Welcome back for Sunday Snippet and the 5th snippet from No Duke of Mine! The final novel in the Scandalous Brides series released last week, and I’m thrilled by how much the story was loved. Algernon could be my favorite duke (if I were allowed to play favorites) and also the loudest. He’s been invading my daydreams for quite some time, and I miss him dreadfully already.

But his future is set now, and it’s probably time to move on to my next hero. It’s so hard to let go…

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He and his aunt were not close. She criticized him and how he ran the estate constantly since her return. However, he was not her enemy, and Algernon debated how to reassure her of that. “What can I do?”

“Do what I want.”

“I cannot, but perhaps I could simplify matters upon my return.” He paused. “I will be making a call to the Archbishop of Canterbury to obtain a special license to marry Lady Kent while I am in London. Perhaps I could secure a second for you.”

Her eyes widened. “Yes, that is what I want most of all.”

He nodded. “Consider it done, Aunt.”

She let out a shuddering breath and smiled hesitantly. “Safe journey, boy, and a fast return.”

He bowed and swept from her presence, bemused that he was about to play matchmaker again when he returned to Ravenswood. A marriage to a butler for a noble-born lady was bound to make waves in society and in the family. But if he approved, others would not be difficult.

Surely, having two very old people marry respectably was better than sneaking around after dark to see each other and risking broken bones.

He found everyone waiting at the front door still, even his butler. He gave the older man additional instructions. “Keep a close eye on my aunt.”

“Yes, of course,” Seymour promised.

“Make sure she doesn’t become too tired with the children sitting on her knee,” he warned. “Shoo them away and lock the door.”

“There is no stopping her when it comes to the young ones,” Seymour told him.

“Find a way to keep her happy until I come back,” he insisted.

Algernon nodded to everyone else, took one last glance around him, and sighed heavily. There was nothing left to keep him from his duty now. No reason to delay in the hope of a last-minute rescue from marriage. All his instructions had been delivered and would be executed in his absence.

Algernon climbed into his carriage, resigned to leave at last.

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You can catch up with all the previous snippets for this story and do come back for more of No Duke of Mine when it continues next Sunday.

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4

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NO DUKE OF MINE

Scandalous Brides, Book 5

Algernon Sweet, Duke of Ravenswood, has a plan. Travel to London. Propose to the rich titled widow who can solve all his financial woes. Easy. Or it would be if he weren’t trapped at a country inn by rising floodwaters where he encounters a childhood friend who once read poetry to his dog and questioned him about everything under the sun. Margaret Black turned grown-up is a distraction, even more a bluestocking, and inconveniently attractive, too. When it becomes clear she needs help to reach her father, he offers a seat in his carriage—purely out of politeness, of course. And not at all because she makes him laugh like no woman ever has.

Maggie Black has never quite belonged—not in drawing rooms, not in London, and certainly not stranded at an inn with a duke. Trading stories about their very different lives and discussing books over bad stew and too much brandy late at night isn’t a good idea for a spinster traveling without a chaperone. But it’s hard to resist a man who’s both familiar and frustratingly handsome—especially when he hangs on her every word as if she were the only woman in the world. Somewhere between road delays, accidental confessions, and a scandalously intimate stop in a bookshop, Maggie finds herself falling for the one man who absolutely cannot be hers. Because dukes don’t marry poor bluestockings with a passion for books and a tendency to argue. Do they?

Read today.

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Welcome back for Sunday Snippet and part 4 from No Duke of Mine. I hope you’ve enjoyed the snippets I’ve shared so far. It’s just a few more days till wide release, but more to come today. Enjoy!

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The last time he’d been summoned like this, the dragon had insisted he make haste to marry. He fully intended to if he could ever leave the estate.

He found Aunt Violet in the morning room, tea, a London newspaper, a pile of fresh correspondence at her elbow, and his butler waiting to do her bidding.

She squinted at Algernon. “About time, boy.”

“You wanted to see me, Aunt?”

“Yes,” she said, and then glanced at the butler pointedly.

She did not tell him to leave, but it was clear she wished to have a private word without the butler listening in. “Seymour, would you be so kind as to have the coachman walk the horses again? I will be there as soon as I can, and we can be on our way.”

When he was gone, he glanced at his aunt with a brow raised. “We’re alone now.”

She gulped. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Beyond giving our butler an assistant of his own?”

“I should like you to dismiss him from your service,” she announced. “Dismiss Seymour today, before you leave.”

Algernon gaped. “I cannot dismiss him. Seymour is essential to the running of the estate, especially when I am away. I thought you liked him.”

She huffed. “Oh, I do. Just not as a servant.”

