Her Cruel Aunt Sent Her to the Duke as Punishment — He Rose and Bowed Before She Spoke

Four miles of mud, on foot, as punishment. Her aunt made certain of it. No trap. No warning. Only a bundle of ledgers wrapped in oilcloth, and a walk through a flooded meadow designed to humiliate her before she ever reached the door. She expected a footman. She expected to be turned away, or worse, received with the kind of cold courtesy reserved for poor relations sent on errands beneath them. She did not expect the Duke himself to open the door. She did not expect him to rise onto the balls of his feet, and bow, before she had said a single word. No one had looked at her like that in eleven years. No one had asked how she took her tea, or noticed the wren singing out of season, or handed her his own mother's book as though she were someone worth remembering. What Margaret didn't know was that the Duke had been searching for a girl with her name for two years. And that the letter sealed in an old estate ledger was about to undo everything her aunt had spent a lifetime hiding. A period romance drama. New stories every day.