Claimed by the alpha pac.., p.1
The Honor of an Heir, page 1
THE HONOR OF AN HEIR
LINDARAE SANDE
This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.
The Honor of an Heir
ISBN: 978-1-946271-48-8
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2022 Linda Rae Sande
V1
Cover photograph © Period Images.com
Cover art by Twisted Teacup Publishing
All rights reserved - used with permission.
Edited by Katrina Teele-Fair
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.
CONTENTS
Also by LindaRae Sande
1. Oh!
2. An Oral Test of the Gods
3. An Earl Feels His Age
4. Mothers of Twins Confer
5. Homecoming and an Ultimatum
6. A Caller’s Curious Request
7. A Riding Lesson Goes Awry
8. A Father’s Advice is Unbelievable
9. An Heir Makes a Bold Move
10. Stating a Case for a Cause
11. A Father’s Advice is Inconceivable
12. Confused Servants
13. Chaos in the Classroom
14. Second Thoughts are a Girl’s Prerogative
15. Requests are Made
16. Preparing for a Party
17. Two Brothers Confer
18. Reconsidering a Referendum
19. A Garden Party
20. Flowers and the Future
21. Kidnapping is Awkward
22. A Proposal Goes Sideways
23. Kidnapping is Even More Awkward
24. A Tryst in the Library
25. Repercussions of a Kidnapping
26. A Tryst in the Library
27. Ruination and Rumination
28. A Father’s Advice
29. Second Thoughts Lead to a Decision
30. A Confrontation in the Coach
31. An Earl is Almost Too Enthusiastic
32. A Dinner Reveals Much
33. A Dinner with a Future Family
34. A Tour Leads to Torment
35. A Daughter Returns
36. Parents of Grooms Make a Plan
37. A Ghost Gives His Last Regards
38. Preparing for a Ball
39. A Ball Reveals All
Epilogue
Author Notes
Also by LindaRae Sande
About the Author
ALSO BY LINDARAE SANDE
The Daughters of the Aristocracy
The Kiss of a Viscount
The Grace of a Duke
The Seduction of an Earl
The Sons of the Aristocracy
Tuesday Nights
The Widowed Countess
My Fair Groom
The Sisters of the Aristocracy
The Story of a Baron
The Passion of a Marquess
The Desire of a Lady
The Brothers of the Aristocracy
The Love of a Rake
The Caress of a Commander
The Epiphany of an Explorer
The Widows of the Aristocracy
The Gossip of an Earl
The Enigma of a Widow
The Secrets of a Viscount
The Widowers of the Aristocracy
The Dream of a Duchess
The Vision of a Viscountess
The Conundrum of a Clerk
The Charity of a Viscount
The Cousins of the Aristocracy
The Promise of a Gentleman
The Pride of a Gentleman
The Holidays of the Aristocracy
The Christmas of a Countess
The Knot of a Knight
The Heirs of the Aristocracy
The Angel of an Astronomer
The Puzzle of a Bastard
The Choice of a Cavalier
The Bargain of a Baroness
The Jewel of an Earl’s Heir
The Vixen of a Viscount
The Honor of an Heir
Beyond the Aristocracy
The Pleasure of a Pirate
The Making of a Mistress
The Lyon’s Den (Dragonblade Publishing)
The Courage of a Lyon
Stella of Akrotiri
Origins
Deminon
Diana
CHAPTER 1
OH!
March 27, 1839, Norwick House parlor
The argument could be heard throughout the entirety of the Earl of Norwick’s Mayfair townhouse. Two young women, frequently at odds, were at it again, each putting voice to some opinion that was the opposite of the other. The rainstorm occurring outside didn’t drown their incessant shouts. Rather, the occasional crack of thunder punctuated them.
From the threshold of the parlor in which the argument was taking place, Clarinda, Countess of Norwick, regarded her identical twin daughters with a look of resignation. She did that often given their propensity to vex her.
At least she could tell them apart—most could not. Dahlia Davida bore a slight scar on her neck from when her sister had scratched her, and Diana Dorothea, who preferred to be called Danielle because the man she knew as her father was named Daniel, tended to hold her left hand in a fist as if she needed to punch someone.
“Whatever has you two arguing now?” Clarinda asked as her own fists went to her hips. She decided she needed to appear more determined.
More battle-ready.
Girls were trouble.
Twin girls were double the trouble.
Dealing with double the trouble meant girding her loins.
Dahlia and Danielle turned to face her, immediately silenced upon seeing their mother’s stance.
“Something important, Mother,” Dahlia replied.
“Terribly important,” Danielle agreed.
Clarinda blinked. Well, they apparently agreed on something. “Out with it.”
“It’s about making love,” Dahlia stated.
