When a Duke Loves a Woman by Lorraine Heath

Bless her brothers, her staff, and anyone else who had worked hard to put her establishment back to rights in such short order. If she didn’t lovingly know every nook and cranny, she wouldn’t have been able to tell a brawl had taken place the night before. Standing with her legs akimbo, her hands on her hips, Gillie surveyed her surroundings. “I’d have a child tomorrow if I thought there were any chance of that.” “Perhaps once she has a grandchild, she’ll mellow.” His butler blushed, shifted from one foot to the other like a school lad caught doing something he ought not. “If they’re having to deal with my mother I believe they’ve earned it.” “The staff will be most pleased, sir, by your generosity.” He heard a myriad of questions in that one query. “You’re to increase each servant’s yearly salary by ten percent,” he told Boggins, thinking of Gillie’s decision to open her business in Whitechapel because folks needed employment. Gillie, who had been raised with nothing, viewed it with hope while his mother, who had always possessed every advantage, took a more dismal view, one that quite honestly made it a chore to be in her presence. He couldn’t help but believe it was the different way each of the women with whom he’d spoken that morning viewed the world. He’d awoken to sunshine and now dark clouds were moving in. Once in his office, he walked over to the window and gazed out on the colorful gardens. “I’ll be dining at the club tonight.” Heading for the doorway, he signaled to his butler. The wretched smell threatens to make me ill.”

“Do be sure to bathe before joining me for dinner. With a sigh, he shoved aside his plate and stood. Just what every man wanted: his mother choosing the woman he would bed. I recommend you allow me to select the girl who will make you a proper duchess.” Thorne, however, is determined to prove to her that no obstacle is insurmountable when a duke loves a woman.“You misjudge the damage that chit’s disappearance will cause to your reputation and place in Society. Yet Gillie knows the aristocracy would never accept a duchess born in sin. But every moment together is edged with desire and has Thorne rethinking his choice of wife. After nursing him back from the brink, Gillie agrees to help him comb London’s darker corners for his wayward bride. īeing left at the altar is humiliating being rescued from thugs by a woman-albeit a brave and beautiful one-is the pièce de résistance to the Duke of Thornley’s extraordinarily bad day. He’s a grievously injured, distractingly handsome gentleman who doesn’t belong in Whitechapel, much less recuperating in Gillie’s bed. So, when suddenly faced with a soul in need at her door-or the alleyway by her tavern-Gillie doesn’t hesitate. Gillie Trewlove knows what a stranger’s kindness can mean, having been abandoned on a doorstep as a baby and raised by the woman who found her there.

When a Duke Loves a Woman by Lorraine Heath