Yours and Mine by A.E. Bennett with an excerpt and giveaway

January 30, 2023
3 Comments

Yours and Mine
A.E. Bennett
Publication date: December 21st 2021
Genres: Adult, Historical, Historical Romance, Romance

She told a lie. He confirmed it. Now they’re secretly betrothed against their families’ wishes…

Lady Octavia Dorchester is the most desired young lady in the Realm. Now that she has twenty years behind her, society has deemed her ready to marry. Although she’s not enthusiastic, she promises to act like a proper lady and look for a good husband—just like her powerful father Lord Roman Dorchester wants.

Lord Gerald Verte has been painfully shy his entire life. He’s never been comfortable in society and lives in the shadow of his older brother, the imposing Lord Tristian Verte. Despite his desires to remain indoors and away from people, he promises his older brother that he won’t shame the family name, no matter how much his anxiety threatens to overwhelm him.

After sharing a dance at a ball held in Octavia’s honor, both she and Gerald know what no one else believes—it’s love at first sight.

When their respective family members object to the match, Octavia lies about their betrothal and Gerald corroborates her story. Raising the ire of both Lords Dorchester and Verte, Octavia and Gerald are torn apart and kept from one another until tragedy strikes.

This high-heat romance with a guaranteed HEA is a prequel to Gathering of the Four: Book One of the Serrulata Saga but can be read as a standalone.

Goodreads / Amazon

Excerpt

“The Lord Roman Dorchester has the honor and privilege to introduce his youngest daughter—the Lady Octavia Dorchester—formally into the most respectable society of the Realm’s gentry!”

Gerald recalled hearing rumors that the Dorchester sisters were famous beauties and, after seeing the older Dorchester daughter at a fete a few months ago, he’d readily agreed with the assessment. Selma Dorchester had commanded the room without purposeful intent. That had been a relatively small affair compared to this, and she’d only shown up at the occasion because she’d recently become betrothed to the Lord Hamden’s oldest son. It was a dynastic match, and the entirety of the gentry was anticipating their nuptials, scheduled for a few months hence. Gerald recalled the event with trepidation, but Selma was a pretty woman, and he had found himself jealous of the young Lord Hamden. As the awkward younger Verte, he could never fathom being able to make such a match.

Gerald gawked and almost dropped the glass he was holding as he joined the crowd in staring upward.

Octavia was clad in a cobalt dress of gossamer fabric that expertly complimented her dark skin. Her curly, dark hair encircled her beautiful face like a halo. Her dark brown eyes shimmered in the light of the myriad of candles that illumi- nated her magnificence. One of her arms was elegantly placed around her father’s so he could escort her down the winding staircase. She looked at her father, himself impres- sively dressed in a fine black suit, cravat tied with intense complexity, and then out at the crowd.

Gerald drank every aspect of her, scanning her up and down and all over.

And then he felt nauseated.

What are you doing? She is a person, not an object! Stop it!

As he chided himself, he saw it. It was brief movement, and a man unaccustomed to feeling anxiety would have missed it. But Gerald was not such a man.

Octavia Dorchester clutched her ample skirts with her free hand harshly—so harshly that she left wrinkles in the fabric. It had only been for a tick, but it had been a fierce action. Her voluminous skirts masked the damage she’d done, but Gerald watched her eyes as she descended the stairs alongside her stoically elegant father.

She’s terrified!

Gerald clutched the glass in his hands. He nodded in appreciation and clapped with the rest of the crowd when the pair reached the bottom of the staircase, and she curtsied formally to her guests as her father thanked the gentry for attending. Her father then said something about thanking Sovereign Jebidiah, who Gerald assumed would arrive late as he did to every ball. Then he watched with the rest of the crowd as Octavia was whirled around the middle of the floor by her father—her first dance in proper society. Men and women alike crushed against him to get a look at the younger Dorchester daughter who was now formally ‘on the market.’

As though women were commodities to be bought and sold, like animals.

Gerald backed away from the crowd as best as he could without looking awkward. He was a younger son, despite hailing from a Great House, but knew he would not be of any interest to someone like Octavia Dorchester. Rumor had it, as a younger sibling herself, she was looking to match with the head of a Lesser House who had a great deal of coin. The House Dorchester was powerful in its own right, but its youngest would not suffer to live in just any townhouse in any city. Octavia Dorchester had her own name and her own dowry, but she would not accept just any man, so said society.

Or, rather, her father would not accept the offer of any man who didn’t meet his standards.

Gerald huffed at the thought. A woman like the one who danced before him should be able to make up her own mind. Leaving that aside, any woman should be able to make up her own mind. Gerald knew that his mother hadn’t had any say in marrying his father, and his father had been a good man, but he’d heard rumors about gentlemen who were not kind. A man could beat his wife if he felt like it, no matter his posi- tion in society, and that had never sat right with Gerald. Now he watched as the heads of Lesser Houses fawn over the display before them—Damnation, did that man just lick his lips?!—and he suddenly wanted no part of the party that he’d been forced to attend.

He sighed inwardly as he retreated toward a wall.

Someone like Octavia Dorchester would never even look at him. Best to find a wallflower or two, dance with them, and then make his excuses and fade away. He had a promise to keep to his brother, but he didn’t have to stand around and watch such a wonderful woman be paraded around like a slab of prime meat.

He bowed his head nervously at a few ladies as he made his way toward one of the many tables that contained food. He piled various meats and cheeses onto a plate provided to him by a servant who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He shoved bits into his mouth without tasting what he consumed.