The Christmas Bride

By Roxie Brandon

Amazing value Regency Christmas two-story collection. Jam-packed with romance, love, and adventure.

Charming dukes with attitudes and kind hearts. Lovely ladies who want to find love. You'll find all of this and much more in this collection.

The collection includes:
1.The Duke’s Violet
Violet Baker grew up in a poor family, but she was happy with her life. Robert Montgomery, Duke of Pembroke, known as a rake, contacts Violet’s father expressing his interest in marrying her. A marriage of convenience for the sake of her family.

But the Duke of Pembroke has his own motives for his proposal. Will the emerging feelings the couple have for each other survive the secret he carries?

2.Christmas with the Charming Earl
Rebecca Ingram has lost everything: her inheritance, her home, her position. Forced to become a maidservant to a Duke, she loses all hope.

Rebecca only has one option left. Without marrying the Duke, she can never hope to get back what she has lost. She can never hope to be whole again.

However, there's one breath-taking problem she hasn't considered. After meeting the Duke's handsome and salacious son, she is overwhelmed with desire that she must ignore to safeguard her secret.

What will Rebecca do when she’s faced with the risk of losing everything she has ever loved? Will she give in to the passion or will she walk away? Will this Christmas Eve spark a passion that lasts a lifetime?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roxie Brandon
• Release date: Oct 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005383862

Roxie Brandon

Roxie Brandon is an author of historical and contemporary romance, beauty and fashion books.Her romances range in setting from Medieval times to the Twentieth Century.She loves walks in the countryside and having afternoon tea with family and friends.

Book preview

THE DUKE’S VIOLET

A REGENCY ROMANCE

Chapter One

Violet Baker imagined a world where she would marry for love and not for convenience. Just that morning, her father had informed her that she would be married to a Duke. She would become the Duchess.

A husband, Violet said dully. She was an obedient daughter and always had been so, but it seemed as though, if her marriage were being planned, that she should have been, if not consulted, at least informed.

Her family’s smiles proved that they expected her to rejoice at the news. Violet tried to force her lips to curve upward in a semblance of a smile. A Duke she said faintly. How…how very unexpected. Who… who is the duke to whom I am to marry?

"You shall be the future Duchess of Pembroke, her mother said.

Robert Montgomery, the Duke of Pembroke, was the master of Camden Hall and was now visiting his friend, Edmund Wellington, the Duke of Essex. If Violet would marry the Duke of Pembroke, she would go away from her home and she would never see her family again.

Violet attempted to conceal her opinions and join in the family enjoyment. Her face felt stiff as she listened to her family congratulating themselves on the wonderful work they had done in getting her a husband from the aristocracy. It seemed to have happened to no one that a young woman, even one of merely nineteen, might like to have at least a bit amount of understanding of such an important decision.

She had noticed the Duke of Pembroke with his friend on several occasions watching her as she walked through the streets of the small village she had grown up in. He was an attractive man, but Violet heard he was immoral, and even though many women would have loved to be his wife, Violet found him to be distasteful.

She knew of his reputation. He was not the type of man that Violet had grown up dreaming that she would marry. She had spent her life dreaming of a man that worked for a living, one that came from her same social class, one that had morals.

It was this day that Violet would go to meet her betrothed at Mansfield Manor, Edmund Wellington's house, and even though her mother told her that she needed to prepare herself, Violet refused. She had seen the duchesses, the way they dressed and the way they behaved; it was not something that Violet was interested in. She did not believe that she would fit in with the nobles.

Violet was of pale complexion, long wisps of umber streaked with highlights of ginger that always seemed to gleam when they captured the light just right.

Her hair was a lovely whisky, the color of fallen leaves browned and sleek with the first rain of autumn. How such a tint could play with the light, like peering at the sun through a jar of pine honey.

She had the kindest pair of coffee brown eyes trimmed by long gorgeous lashes. Eyes the colour of rich soil flecked with black, eyes the colour of dark chocolate with flecks of hazel nut, sable eyes, the colour of hot chocolate, the deep brown of the winter trees at twilight, the lightened brown of parched summer soil, glossy chestnut brown, the colour of unvarnished oak with deep mahogany flecks, the colour of apple pips, mottled like varnished cork, the colour of a dessert palm tree with flecks of acorn shell. Lovely eyes, yet somehow gentle, that always held a tiny warmth within them.

Florid cheeks and flawlessly sculpted lips, as if crafted by angels themselves. All these features set together on a delicate almost, angelic face.

Violet was unlike the other women. She wanted to be independent. She had thoughts and ideas of her own and she wanted to make them heard. Violet had argued with her father when he told her about the Duke, telling him that she was not interested in marrying, that she was going to choose her own husband one day.

Her mother had told her that she was to be on her best behavior when she went to meet the Duke, that she should smile and agree with what he said. But she did not care what he thought of her; the marriage was arranged, the payment had been made, and this was simply a formality so that her parents felt better about the entire arrangement.

Violet knew she did not have many other choices, but this is not what she had been expecting. She had thought it would be harder, that someone else would buy her. Not this. Not a Duke. Why would a Duke need to buy a bride?

Hold still. Her mother scolded her. Violet took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. She did not want to go. She did not want to leave her family. But what choice did she have? She had already been bought, by a man she did not know. All she knew was that she must be looking her best. Even using every cent they could afford they had not been able to buy anything that wasn’t at least four seasons old. And second hand.

Violet looked at herself in the shabby, old, mirror. Will this work? She wondered. She reached up to her chest lightly pressing the strand of beads around her neck. A necklace her mother had given her as a farewell token, despite the fact she would soon be able to wear rubies and diamands. And I will send some back. She promised herself. She was to be a Duke’s wife, but she would not allow her family to suffer in poverty while she lived in silks.

When Violet realized that she held the power within her own hands to free her family from the burden that they had carried for far too long, her shy and quiet personality began to shine. To give her parents an easier life, even if it meant sacrificing her own happiness, was the greater gift she could think of.

Chapter Two

Robert Montgomery awaited the arrival of the woman he was going to marry. She was unlike any other woman he had ever seen and her shy conduct had turned him on as soon as he had noticed her for the first time. She, unlike the other women he had encountered, lowered her head when she saw him, a bit of shyness showing through, when the other women threw themselves at him hoping to get the title of nobility.

Robert looked around him. There was a part of that knew Violet was not good enough to be his duchess. She was not of noble birth and he knew that would cause an issue with his family, but he needed a wife. As soon as possible. Now he sat waiting for the carriage to bring to him this one woman.

It was a lovely day, the