Her Guardian Rose in Church to Forbid the Banns — The Duke Asked Him to Name His Proof

Adelina Ashwood is minutes from her wedding when her guardian rises in the family pew and forbids the banns. She is twenty-four, an orphaned clergyman's daughter raised as a poor relation in his house, with three steps left to walk to the altar rail. The man rising to stop her holds the trust her own dead father left in his keeping, and he has chosen this exact morning, before the whole parish, to make his claim. The objection is a real one under church law, and the young curate cannot wave it aside. What the morning turns on is whether anyone in that cold nave can produce the one thing that answers a spoken accusation inside a marriage service: a written record, kept three miles away, that will prove or break the claim before the clock reaches noon. The Duke she is marrying has his own reason to want that record fetched fast, and it has nothing to do with the accusation at all. Watch what it takes to turn a church full of neighbours back around. Marigold & Pearl tells original historical fiction; the parish, characters and events are invented, and every person in this story is a grown adult. If you like a quiet reckoning settled in public, subscribe.