“What’s involved, exactly,” Danielle added. “I’m quite sure I know, but Davy seems to think otherwise.” She directed a glare in Dahlia’s direction. “She claims she read all about it in one of Father’s books.”
“I didn’t just read about it,” Dahlia argued. “I examined all the color plates. They were quite instructive.”
Clarinda blinked. So much for battle.
Glancing toward the sideboard, Clarinda had a thought to pour herself a glass of brandy before she dared attempt to answer the girls. Instead, she motioned the twins to take seats near the fireplace and rang for tea.
Perhaps she would merely add some brandy after the maid brought the tea service.
“First, I must ask why you’re even discussing this,” Clarinda said as she moved to her favorite floral upholstered chair. “Has one of you accepted an offer of marriage without telling me?”
The twins shook their heads in unison. “If lovemaking involves bending over a library table with my naked bum pressed against some man’s bare frontside, then I shall insist Father give me my dowry so I can go on a permanent holiday to Italy,” Danielle announced. “I’ll have none of that.”
Having bent over all manner of furnishings over the years with her naked bum pressed into Daniel Fitzwilliam’s groin—she was quite sure it was why she had been blessed with a set twin boys—Clarinda felt a blush rise to color her neck and cheeks. “There are many ways to make love. What you’ve just described seems awkward, I know, but—”
“Awkward?” Danielle repeated in shock. “I shan’t be treated no better than a dog,” she huffed, her chin rising with indignation.
“Then you won’t bear an heir for your husband,” Dahlia argued.
“I won’t have to bear one if I’m living an independent life in Italy,” Danielle countered.
“Girls,” Clarinda hissed. “How did this conversation even start?”
For a moment, the two were blessedly silent as they regarded one another before Dahlia, the braver one, lifted her chin and said, “We can hear you.”
“What?”
Danielle rolled her eyes. “You and Father.”
Straightening in her chair, Clarinda was about to ask what they meant when the maid showed up with the tea tray. “Oh,” she said brightly, glad for the interruption.
“Just like that,” Dahlia said. “But louder, and more of them.”
“Lots more,” Danielle chimed in.
Clarinda leaned back as the maid set the silver tray on the low table in front of her, her embarrassment becoming more acute. “More of them?” she asked in confusion.
“The ‘oh’s, Mother. It’s as if you were learning the alphabet and you got stuck on that particular letter,” Danielle groused.
Knowing her face was as red as a beet, Clarinda blinked as she waited for the maid to leave the parlor.
Apparently the walls of the mistress suite weren’t as thick as she’d thought.
Did she really say, “Oh!” so loudly and repeat it several times whilst Daniel saw to pleasuring her? When they were in the throes of their t wice-weekly trysts, him worshipping her body as if she was a goddess, she paid no mind to how she might sound to anyone but her husband. Besides, he took delight in her verbal cues and her occasional commands, and he seemed to use them to coax her to even more intense pleasures before he saw to his own.
The girls probably didn’t hear him. When he experienced his release, Daniel would hold his breath, and a growl would rumble from deep within him. Anything else he might attempt to say was usually drowned out because his mouth ended up on one of her breasts, or in the pillow next to her head, or against her shoulder.
Even thinking of it now had her wondering if tonight might be one of the nights Daniel planned to visit the mistress suite. If not, she was going to have to pay a call on him in the master suite.
He would like that. At least, he had never turned her away.
Well, there was that one time, on a particularly chilly winter night when he’d had a head cold and was a bit feverish. She had stayed with him the entire night, if only to provide a pillow for his body as she basked in his warmth. She hadn’t even minded his rather loud snores since they caused the bed to vibrate in a most pleasant manner. Someone would have to sort how to set off that same sensation but without the accompanying sound effect.
And the head cold.
She caught the head cold, of course, and suffered for the next few days in solitude in the mistress suite. At least the fever kept her warm.
So engrossed in her thoughts was she, Clarinda set about pouring tea without even asking her daughters the usual questions. Her motions were rote until her thoughts turned to how her first husband had made love to her. As a result, the teapot hovered over her own cup, the pot not quite angled enough for any tea to actually pour out.
David’s approach to pleasuring her had been far different from Daniel’s. She was sure it was because he’d had more experience in carnal matters. He never asked what she wanted, but then, she hadn’t known what was available. Even after she’d been married to him for a year, he continued to surprise her in nearly every room of Norwick House.
He had owned a gentlemen’s club, after all.
The Elegant Courtesan had employed a number of young women who catered to a variety of tastes, some rather unusual, some downright frightening. The profitable enterprise was shuttered upon her marriage to him, though, partly because she demanded he give it up and partly because he had inherited the Norwick earldom. As an earl, it wasn’t seemly for him to make money from a business.
