Welcome to a matriarchal Regency England where laws are made in the House of Ladies, titles are passed from mother to daughter, and women know what they want in the bedroom.
BY ZORA DUFFERIN
FIRST IN THE SPADES SERIES: Lady Duke
“Lady Duke” is a gender-flipped Regency Romance where Louise Harrington, Viscount Linden, is in immediate need of a suitable husband, but instead finds herself falling for the handsome village carpenter.
MEET THE SPADES
QUOTES
Excerpts from "Lady Duke"
“I am going to give you a timeline,” the Duke stated. “You have dawdled for nine years and you would dawdle forever without a limit.” She drew a piece of paper forward and picked up her pen. “You will be wed and with child within a year.”
“A year!” Louise exclaimed.
“A year,” repeated her mother calmly.
Louise was so lost in thought that she hadn’t noticed how far she had travelled down the road until her first glimpse of Ivy Hatch appeared between the trees. The chimney stacks were first, then the thatched roof came into view. As she moved closer, the trees parted and Louise could see the wooden bracing on the top half of the home. Archibald trotted down the lane, and Louise pulled him to a stop at the gate to take in her estate. It had been so long since she had been here, but it looked unchanged. It was a solid manor home, built in the middle ages with Kentish ragstone, surrounded on all sides by a square moat. One would not describe it with words like “grand” or “elegant” but rather words like “squat” and “impenetrable”. Seeing it now did not fill Louise with a sense of nostalgia. Instead, she remembered how eager she had been to leave it when she went off to school.
Louise looked back at her horse for a moment, trying to steady herself, then raised her eyes again to meet the unfathomable blue of Mr. James’s gaze. He was standing beside the water pump, some small puddles at his feet providing evidence of his recent ablutions. Louise did not have to look farther than the man himself, though, to see that he had recently been… washing. The thought made her mouth go dry. The dratted man was wet.
“Then I will see you at the assembly. Good day, Mr. James,” she said with a wide grin, walking backward for two paces before spinning around again.
“Good day, my lady!” he called after her. He watched her walk away, her stride quick and enthralling. What was he doing? He hardly ever participated in village affairs, but one word from Viscount Linden and he was smiling into her eyes, agreeing to whatever she asked. He was in deep, deep trouble.
And he had no idea what he was going to wear!
“He said my dear lady, it would be my honour. That man!” Louise exclaimed. “I do declare, Kitty, that I don’t know how I keep my feet under me when I’m kissing him. My knees turn to jelly and I all but swoon in his arms.” She flopped back on the sofa and covered her face with a cushion. “I swear I shall burn right up if I don’t bed that man immediately.”
She felt the sofa depress beside her as Kathryn moved to sit next to her and pried the cushion away from her face. She was grinning widely at her.
“So you’ll bed him, just as Mélanie suggested. Then you’ll tell your staid, married friend all about it so she can live vicariously through you.”
Louise tossed the cushion at her and straightened.
“I will do no such thing!” she exclaimed with put-on haughtiness. “Some things are private.”
ABOUT ZORA DUFFERIN
Zora Dufferin is the pen name of best friends turned writing partners, Lauren Acton and Lara Mrkoci.
Lauren and Lara met at age 15 in London, Ontario, and bonded over their love of good books, cute boys, and tea with scones.
Now based in Toronto, Lauren is a professor of performing arts at Centennial College and Lara is an actor, and a television editor for shows such as “The Great Canadian Baking Show.”