Love and Other Disasters

  Scandalous Brides

  Book 3

  Heather Boyd

  Lord Jasper Sweet, the often overlooked third son of a duke, is used to disappointment, and learned to rely on no one but himself. Forced to endure a summer at his family's estate, he’s planning a little party to pass the time and refill his empty pockets. But his nephew’s and their prickly governess, Sophie Radcliffe, remain at the estate too, and he’s expecting vast disapproval. He never imagined he’d need the governess’ help—and not just because someone left an infant screaming on his bed.

  * * *

  Sophie prefers to keep a distance from her employer’s rakish brother because it’s clear he doesn’t like her. But with one glimpse of the shoddy way he’s running his secret, scandalous house party—and the child screaming on his bed—it’s clear he needs her expertise for both. Sophie never meant to trust another rake with her reputation or the secrets of her past, but Jasper has snuck under her defenses and could steal her heart—if he ever saw her as more than a means to a scandalous end.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Scandalous Brides

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Thanks for reading!

  SCANDALOUS BRIDES

  Also by Heather Boyd

  About Heather

  LOVE AND OTHER DISASTERS

  Copyright © 2023 by Heather Boyd

  Edited by Kelli Collins

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced nor used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used facetiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Scandalous Brides

  Books in the Series

  * * *

  Wicked with Him

  Desperately Seeking Seduction

  Love and Other Disasters

  and more to come

  Chapter One

  “Jasper,” the Duke of Ravenswood said slowly. “London will have to wait till next season. I need you to stay here for the summer.”

  “What? Why?” Jasper Sweet, third son of the late Duke of Ravenswood, brother to the current duke, couldn’t be more surprised by this unexpected order.

  “Someone must keep an eye on things. Unfortunately, Nash and I are committed to this house party I promised to attend,” Ravenswood murmured, looking grim, and then shrugged. “And Stratford has already promised himself to visit Aston. I’ll need you here for the entire summer.”

  “Oh,” Jasper said, utterly surprised at the duke’s sudden request.

  For years, Jasper had happily absented himself from the estate and reveled in the delights of London, seeking pleasure and fulfillment, often in the worst places. Mostly to irritate his late and hardly missed sire. London had become home. A place where men like him gathered to be at their ease. Jasper wasn’t truly needed at the Ravenswood estate. At least, he never had been until tonight’s pronouncement.

  Jasper had once had lots of plans for this summer. Plans for the money he should have inherited but had gifted to his brother instead. He’d made the necessary adjustments without rancor or regret. Yet now it seemed his adjustments were still not enough. He sighed heavily, imagining an endless summer of boredom ahead of him.

  Yes, the delights of London could and seemingly must wait. Ravenswood was never left unattended to by family.

  Yet Jasper had only just returned to the estate after emptying Freemont Villa of his possessions ahead of the sale of the place. He’d planned not to unpack and head toward London immediately.

  “What am I to do with myself here?”

  “I have drawn up a list of the most pressing matters that require oversight,” Nash said, coming forward to hand it to him. “There are other matters that I shall not burden you with. They can wait until our return. I’m sure you’ll find them all tedious.”

  Nash had so little idea of what Jasper found tedious. His lack of faith was as apparent as their father’s had always been. Father had excluded Jasper from serious discussions or sent him away whenever there was a problem on the estate to be solved. Yet, he was just as capable as his brothers.

  Jasper had always been told that as a third son, he would never be important. For a time in his younger life, he’d lived up to that prediction. However, he’d too much intelligence to not make some effort to improve himself. He’d spent years visiting friends’ estates, drinking away his days and nights. However, that did not mean he’d not had his eye on the future, too. He had studied the activities of other families and every farm under their management, comparing the differences and successes.

  However, to his family, until now, he’d pretended indifference to all that. But he was probably as well versed in land management as the duke and Nash. A fact of which his late father could never believe him capable, hence his disinterest in providing his third son much beyond a basic education. Jasper had to direct his own learning from the age of twelve, when his older brothers had both departed for Cambridge and Father had declared tutors unnecessary.

  With Father gone now, was there any point pretending he didn’t know a fallow field from one bursting with a harvest-ready crop? He pulled a face.

  Nash immediately turned to the duke. “Perhaps I should stay.”

  “No,” the duke said. “I need you there by my side, distracting everyone from what I’m really there for.”

  The new Duke of Ravenswood was on his way to claim a bride and not just any woman would do. Lady Stephanie Kent had already been chosen for the honor. She was the right age, had impeccable connections, and most importantly of all…she had pots of money to bring to the union. That, however, did not make her a particularly nice woman. Jasper was extremely glad the pair had not asked him to accompany them.

