Instant Attraction

Chapter 1

The Duchess of Warrick's residence, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA.

August 1, 1886

            Anthony Giles Reginald Baldwin, 8th Duke of Wolverleigh, know as Tony to his nearest and dearest friends, stepped out on to the veranda of Amanda’s house to smoke a cheroot. He wondered for what seemed like the thousandth time, how Amanda and Devlyn, the Duke and Duchess of Warrick and his very closest of friends, persuaded him to join them on their trip to America. Amanda was here to conduct some unfinished business before moving Herrington-Maddox Shipping Company, a company she started over twelve years ago, to London.

            It seemed like a good idea at the time when he agreed to tag along with them to America. He really had enough on his plate to have kept him in England but he wanted a change at the time the trip was proposed.

            Now he wasn’t so sure he should have come here with his friends.

            It was almost ten in the evening when he strolled to a darken corner where he was able to lean a shoulder up against the house and smoke his cheroot without being observed. He wanted some time alone with his thoughts. Being around Amanda, Devlyn, and their happiness made him realize even more, what was missing from his own life.

            Until five months ago, he was Marquess of Dryden, a title he held since he was seven and ten and his father’s premature death, now at eight and thirty he was the 8th Duke of Wolverleigh upon the death of his grandfather. For almost three years before his grandfather’s death, he assumed most of the responsibilities of the dukedom, so it wasn’t as if he were stepping into a new position.

            Long before he inherited his new title, family members were urging him to remarry and sire heirs for the dukedom.

            With three younger brothers, if he died without issue, the dukedom would pass to Marcus, who he knew did not want the responsibilities that came with the title. Marcus was one of those imploring him to remarry and sire heirs.

            Emma…he still was not able to push her from his heart or mind after ten long years. Their marriage was a love match and supposed to have lasted forever not but a few short years...

            “What are you doing here?” Tony heard a man’s harsh voice saying jarring him back to the present, making him wonder how long he had been off in his own world. He looked up to see an older man, around fifty, with his hand on another person’s arm. Tony was not sure if that person was young or old, male or female since the person’s back was toward him.

            “I”m here uncle because my father’s sons are dead,” the person answered the older man shaking off his hand from her arm. Tony was able now to tell by the voice it was a female.

            She was a tall female dressed in tight leather pants, tall leather moccasins reaching to just below her knees and a long sleeved leather shirt with fringe ending at her hips. Her hair braided into two braids hanging down her back almost to her waist, with leather bands wrapped about the braids close to their ends to keep them from unraveling.

            Tony’s interest  was instantly peaked as he wished she would turn around for him to see more of her face, her voice had a husky sultry tone to it that stirred his body. He had no way to retreat without the two of them seeing him so he stayed to hear their conversation and wondered if he would need to come to her rescue by the scowl on her uncle’s face.

            “You’re brothers!” the older man shot back.

            “My half brothers who never thought of me as a sister,” she retorted and tried to walk past the man. He stopped her once again from stepping onto the veranda by blocking her path.