Possessed By The Duke (Regency Romance) Read online

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  Possessed by the Duke

  A Regency Romance

  By: Kaley McCormick

  Table of Contents

  Main Story

  Possessed by the Duke

  Bonus Stories

  Seized by the Highlander

  Taken Captive by the Highlander

  The Highlander’s Mail Order Bride

  Bought by the Highlander

  My Sinful Surrender to a Highlander Werewolf

  The Taken Bride

  The Cowboy Soldier’s Knocked Up Email Order Bride

  The Outlaw’s Mail Order Bride

  The Cowboy’s Ebony Mail Order

  Knocked Up by the Outlaw

  The Renegade’s Mail Order Bride

  Pregnant and Rescued by the Cowboy

  The Renegade Angel’s Mail Order Husband

  The Cowboy’s Rescued Widow

  Ordered by a Cowboy

  The Cowboy Billionaire’s Mail Order Bride

  The Cowboy’s Dark Love

  My Cowboy Savior

  Taken by the Cowboy Billionaire

  Ordered by a Cowboy Billionaire

  Possessed by the Cowboy Werewolf

  Taken by the Cowboy Werewolf

  The Highlander’s Captive Bride

  Sent Away to the Highlander

  Taken by the Forbidden Highlander

  The Captive Bride

  Kidnapped by the Highlander Lord

  The Highlander’s Taken Bride

  Possessed by the Duke

  Chapter One

  Elizabeth sighed heavily as she tried to dig out the last of her potatoes and peas. She pushed a stray blonde curl out of her eyes and squinted up at the sky. The sun had been beating down on her back all day but it looked as though the clouds were rolling in and threatening rain. The potatoes might have to wait until the weather cleared back up.

  She hoisted the woven basket onto her hip as she stood up, and carried it carefully back to the tiny hut. As the raindrops started to slowly fall, she set the basket down just inside the house and went back out to shove the buckets out from under the overhang. Any rainwater she was able to collect was that much water she did not have to carry back from the well.

  She dropped into the chair that sat in the corner by the table and rested her forehead on her palms. It was a hard enough life for anyone, let alone trying to manage by herself. As the rain pattered on the thatched roof, she kept an eye out for any significant leaks and tried not to get discouraged about the weather-worn state of her welling.

  It was almost suppertime so she started the fire under the soup pot to start heating it up. She added some extra rabbit meat as well as another cutup potato, trying to fill out the leftover stew from the night before.

  As the soup came to a boil, she picked up the broom and started sweeping the dirt floor. It would collect leaves and twigs throughout the day and she tried to tidy up as best she could. Once the soup had started to boil, she served herself a bowlful and wrapped a blanket around herself while she ate. The rain outside had brought with it a chill in the air so she huddled near the stove for warmth.

  After dinner, she took her bowl and spoon outside and rinsed it in the falling rain before setting it out on the table to dry for the next day. She always kept two pots on the stove, one with the soup and one with the oatmeal. She could heat them up over and over without having to actually make a new meal. She just kept adding to them as time went on.

  She curled up on the chair after dinner and tried to mend the rip in her dress. She only owned two and could hardly afford to replace anything in the house, let alone something like her clothing. It was much cheaper just to buy a needle and thread and keep mending everything. She tried to use one of her dresses exclusively for wearing around the house and garden, so that the other one would stay clean enough to wear into town.

  She had been making a living on her own for almost two years and considered herself to be rather successful at it. She tried to look at the opportunity as an adventure, to test her strength and her resolve. There were days when that outlook simply could not drag her out of her depression, but most days were manageable.

  Before her parents had passed away, they had even been trying to teach her how to read. She had been practicing in the evenings with her Bible and it felt like she had been making progress.

  Her father normally would have been the one to arrange a marriage for his daughter, but with him gone, she was not sure how that was going to work. She did have a reasonably nice house and garden, and considered herself to be a decent housekeeper and cook. Perhaps someday a man would see her as a suitable bride, but the clock was ticking.

  Shortly before she retired for the evening, she walked around the one room of her house and tried to make a mental note of the things that needed tending tomorrow as well as a shopping list for her next trip into town. The gentleman that ran the store was usually very cooperative in accepting alternative forms of payment for things she needed, such as bartering the vegetables from her garden or the eggs from her chickens out back. She had even become adept at skinning rabbits for their soft fur which could be traded for a nice little packet of tea leaves. She rarely traded the meat from the rabbits but the fur was a pretty handy currency when she did not need it for her own blankets.

  As the weather started getting colder, she knew she was going to have to start stocking up in order to make it through. The hardest part was chopping up the trees for firewood, but she had gotten better at that chore over time. She made plans to finish in the vegetable garden in the morning, and then perhaps clean herself up and head into town in the afternoon. She did not want to get trapped at home without supplies by the first snowfall of the season.