Clarinda inhaled softly at the memory of the club. At the memory of David, who she rarely thought of these days. Although he had died well before their birth, he had fathered the two girls who were now of an age to marry and apparently far too curious about the marriage bed.
The oddest sensation skittered down her spine, and Clarinda gave a start. So did the teapot, which suddenly seemed to have a mind of its own as its liquid filled her cup.
“Oh!” she cried out, sure there had been a guiding hand covering hers for the very briefest of moments.
“Yes, you say it just like that,” Dahlia claimed. “As if you’re surprised.”
Clarinda blinked several times before her gaze darted to one of the parlor windows. In the form of a silhouette, she was sure she saw David. He was leaning against the sideboard, his arms crossed with his elbows held in his hands. One booted foot was crossed over the other, which made him appear rather cavalier. And no older than the day he had died in an awful traffic accident in Oxford Street.
“You cannot deny she has the right of it,” David’s ghost said with a chuckle. “I certainly lived to hear them. In fact, thoughts of hearing them kept me from dozing overmuch during sessions of Parliament.”
Swallowing, Clarinda stared at the apparition. David hadn’t made an appearance in over twenty years. “So good of you to join us,” she said, not quite sure if she welcomed him. “I could use your help here, darling. It seems your daughters have questions.”
David straightened from the sideboard and unfolded his arms. “Oh, no, my sweeting. This is one of those times when your counsel is more astute than mine.”
“Then why did you show up now? I haven’t seen you in—”
“Days, yes I know,” he interrupted. “Apologies.”
“Decades, you mean,” Clarinda huffed. “Two of them, in fact. You were always terrible at telling time.”
David blinked, his head pulling back on his neck so his chin suddenly doubled. “Hmph,” he replied. “How can that be? You’re as gorgeous as the day I died,” he murmured. “I do hope Danny appreciates it.”
The mention of Daniel seemed to conjure Clarinda’s current husband into existence, for he stood on the parlor threshold glaring at his late brother. “Of course I know it, you idiot. I’m the one who courted her before you took her from me,” Daniel accused.
“She was betrothed to me,” David reminded Daniel. “I was doing my duty taking her to wife. Making her my countess,” he added before turning his attention back to Clarinda. “I’m just relieved Torrington was able to arrange it so you two could marry without too much trouble from the church. Or the law.” He paused and then his eyes rounded. “I do hope there wasn’t any trouble from the church. Or the law?” he asked.
Clarinda and Daniel exchanged quick glances before Daniel moved to stand closer to David. “No trouble,” Clarinda replied. Given it had been illegal for her to marry the brother of her first husband, apparently her godfather, Milton Grandby, Earl of Torrington, had done whatever was necessary to see to it an exception had been granted for her marriage to Daniel. With the twin girls already on the way and the twin boys who were born a few years later, Clarinda really didn’t want to discover there was a problem with her current marriage. The last thing she needed to learn was that her daughters were illegitimate. Or her sons. The oldest by five minutes, Duncan, named for his paternal grandfather, was the heir to the Norwick earldom.
Since David hadn’t sired an heir before his untimely demise, Daniel had simply inherited the Norwick earldom upon his death. Because Daniel was the identical twin to David, those who weren’t aware of David’s death didn’t even notice there had been a change in the identity of the earl when Daniel took his place as the Earl of Norwick.
“Mother, who are you talking to?” Dahlia asked before her attention went to the man she knew as her father. She leaned over in her chair and then her eyes rounded. “Oh!” she said, sounding like her mother did when she was in the throes of passion.
Clarinda gave her a quelling glance. “Your father, of course,” she replied before she froze.
David, or rather his ghost, if one believed in such things, hadn’t made an appearance since before the girls were born. Neither Daniel nor Clarinda had made mention of him, deciding no one would believe them. Far better to think his appearances immediately following his death were merely their minds playing tricks on them.
“Which one?” Danielle asked in awe, her mouth open in a quite unladylike manner.
“The one who looks... younger,” Clarinda replied, not quite sure she was glad the girls could see the ghost.
“Younger?” Daniel countered, his attention on his older twin. “Hardly.”
“Thinner,” Danielle remarked. “Father definitely has a stone or two on this other man.”
Daniel scoffed. “I’m the same weight I was when I married your mother,” he claimed.
Clarinda furrowed a brow. “Perhaps, dear heart, but I do prefer the way you are now. There’s more to hold onto when I’m in the throes of passion, uttering all those ‘oh’s,” she said drolly.
Daniel lifted his chin and regarded his brother with a grin of satisfaction. When David merely glared at him, Daniel moved in front of the sideboard and poured himself a brandy. “I’d offer you one, but—”
