered no comfort to the cold pit of his stomach.
'Shall I have your carriage brought around your Grace?' asked his butler.
The House of Lords was sitting that day. As Duke of Strathmore, Ewan had responsibilities that even a scandal such as this could not hold at bay.
'Yes, Hargreaves. Let us get out into the maelstrom as soon as we can,' he replied.
With the House of Lords soon to rise for the Easter break, he only had a week in which he would have to maintain a low profile. Once Parliament was in recess, he could escape London and seek refuge at his castle in Scotland.
And knowing London society as he did, by the time he returned, yet another scandal would have taken the place of his in the public mind.
TO READ A SCOTTISH DUKE FOR CHRISTMAS
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Two of a Kind (ebook and audio)
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Devoted to the Spanish DukeRogues of the Road
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