  Chapter Two

  The next morning Elizabeth headed over to the chicken coop and gathered the eggs for the day. She heated up a small portion of her oatmeal for breakfast and fried one of the eggs on the stove. She planned to carry the rest of them into town and use them as payment at the general store. The rain had stopped so she intended to harvest the remaining potatoes and peas as well. She hoped to shell the peas and lay them out in the sun so that they would dry. It was much easier to store dried peas for winter than try to can the fresh ones. And it required no resources other than the sun overhead and a burlap sack inside once they were completely dry.

  Once breakfast was done and the dishes were cleaned, she piled her hair on top of her head and headed to the garden. She had almost finished yesterday before the rains moved in, so there was not too much more to go.

  The sun overhead felt good compared to the damp chilly evening and she bowed her head to the ground to let her back absorb the heat. The peas were easy enough to toss into the basket, and the last few potatoes came up easily since the rain had softened the ground. She was startled when a few of the plants that she pulled up turned out to be celery and onions, but she was thrilled since variety always helped out when you had the same meal day after day.

  She stowed the potatoes in the house with the others, and dragged her chair outside to shell the peas. Once they were all shelled into a large bucket, she spread them out into a large flat box and set it out where it would get the most sun for the day. She knew she would lose a dece
nt amount to the birds but she could not afford the netting that could have protected them.

  For lunch, she had a small piece of salted rabbit along with the last bit of cheddar cheese from the store. Afterwards she used some of the collected rainwater to give herself a quick sponge bath before changing into her clean dress. She decided that she would wash the other one and let it hang out to dry while she was gone. With the clean dress on and the other dress drying in the sun, she brushed her hair out and coiled it into a tidy bun on top of her head.

  It was only about a mile into town, and with the sun out, she did not mind the walk. She carefully nestled the eggs into a woven basket and wrapped them with a few extra rabbit skins she was planning to trade in addition to the eggs.

  The town was not large, but it was large enough. It had a general store as well as a fresh market and she planned to visit both. The streets were not paved or cobbled, but the walkway that connected the stores was at least boarded over. She worried about the hem of her clean dress dragging in the mud but she had no choice.

  Elizabeth tried to pick up her skirt as best she could and not jostle the eggs in her basket. As she rounded the corner to head into the store, she let out a yelp of surprise when she almost ran into a group of several men headed towards her.

  The oldest of the group with a scarred face and wrinkled brow glared at her, but his glare shifted into a different horrible look.

  “Well hello there,” he greeted her with a snarl on his lips.

  “Excuse me, sir,” she whispered politely and tried to duck past the group.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa… Where are you headed little missy? I think you might be looking for us.”

  “No, sir, just doing some shopping for my father.”

  “I sure don’t see a man around. Do you?” He asked the other men in his group.

  “No, sir” rang the chorus in unison.

  The older man, who seemed to be the ringleader, stepped closer to her.

  “Whatever do we have in the basket, missy?”

  “Just eggs and rabbit skins, sir. I have no money.”

  “I’m not interested in eggs and rabbit skins. And if you have no money, perhaps we will have to find something else of yours we need.”

  His lustful leer chilled Elizabeth to the bone. Overall she was pretty comfortable with her solitary life, but there were still moments when she wished for a man around. This was quickly turning into one of those moments.

  “Excuse me, sir, I just need to get to the shop.”

  She tried to evade them again and this time he stood directly in front of her path. In order to avoid him now, she would have to step back into the street. He must have seen her eyes dart sideways because quick as a flash he reached out and grabbed her arm roughly.

  “I think we need to talk about a bargain, missy,” he growled.

  She yelped again as he started to drag her back around the corner and out of sight of the shops. He flung her against the last building and she heard at least half of her eggs shatter in her basket, ruining both the eggs and possibly the skins.

  “Sir, please, don’t…” she pleaded with the filthy marauder.

  “Don’t what? We would simply take your money but you clearly stated you had none. So we have to come to an arrangement, don’t we?”

  “No, sir, you can have everything here,” she offered up her basket.

  He knocked it to the ground, “Oh I intend to have everything I see.”

  His eyes raked over her body. Despite the fact that the dress was simple and plain, it did not completely hide her curvy figure or creamy skin. One of his dirty and callused hands reached out and tore at the top of her dress. She whimpered and tried to cover herself with her hands.

  Just as he made a movement to rip the rest of her dress, she heard a dull thud and the man fell out of her eyesight to the ground. She gasped as her eyes flew upwards to the looming figure on horseback and she threw her hands up in defense. The other men started to scatter when the leader fell into the dirt unconscious and the large cloaked figure reached down and easily yanked her up by her wrists and tossed her over the horse in front of him. She bounced and jostled painfully as the horse galloped away from the town.

