Ring for a Duchess

By Amanda Kelly

For herself, Helena had no great ambitions to be married off like a chattel, or as a payment against the clawing advances of her father's creditors. She had long ago given up the idea that she might marry for love, and at 27 had all but abandoned any idea of being a wife at all. It was only the sudden inheritance of her father to the estates, which had given him the idea of luring in a wealthy son-in-law. Now she was to be taken to London, to be paraded through the society balls like prize horses at Tattersall's. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Avery Publishing
• Release date: Apr 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386102359

Book preview

Ring for a Duchess

Sweet Regency Romance

By: Amanda Kelly

Ring for a Duchess

Chapter 1

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Helena sat miserably in the coach, staring out of the window as they drove away from everything that was familiar. Her father, crushed into the opposite seat by a large farmer, who chose to regularly comment upon fields as they passed, was holding on tightly to a small bag containing everything that they possessed in the world. Apart from the broken down estate that they had just left behind, her father's bag held the rest of his inheritance from his ancestors. The Barons of White Cross, younger offshoot of the Arundel Lords of Trerice, had dissipated what little income had ever been theirs, and now her father, cousin of the last baron, had inherited the land which was worth more to the Lord’s creditors than to its owner.

He had decided to come to London for reasons of his own, mostly to escape the taint of debt which would now tarnish his name, but Richard Arundel was not about to flee purely to give them satisfaction. He also intended to try to find a suitable match for his daughter, as he had put to her several times, although Helena suspected that what he really meant was that he wanted to entrap some rich gentleman into a situation where they had to ask for her hand. That would be a suitable match, in her impoverished father's eyes. If the gentleman had a title of his own, then so much the better, but he might be persuaded to marry Helena in order to take advantage of the title, currently in abeyance between the sisters of the late Baron.

For herself, Helena had no great ambitions to be married off like a chattel, or as a payment against the clawing advances of her father's creditors. She had long ago given up the idea that she might marry for love, and at 27 had all but abandoned any idea of being a wife at all. It was only the sudden inheritance of her father to the estates, which had given him the idea of luring in a wealthy son-in-law. Now she was to be taken to London, to be paraded through the society balls like prize horses at Tattersall's.

For most of her adult life, or at least since she had been officially launched into society, her father had been utterly disinterested in any potential suitors. Of course, while he was a mere landless gentleman, finding the resources to pay a suitable dowry for his daughter would have been difficult. Now that he was a more significant landowner, some claims to be the next magistrate of the area, finding a husband for his daughter would have been possible, but her father had not displayed any interest in finding a husband for her. The death of her only brother made her Mr Arundel's heiress, and suddenly her father had decided that she must find a husband, and quickly. In order to speed up the process, he was taking her to London for her first season. That it was a useful excuse to leave the Cornwall area was just a lucky coincidence, or at least so he repeatedly told his daughter.

Helena thought that he was probably wasting his time, and the men most likely to be seeking her hand were the wastrels and chances of the ton. Only a very undesirable man would be happy with a 27-year-old bride, and it was almost certain that men her own age would be already married. She didn't look forward to the prospect of being the pride of either a young