Algernon stared at her in confusion. Her expression seemed vexed, and then he noticed her cheeks turning red. Embarrassment? The suspicions about his aunt and butler suddenly had her request making a strange sort of sense. “You like my butler, but not as a butler.”

Her eyes flashed with an emotion he’d never seen there before. Fear.

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You can catch up with last week’s snippet here and come back for more of No Duke of Mine next Sunday.

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NO DUKE OF MINE

Scandalous Brides, Book 5

Algernon Sweet, Duke of Ravenswood, has a plan. Travel to London. Propose to the rich titled widow who can solve all his financial woes. Easy. Or it would be if he weren’t trapped at a country inn by rising floodwaters where he encounters a childhood friend who once read poetry to his dog and questioned him about everything under the sun. Margaret Black turned grown-up is a distraction, even more a bluestocking, and inconveniently attractive, too. When it becomes clear she needs help to reach her father, he offers a seat in his carriage—purely out of politeness, of course. And not at all because she makes him laugh like no woman ever has.

Maggie Black has never quite belonged—not in drawing rooms, not in London, and certainly not stranded at an inn with a duke. Trading stories about their very different lives and discussing books over bad stew and too much brandy late at night isn’t a good idea for a spinster traveling without a chaperone. But it’s hard to resist a man who’s both familiar and frustratingly handsome—especially when he hangs on her every word as if she were the only woman in the world. Somewhere between road delays, accidental confessions, and a scandalously intimate stop in a bookshop, Maggie finds herself falling for the one man who absolutely cannot be hers. Because dukes don’t marry poor bluestockings with a passion for books and a tendency to argue. Do they?

Available 7 October, 2025

Add to Goodreads

Welcome back for Sunday Snippet and part 3 from No Duke of Mine. I hope you’ve enjoyed the snippets I’ve shared so far. More to come today. Enjoy!

***

Her eyes narrowed. “That is what you said yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. I’m starting to think you can’t bear to be parted from us.”

“The London season could arrive before he does, at this rate,” Jasper teased. “Do you want the carriage put away again?”

“No.”

“Do you think we should travel with him? Make sure he doesn’t get lost or waylaid,” Stratford asked, adding his voice to the harassment.

“Yes, all right, I am going today. I’ll be back in exactly two weeks.”

Laura drew close and gently laid her hand on his sleeve. “We’d come with you for moral support if you want us to, you know.”

“I know.” If his family came with him to London now, though, he might as well ring every bell in London to announce that the Duke of Ravenswood was in pursuit of a bride. “I can do this alone.”

“As you wish, but remember we’re only a letter and a fast horse away,” Laura promised, patting his arm. “We’ll prepare the duchess’ chambers discreetly while you are gone as well, so don’t worry about that.”

Algernon may be a duke, but in a house full of women, he had discovered that he rarely had to worry about the running of his home. This was, perhaps, a kind of preparation for the day when he was a married man. His wife would rule the roost, and he would not even be told of what she might do. His duchess would make all the decisions for the household in the future.

Nash returned, baby Isabelle in his arms and his sons hard on his heels. “Aunt Violet wishes to speak with you before you leave.”

“Again? Damn her. What now?”

“It’s your own fault for trying to keep this trip a secret from her,” Nash explained.

“Seymour probably told her. There will be no secrets left in this household soon,” he complained. But Algernon squared his shoulders. “Best see what the old dragon wants before I go.”

***

You can read last week’s snippet here and come back for more of No Duke of Mine next Sunday.

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NO DUKE OF MINE

Scandalous Brides, Book 5

Algernon Sweet, Duke of Ravenswood, has a plan. Travel to London. Propose to the rich titled widow who can solve all his financial woes. Easy. Or it would be if he weren’t trapped at a country inn by rising floodwaters where he encounters a childhood friend who once read poetry to his dog and questioned him about everything under the sun. Margaret Black turned grown-up is a distraction, even more a bluestocking, and inconveniently attractive, too. When it becomes clear she needs help to reach her father, he offers a seat in his carriage—purely out of politeness, of course. And not at all because she makes him laugh like no woman ever has.

Maggie Black has never quite belonged—not in drawing rooms, not in London, and certainly not stranded at an inn with a duke. Trading stories about their very different lives and discussing books over bad stew and too much brandy late at night isn’t a good idea for a spinster traveling without a chaperone. But it’s hard to resist a man who’s both familiar and frustratingly handsome—especially when he hangs on her every word as if she were the only woman in the world. Somewhere between road delays, accidental confessions, and a scandalously intimate stop in a bookshop, Maggie finds herself falling for the one man who absolutely cannot be hers. Because dukes don’t marry poor bluestockings with a passion for books and a tendency to argue. Do they?

Available 7 October, 2025

Add to Goodreads