Page 2 of Wagering for Miss Blake (Lords and Ladies in Love 4)

Copyright © 2018 by Callie Hutton. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

2614 South Timberline Road

Suite 105, PMB 159

Fort Collins, CO 80525

[email protected]

Scandalous is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

Edited by Erin Molta

Cover design by EDHGraphics

Cover photography from Period Images, 123rf, Deposit Photos

ISBN 978-1-64063-602-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition June 2018

For Randy Fritter: husband, father, and friend.

Chapter One

April, 1818

Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire

If anyone had asked Mr. Giles Templeton, third son of the Earl of Wexford, if he believed in love at first sight, he would have laughed himself silly. Then he would have waxed poetically about the nonsense of love and how such an imagined state was a condition invented by ladies to trap unwilling gentlemen into marriage. Then he would go on his merry way, chuckling to himself, having set straight whoever it was that had entertained his day with such a ridiculous question.

That is, until he met Miss Suzanna Blake.

The day had started as any other. He’d ridden to Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire for the wedding of his close friend Alex, the Eighth Duke of Bedford, and his betrothed, Lady Patience. The couple had been dancing around each other ever since Alex had returned from America to take up his deceased brother’s title. Finally, they would speak their vows.

After refreshing himself in his assigned bedchamber, Giles descended the stairs to join the group in the drawing room, awaiting a summons to the pre-wedding-day dinner. He spotted Alex the minute he entered the room. Lady Patience stood next to him, conversing with a woman to her left.

His attention was immediately and forcibly caught by the vision of loveliness. The unknown woman chatted gaily with Lady Patience, holding a glass of champagne in her delicate hand, taking an occasional sip. Her peach-colored gown dipped low enough in the neckline to inspire interest, but not too low to garner criticism from the stalwarts of ton virtue. Her lush honey blond hair had been swept away from her heart-shaped face, with a few misbehaving tendrils wafting down her cheeks.

As he drew near, drawn like a bee to a flower, he noted her eyes were as blue as a crystal-clear lake in summer, her lips red and plump, and her skin as fresh as new-fallen snow. By the time he reached Alex, Lady Patience, and the unknown woman, Giles was struck dumb—something that had never happened to him in his entire twenty-nine years of life.

He wasn’t foolish enough to actually believe he had fallen in love, but he certainly felt as though someone had smacked him over the head with a heavy board.

He quickly looked at her finger for a wedding band—which would have sent him outside to howl at the moon—and saw a lovely ring, but nothing that appeared to announce to the world she was taken.

“Bedford.” He bowed in Alex’s direction. “Lady Patience, you are looking stunning, as always.”

“Templeton.” Alex smiled. “Glad you could make it.”

Lady Patience offered a curtsy and turned to her companion. “Miss Blake, may I present to you Mr. Giles Templeton, a close friend of His Grace.”

Miss Blake? Wonderful. She was not taken. He restrained himself from dancing a jig.

“Mr. Templeton, Miss Suzanna Blake is my cousin and has graciously accepted my request to stand as witness for our wedding.”