  Jasper exhaled as Nash finally gave in to the duke’s decision. “Very well. I will remain behind.”

  “Good.” Ravenswood beamed at him. “Think of it as some well-deserved relaxation in readiness for the coming season. Your return to Town, with money in your pockets then, is sure to be vastly more satisfying than pinching every penny and trying to hide that fact.”

  Jasper nodded in agreement. He had no money because he’d loaned it all to save Ravenswood, just as they all had. “It better be.”

  Jasper had had plans for that money, and the inheritance he’d long hoped for, too. Father had bled the estate dry. The newly adopted Sweet brother family motto was sink or swim together, but it seemed they were going their separate ways for the summer.

  The duke winced. “I’d gladly remain behind with you if I could.”

  Nash glared. “That is because you’re still fighting your fate. Your intended bride knows you’re coming.”

  “She’s not my intended yet,” the duke said quietly.

  “She must be by the end of the visit,” Nash reminded the duke somewhat unkindly.

  Ravenswood looked away; his expression troubled. Clearly, Ravenswood had hoped there might yet be an alternative to marrying Lady Stephanie Kent. Jasper loathed the woman, but she had the money to save Ravenswood from crippling debt and the humiliation of society finding out about their precarious state. Father had likely planned all along for his recalcitrant son to come to heel and marry the woman he’d always favored. Ravenswood had not done their father’s bidding in the beginning, to marry the woman he’d chosen as the next duchess, but it was inevitable that in death, he’d get his wish.

  The new duke was not reconciled to it yet, though.

  Ravenswood straightened his shoulders. “We should rejoin the others.”

  “Might as well,” Jasper agreed. Unfortunately, the others he referred to amounted to two relations and a dull governess who kept appearing at the dining table. Poor company indeed, for a discerning bachelor like himself.

  They left the smoking room together, strolling the shadowed halls of Ravenswood with unhurried intention. Where once they might have moved as silently as possible, now they strode boldly about Ravenswood’s carved wood-paneled halls. Masters of this domain at last.

  Jasper took great delight in owning, in a fashion, a tiny portion of the estate his brother had inherited. He’d given over all of his fortune to his eldest brother by way of a loan in order to save the estate. It was all nicely legal and one day that money would return to him with interest paid. In the meantime, he’d been told to make himself at home, and he certainly intended to do just that.


/>   The duke led the way into the drawing room, throwing open the doors and catching the occupants by surprise. The ladies—Lady Win Sweet and Mrs. Amity Crawford—were not alone anymore. Stratford Sweet, their younger and newly married brother, was draped over his wife’s shoulder, though Win did not seem to mind him doing so. Roman Crawford, husband of their cousin Amity, was acting with slightly more dignity. He was merely holding his wife’s hand.

  “I thought you’d gone out,” Jasper said to them.

  “We’re just returned,” Crawford promised. “Fetched that half barrel of rum Uncle Henry had hidden under his old bed quicker than expected. I shall offer him a replacement when we see him. He left a few other things behind of value that I cannot in good conscience keep about and plan to return.”

  Crawford was a good man and unfailingly honest. But Jasper was glad Crawford and his wife would quit their newly purchased estate, and the district, to visit his family soon. He wouldn’t be much of a companion during the summer anyway as he had a wife to amuse these days.

  He looked about the room and then breathed a sigh of relief. The governess Nash had hired, who kept turning up for every family dinner lately, must have scurried off to bed. Probably for the best. Mrs. Sophie Radcliffe was deficient in good humor. He’d never met a woman who irritated him as much. Radcliffe’s disapproving expression whenever they met spoke volumes of her true feelings about his presence. With her gone from the drawing room, Jasper could at least spend the night drinking rum in peace. This was to be his last evening amid family for quite a while, after all. The duke and Nash would go to secure a wealthy duchess and Stratford and his bride were leaving too. By tomorrow’s luncheon, he’d be all alone.

  What the devil was he going to do to amuse himself here for so many months?

  Jasper collected a glass of rum, downed it, refilled the glass, and backed straight toward his favorite chair to sip the rest and think.

  He heard a woman’s squeak of protest as he dropped blindly into the chair and landed where he ought never want to be—on the governess’ lap.

  “Bloody hell!” Jasper cursed as he scrambled up and spun to face Radcliffe. “What the devil are you doing sitting in my chair?”

  “I was here first.” The governess fanned herself vigorously. “Minding my own business until you came to squash me.”