  Chapter Three

  Once the horse and rider and Elizabeth had reached a small grove of trees away from the safety of the town, he pulled the horse to a stop and allowed Elizabeth to slide awkwardly to the ground.

  She attempted to smack his leg but he reached down and grabbed her hand before she could make contact.

  “I just saved your hide, miss, so I doubt striking me is the most appropriate response to said rescue.”

  “How do I know what you have in mind? You could be even worse! You’ve dragged me out of town and I’ve just lost all my payment for the shops.”

  The man tossed back the hood of his cloak, and stared down at her.

  Elizabeth tried to hold together her torn dress in a futile attempt to maintain some kind of dignity, but her jaw dropped open when she saw her rescuer slash captor.

  He seemed to be very tall but that could have been the fact he was still on the horse. His shoulders looked broad under his cloak and clothing, and his hair and beard and eyes were so dark they were almost black.

  “Sir?” her voice shook with residual anger and a touch of fear.

  “Yes, miss?”

  “What do you plan to do with me?”

  “Well, I suppose that is up to you. It does not appear you have any more business in town if you have lost your payment so I suppose you can head home and try again tomorrow.”

  Elizabeth sighed and looked down at the ground. Her dress was just about ruined, from the filthy hemline to the torn bodice. She was not an able enough seamstress to fix the damage and the mud would probably stain. Her tidy blonde bun was slipping off her head and she knew she must look awful.

  “Or, if you prefer,” he said firmly but not rudely, “I can take you to my place and we can get you tidied up and perhaps compensate you for your loss.”

  “You would do that?”

  “It seems that you are in need of more assistance than a simple rescue.”

  “Perhaps,” she admitted, toeing the dirt with her scuffed shoe.

  “Not to mention the fact that we seem to have acquired some trouble between the two of us.”

  He pointed back in the direction of town and she became aware of the approaching group. It was the men from the attack, all mounted up and out for vengeance.

  “Yes, it might be a good time to go,” she suggested hurriedly.

  He offered her a hand and she climbed back up on the horse, this time upright and behind him. He nudged the horse into motion and they headed away from the oncoming attackers.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face into his back as the horse sped up under his heels. He smelled like fresh air and clean soap, and felt solidly strong against her.

  She paid no attention to their surroundings other than the noise. The hoof beats underneath and behind her combined with the hollering men behind her drowned out her other senses. She was not certain why this man was so adamant to protect her, but she clung to her life preserver with every ounce of strength.

  They eventually reached another grove of trees, and the man turned his horse sharply into the brush. He pulled the horse to an abrupt stop and when Elizabeth raised her head, she realized they were surrounded by several other men dressed like her savior.

  “Oh!” she gasped.

  “It’s alright miss, they are with me. I just needed to get to the trees and I knew they would be waiting.”

  The other group from town raced up on the trees and was stopped short when the protector’s men all emerged from the trees with their swords drawn. The would-be attackers stammered their excuses and apologies and fled as quickly as their horses would carry them.

  “It would appear we have a new house guest,” the man announced.

  The rest of his men chuckled and politely looked awa
y from Elizabeth’s exposed bosom as it peeked from her torn dress. The group headed out of the trees as a more leisurely pace and Elizabeth took the opportunity to look around. She had no idea where they were or where they were headed, but she knew their destination was not going to be anywhere near her home.

  They stopped about an hour later, and everyone dismounted. As Elizabeth’s captor slash savior assisted her down, his large hands fit snugly around her waist and he was indeed quite tall.

  They pulled several wrapped brown packages from the satchels at the horses’ flanks, and started to distribute the contents. She was almost as grateful for the food as she had been for the rescue itself.

  “I’m Elizabeth,” she offered politely to her mounted hero.

  “Andrew,” he nodded as he passed her a handful of bread and cheese and apple slices.

  “Thank you Andrew, for everything.”

  “Eat quickly, we would like to be home before night falls. Those men might get braver in the dark.”

  She ate quickly, and it tasted like the best meal of her life. She had not had anything since her sparse lunch of salted rabbit and cheese. Andrew politely lifted her back onto the horse and the men all mounted up. In about another hour, Andrew announced that they were home and Elizabeth’s jaw dropped when she raised her head over his shoulder.

  Chapter Four

  The estate loomed enormous on the hillside, made of large grey stones with a huge open space off to one side and a generous stable to the other. The entire estate was surrounded by a wooden fence and protected by a metal gate. The gate swung open and the entire band of horses entered regally. Elizabeth stared as they made their way from the gate to the stable. Her entire house and garden and chicken coop would have fit into the stable itself with room to spare.

  Andrew dismounted first, and again lifted Elizabeth easily off the horse. Two young boys came running up to the group of men, and started to lead the horses into separate stalls. Elizabeth clasped her dress to herself, and tried to cover her exposed bosom.

  As the men walked from the stable to the estate, a young girl ran out to greet them.