Chapter Thirty-Five
Daisy sank onto the bed next to Ellie and drew up her knees. “First of all, tell me exactly what rumors you’ve heard concerning myself and Vaughan.”
“There were a score of them flying around Cecelia Lambert’s card party last night,” Tess said. “You’re either his mistress, his fiancée, or his wife, depending on who you ask. Everyone kept asking Ellie and me to confirm something, but of course we pleaded ignorance.”
Daisy groaned. It was as bad as she’d feared. “Thank you. But I’m afraid there’s no stopping this now. You’ve already seen the happy couple, Peregrine and Violet, downstairs, so you know I failed to catch them before they tied the knot at Gretna Green.”
Tess shrugged. “Who cares about them? We care about you. What’s going on? Are you having a torrid affair with Vaughan? Please say yes. That man is glorious.”
Heat warmed Daisy’s cheeks. “Not exactly. I mean, I did allow him to seduce me. Just once—I mean, on just the one occasion—one night—”
Ellie’s mouth opened as if she were about to ask a question, or ten, but Daisy rushed on.
“—but the real disaster happened when Letty Richardson saw us together at Gretna Green. Vaughan told her we were engaged, thinking that would save my reputation.”
Ellie’s eyes widened behind her gold-rimmed spectacles. “Oh goodness.”
“So what did you do?” Tess demanded, her voice rising in excitement. “Go to the blacksmith and say ‘I do’? Are you Her Grace, the Duchess of Cranford?”
“I am not. Before I had the chance to think, I was kidnapped by three idiot brothers who’d overheard Vaughan saying I was to be his duchess. They planned to hold me for ransom.”
Daisy recounted the subsequent events in as much detail as she could remember, and when she was done the two of them stared at her in bemusement.
“So now I don’t know what to do,” Daisy finished. “I’ve gone through all the possible options, and not one is satisfactory.”
Ellie wrinkled her nose. “Wait a minute. Can someone explain to me why marriage to Lucien Vaughan—Duke of Cranford, handsome as sin, rich as Croesus—is unsatisfactory? I’ll admit he’s tall, dark, and terrifying, and known to shoot people at the slightest provocation, but I’ve never heard of him mistreating a woman. Far from it. He has the reputation for keeping women extremely satisfied. At least until he gets bored and leaves them. What happened? You say he seduced you. Was it a disaster?”
“A complete disaster,” Daisy admitted. “But not in the way you mean. It was a disaster in the sense that I hoped it would banish the ghost of him from my foolish brain. I thought one night with him would prove that he was nothing special.”
“Ah.” Tess managed to imbue the single syllable with a world of meaning.
Daisy sighed. “I thought it would work in the same way as those inoculations invented by Dr. Jenner. If I deliberately infected myself with a small dose of the disease—Vaughan, in this case—I’d be able to fight off a much more serious case in the future. But I was wrong. I didn’t make myself immune. All I did was give myself a full-blown case of him. He’s all I can think about. All I want. I am infected, and the worst of it is, I don’t think it’s simply incurable lust. I have all sorts of other complicated feelings about him.”
Tess and Ellie were both regarding her with fascinated, rapt expressions.
“What other sort of feelings?” Tess asked.
“I like him. Even though he’s an absolute monster.” Daisy shook her head, disgusted with herself. “He fought for me, risked his life for me. Cared for me when I was ill. He was kind.”
Ellie frowned. “Well, that’s not fair. It’s bad enough him looking like he does, and being all brooding and masterful, but if he’s secretly nice beneath all that sarcasm, how were you supposed to resist?”
“Everything conspired against me,” Daisy wailed. “There was only one bed. Only one horse. He bathed in front of me, for heaven’s sake.”
“Oh, bloody hell,” Tess muttered. “Baths are notoriously dangerous. There’s not much he could do to make you change your opinion now either. Maybe if he went about kicking dogs, or assaulting his staff?”
“He doesn’t,” Daisy said dismally. “His staff all dote on him, and so does his nephew. And he’s kind to animals. He refused to let the carriage horses be overworked, or travel at night, and I saw him give the crust of his pie to one of the dogs in the yard at the White Horse.”
“He did lie to you all the way to Gretna,” Tess rallied.
“But then he proposed to save her reputation,” Ellie countered. “That was very noble.”
“Exactly!” Daisy cried. “He only offered out of duty. He doesn’t want me, except physically. If we marry, it will be nothing but a marriage of convenience, and after my mother’s experience, I always said I’d only marry for love. And he doesn’t love me.”
“It sounds as if you’re already halfway there,though,”Ellie said bluntly. “You’rein love with him, aren’tyou?”
Daisy gave a heartfelt groan. “Ugh. Yes. Not that the idiot deserves it. He’s arrogant and overbearing and positively riddled with flaws. It’s not fair.”
“Love isn’t fair,” Tess said with a grin. “It’s inconvenient and disruptive, but life would be very dull without it. People were moaning about it a thousand years ago, and they’ll be moaning about it a thousand years from now.”
From Road Trip With a Rogue by Kate Bateman. Copyright © 2025 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
ROAD TRIP WITH A ROGUE by Kate Bateman
Mistakenly holding up the coach of the man who broke her heart is bad enough, but having to endure his sinfully alluring company all the way to Scotland is Daisy Hamilton’s worst nightmare . . . and her most secret desire.
A midnight mishap.
Daisy Hamilton’s new mission for King&Co., London’s premier private investigation firm, is simple: stop heiress Violetta Brand from eloping. But her case is derailed when she mistakenly holds up the carriage of Lucien Vaughan, Duke of Cranford—cynical war hero, infamous libertine, and the very man who broke her heart five years ago.
A reluctant road trip.
Lucien’s determined to see his lovestruck nephew married to Miss Brand, but the unexpected appearance of Daisy— the one woman he’s never been able to forget—could ruin his plans. As they follow the runaway couple together, Lucien decides that delaying the headstrong Daisy by any means possible—including seduction—will be his absolute pleasure . . . and hers.
A dangerous desire.
After Daisy’s reputation is threatened, Lucien makes a scandalous claim, but when an unexpected enemy threatens her life, he realizes she’s the only woman for him. Their past encounters have made Daisy almost as jaded about love as Lucien himself, and it’s going to take action, not words, to convince this knife-wielding hellion to risk her heart on him again…
Romance Historical [St. Martin’s Paperbacks, On Sale: July 29, 2025, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9781250907387 / eISBN: 9781250290212]
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About Kate Bateman
Kate Bateman / K.C. Bateman, is a bestselling author of Regency and Renaissance historical romances, including the Secrets & Spies series, Bow Street Bachelors series, Ruthless Rivals series, and Her Majesty’s Rebels series. Her books have received multiple Starred Reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, and feature feisty, intelligent heroines, (badasses in bodices!) wickedly inappropriate banter, and heroes you want to strangle and kiss. Her Renaissance romp The Devil To Pay was a 2019 RITA nominee.
Kate wrote her first historical romance in response to a $1 bet with her husband who rashly claimed she’d ‘never finish the thing.’ She gleefully proved him wrong. Her books have been translated into multiple languages, including French (J’ai Lu), Italian (Mondadori), Brazilian (Leabhar), Japanese, German, Romanian, Czech, and Croatian (Znanje).
When not writing, Kate leads a double life as a fine art appraiser, auctioneer, and antiques expert for several TV shows in the UK. She lives in England with her number-loving husband (who still owes her that dollar!), three inexhaustible children, and a naughty toy poodle named Monty.
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