RELEASE TOUR - To Defend A Damaged Duke by Fearne Hill
Length:
75,000 words
Series: Regency
Rossingley, book 2
Prior Reading: not
required
Genre: Historical
Romance (Regency)
Tropes: second
chances, a wealthy duke, a gambling hell owner, wrong side of the tracks,
forbidden love, revenge, hurt-comfort , Regency England, horse
racing
Trigger/Content Warnings:
n/a
Publisher: NineStar Press
https://getbook.at/RegencyRossingly2
Benedict Fitzsimmons, the reclusive fourteenth Duke of Ashington, nurses a secret desire for his own sex he’d much prefer nobody ever found out about. Indeed, having only ever given in to his urges as a youth—and with disastrous consequences—he never imagined they would. Preferring the company of his racehorses to people, Benedict spends most of his time working on estate matters, longing for a lost love he can never have.
When an anonymous letter threatening to expose Benedict lands in his lap, he’s shocked to the core. He doesn’t have any enemies; why would anyone want to destroy him? Terrified, and with his family’s impeccable reputation at stake, Benedict joins forces with loyal friend, the Earl of Rossingley, to track down the culprit.
Risen from poverty and with a sordid past he’d rather forget, Tommy Squire has a mind dedicated to growing his business ventures and a heart shaped from stone. When the man who once broke it in a life-changing betrayal requests Tommy’s help to avoid a scandal, he finds himself embroiled in a daring scheme to bring down a blackmailer. As their plot unfolds, Tommy realises it’s more than his former lover he’s endeavouring to protect, it’s his battered heart.
EXCERPT:
Park Lane, Winter, 1823
“IT’S HIGH TIME you
married.”
Benedict Fitzsimmons, the fourteenth Duke of Ashington,
regarded his ebullient youngest brother—by five years—over the edge of
The Times. “Should this betrothal occur before I reach the
end of this astute prediction for Saturday’s race at Epsom? Am I permitted to
digest my poached kippers first?”
“Oh, all right. I suppose you may.” Francis grinned. “But eat up and eat well. I have a dreadful suspicion marriage to a lady of breeding will require courage and fortitude.”
“So do I,” Benedict agreed drily, adding his lack of both those attributes to his ever-expanding list of reasons never to marry. One of which he kept private, being more pertinent than the rest. He turned a page. “If you don’t mind, I’ll stick to my four-legged thoroughbreds. At the very least, they will never expect me to endure a week in the country with their parents.”
“It’s not me that wants you wed,” said Francis. “It’s Isabella. She has this crazy notion that if you marry, her father will look more favourably on allowing her to be betrothed to me.”
Benedict frowned. “I don’t follow.”
Lady Isabella Knightley and her swooping, dizzy mind were two handfuls of trouble by anyone’s standards. Frankly, if Benedict were her father, he’d have offloaded her onto the nearest suit- able bachelor—such as Francis, the youngest brother of a wealthy duke—as soon as she came of age. Why her father, the Right Honourable Earl Ludham, insisted her older sisters were suitably wed first, holding off until an earl like himself or higher-ranking noble offered his hand, was unfathomable. Mind you, not the cleverest of chaps, Benedict found much unfathomable these days.
“Nor do I.” Francis sounded glum. “And I’m tired of all this waiting.” Though he was usually even-tempered, his mouth formed a petulant moue. “Perhaps we could elope? Not to beat about the bush, but old Lord Ludham seems to have forgotten that young men in love have certain...urges.”
“Eloping won’t endear you to him,” rebuked Benedict mildly. “Many uncertainties prevail in this life—as this newspaper insists on reminding me—but I can assure you that isn’t one of them. And the less I hear about your urges at the breakfast table, the better my digestion.”
about the author:
Fearne Hill resides far from the
madding crowds in the county of Dorset, deep in the British countryside. She
likes it that way.
Her queer romance, Two Tribes, was a finalist in
the 2023 Lambda Literary Awards.
Her popular Rossingley series was
nominated in nine separate categories of the 2021 Goodreads M/M Romance awards
and received an Honourable Mention in the 2021 Rainbow
Awards.
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