An adorable little boy darts into Clayton’s room at random. Although Clayton himself keeps his spirits up, it’s a joyless errand he’s on.Ī joyless errand that’s derailed by a freak March ice storm forcing Clayton to take shelter in a seedy little wayside inn, and once he’s there, he and his long-suffering valet are subjected not only to sub-standard food but to an absolute barrage of coincidences. So he’s traveling to the Godwins to plight his troth with Lady Ellen - not because he loves her, but because he thinks it’s time he got married and set up his nursery, and she’ll do as well for being the Duchess of Clayton as anybody else.

To a greater extent than Clayton is perhaps willing to admit, this disruption has made him the kind of cynical prude who reflexively says things like “Love! What balderdash!”. Ten years before, he’d been betrothed to marry the couple’s oldest girl, Audrey, when she’d scandalized both his family and her own by suddenly eloping with a preacher and leaving the country for parts unknown. When readers meet him in the opening pages of Forever My Duke, the second book in Olivia Drake’s “Unlikely Duchesses” series, he’s on his way to marry his 18-year-old cousin Lady Ellen, daughter of Lord and Lady Godwin, long-time friends of his family.

Before he’s even 30 years old, Hadrian Ames, the Duke of Clayton, is as hardened a cynic as any nobleman three times his age.

Forever My Duke by Olivia Drake