Courting His True Destiny

By Roxie Brandon

When Caroline meets Duke Reginald Dangby at a ball, they find each other insufferable yet the Duke can't stop thinking about her.
When Caroline's step-mother forces her to marry her nephew, Caroline unwillingly agrees.

When the Duke hears of this, he will do whatever he has to to stop Caroline from marrying him, especially when he discovers shocking news about her future husband and the real reason he wants to marry her. He must protect the woman he loves before it is too late.

Enjoy this clean and wholesome Regency romance with a sweet happily ever after!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roxie Brandon
• Release date: Feb 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005051488

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

COURTING HIS

TRUE DESTINY

Copyright © 2021 Roxie Brandon All Rights Reserved

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Epilogue

CHAPTER 1

Caroline, dear, Katherine Baxter called out to the nineteen year old brunette who sat on the edge of the sofa examining a piece of parchment, Would you go on and get ready finally? That hair looks quite disheveled – I’ll have Elizabeth braid it nicely at once.

Caroline Baxter muffled a groan as her step-mother pestered her about the various things she should be doing at any given moment of time. It had been like this for as long as she could remember – so this was not anything new for Caroline. Caroline’s father, William Baxter had been widowed when they lost Caroline’s mother to a terminal disease when Caroline was six. As a consequence, Caroline had grown up an only child and often in the company of governesses.

William had not married again for another 9 years until one day he came across a woman in his travels when Caroline was fifteen. And that was when Caroline got a stepmother by the name of Katherine Baxter. Little was known to Caroline about Katherine apart from the fact that she was still in her late twenties and thus quite a young bride for her father. However, she never let herself get upset by that fact as she thought that Katherine made her father happy and that was all that she wanted from her.

They got along well enough as Katherine was mostly sweet to Caroline and her father. However, never did Caroline feel as though she had replaced her mother in any way, to the point where Caroline did not feel comfortable referring to her as mother even though she had been married to her father for the past four years.

Alright, Mrs. Baxter, Caroline replied through gritted teeth.

Good, Katherine Baxter smiled in response, I will send Elizabeth by shortly! You need to look presentable, young lady, she said and then scurried out of the room.

Elizabeth was one of Caroline’s governesses. She was not much older than Caroline herself but she had found a friendship in her. Mostly now, Elizabeth was in charge of making sure that Caroline styled herself properly – something that held great importance to Katherine.

The event for which Mrs. Baxter was insisting Caroline to look good was another local ball. Such balls were frequent and abundant in her community and perhaps maybe when she was younger, they held a significant amount of allure and glamour in the eyes of Caroline but now, the sheen had long since worn off.

Caroline was not a massive fan of these balls as it usually meant she had to enhance and improve her entire appearance and she was subjected to the scrutiny of the attending guests. Still, she knew she had to endure the evening with good graces so as to not besmirch her family name by even a little.

Caroline Baxter was incredibly close to her father; he had been a pivotal figure in her life ever since her mother passed. He was actively involved in all her affairs and Caroline felt very close to him – and for the sake of her father’s happiness, she had never objected to his marriage with Katherine as she did not want to spew criticism about the one aspect of his life that brought him joy after her mother had passed.

Hours later, Caroline found herself in a well-lit ballroom filled up with people in coats and fancy dresses. Such lavish balls were a norm and a hobby for the people in the community and it provided an excellent environment to level up your social graces or make yourself noticeable, so as to climb higher on the ladder that was social hierarchy. Today, however, Caroline felt little heart for conversation and instead wanted to keep herself busy in everything else so that the evening would just whir past her and she could soon be on her way home. She wished that she could be out in the fields riding her horses instead.

Enclosed spaces with an abundance of people made her nervous and almost always uneasy. But Caroline