  Mrs. Sophie Radcliffe, a plain woman in an even plainer gown, who spent her time ordering other people’s children about, always spoke to him in a way that suggested it was beneath her dignity. She was prickly, disagreeable, and as prim as they come. Traits that instantly repelled Jasper and yet challenged him to needle her. She sat in his favorite chair, thin fingers holding a faded shawl clutched tight about her shoulders, a few strands of her hair falling out of an inelegant bun as usual, and simply stared at Jasper…obviously waiting for him to remember his manners and apologize.

  However, around Sophie Radcliffe, he’d not the slightest urge to be at all gentlemanly. She brought out every instinct in him to do his worst and drive her away from Ravenswood Palace. The last governess had been much older, but her presence had never bothered him in the least. Only this one seemed to get under his skin. “I would never squash a lady.”

  “But you would a governess?”

  He remembered his rum and took a sip before answering. “I have never given governesses much thought. One way or the other.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “I’m sure you’ve many other more important interests. It’s clear they were on your mind tonight instead of watching where you were going.”

  “Is there a problem?” Nash asked, suddenly beside Jasper and frowning as he glanced at each of them.

  “No.” Jasper did not bother to explain the conversation to his brother. Nash had become too defensive of the woman he’d hired lately for his taste. It was entirely Nash’s idea to bring the governess out of the nursery so often of late, too. No one else thought of it or her.

  Mrs. Radcliffe offered Nash a warm smile. “Everything is perfect, thank you. I was just telling Lord Jasper about your sons’ many accomplishments. They are so clever. Such perfect little gentlemen. Excellent manners. They must get that from their father.”

  She smiled and blathered on a bit more and Jasper tuned her words out, to watch his brother lap up every bit of praise she uttered for his offspring, including the oft-repeated hope that Nash would visit the nursery to say good night to them.

  “Perhaps. Do excuse me,” Nash murmured, but likely would not oblige her in that, of course. Nash stayed well clear of the third floor, and his children.

  Nash went away, back to the duke’s conversation and the rum, and Mrs. Radcliffe’s smile dropped from her face immediately. She turned colder eyes on him. “I am still waiting for an apology.”

  “Everyone knows that is my seat,” Jasper protested.

  The governess’ eyes widened, and she examined the chair she was sitting on with exaggerated interest. “I do not see your name engraved on it. You ought to get a little plaque affixed to the headrest, perhaps. Something of substance to declare your superior ownership. The children are fortunate to have their names on their door already. You should ask your brother for the same.”

  Jasper scowled at the suggestion he was being childish about the chair, but everyone ought to know by now that he always sat there after dinner. Radcliffe was not above reminding him subtly that he was not the duke, too. Some governesses were said to never speak their minds, let alone attempt to say anything provocative. Trust Nash to have hired the one woman with a wealth of opinions she only cared to share with Jasper.

  In fact, to everyone else, Sophie Radcliffe was perfectly civil. Not even Stratford’s endless chatter seemed to get on her nerves.

  He was composing a suitable response to ensure he got in the last word tonight when a hand settled on his shoulder. Stratford, of course. Stratford knew the latest governess got on his nerves and had taken an interest in keeping them apart, or at least civil of late. Jasper scowled at his brother for the interruption.

  Stratford merely grinned at him. “You know, you’re becoming as blind as me. I almost never see what’s right in front of me. Just ask my wife.”

  “She was behind me,” Jasper ground out. “I don’t have eyes in the back of my head.”

  “Poor Mrs. Radcliffe,” Stratford said solicitously to the governess. “Assaulted by my brother’s backside so early in the evening. You must be so traumatized by the ordeal. I shall fetch you a glass of sherry to cheer you up.”

  Jasper caught his brother’s arm before he could rush off. “Have I ever told you that you talk too much?”

  “Frequently,” Stratford answered, grinning stupidly. “It’s my most endearing quality.”

  Jasper released his sibling’s arm with a fond laugh. He found it impossible to keep a bad mood around his younger brother, and Stratford likely knew that, too.

  The governess cleared her throat. “Never fear, Lord Stratford. I will swiftly recover once your brother finds his misplaced manners,” she vowed, giving him a look that said, oh just get it over with. “Perhaps if he has a moment to gather his thoughts, he could compose one while you fetch me that drink you promised.”

  Jasper scowled at the governess. Who was she to order his brother, a lord, away?

  But Radcliffe ignored him and had her lips pressed together tightly again in the way she always seemed to. A pity she couldn’t find even Stratford amusing, because she was vastly improved in looks whenever she smiled. Jasper had seen her laugh once with his brother’s children. The transformation had been an utter shock. She had looked lovely and almost enticing for an entire minute. Yet carefree laughter was reserved only for her young charges.