The Duke
Takes a Bride
A novel by
Ginger Voight
and
Jeffrey L. Mayo
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Chapter One
I stood staring at my Darcy Masters original wedding gown for what felt like an eternity, which was odd, considering. I had only met the man who would soon become my husband a mere eight months before, right around the time I found out I was six weeks pregnant from a three-minute mistake with a regrettable one-night-stand.
No matter how many fixed numbers were added to the equation, it all summed up one inescapable truth: time is fucking relative.
A lifetime of stuff can change in eight months. Take it from me.
By October 1st, I was 36 weeks pregnant, standing in a 12th century castle, staring at a regal white wedding dress complete with its own crystal studded cape, getting ready to walk down the aisle to an actual prince, with all the castles, crowns and thrones that came with the title, all ready to become mine the minute I said, “I do.”
I guess I needed a moment to take it all in.
You already know most of the story, where I, Peaches McPhee, had been hired to write the titillating tell-all memoir of Augustine Seamus Whitley Quinn Agassi, aka Auggie, aka Prince Augustine of Alasdair, The Duke of Iver, aka The Duke of Mayhem, a rebel royal who went rogue and became a rock star.
He was also the heir apparent to the kingdom of Aldayne, a country west of Ireland and south of Iceland, with the Viking/Gaelic roots to prove it.
His grandfather Evander had been king until his death in 1996, when power shifted to Queen Maeve, his widow. Their son, Roan, ran off with an American dancer named Sofie and newborn son, Auggie, to live a life of the ordinary in America, leaving Aldayne without a successor in the House of Quinn.
This was a problem because the next House in line of succession was the House of Byrne, filled with, shall we say, not so nice people. Queen Maeve then decided she needed to get her hands on an heir and quickly.
After the deaths of his parents, Auggie was her prime target.
By the time I met Auggie, he was more than a decade into his career as an award-winning musician/performer, who regularly sold out arenas all over the world. He embarked on one last tour before he was forced to keep a promise he made to the Queen. She needed an answer to a question placed upon his head the second he was born. Would he or wouldn’t he serve Aldayne as their king?
As it happened, he would, right after he asked me to marry him.
And I couldn’t even be upset about it because it was kind of my idea. Because I was the ordinary girl he plucked straight off the farm, Auggie left the decision to me how much I wanted our lives together to change. After one meeting with the aforementioned Byrnes, I knew we had no choice. Auggie had to become king to spare Aldayne.
Bad things happen to good people when bad men are in charge. Read any history book anywhere.
That one decision changed everything for me and for my whole family, which was why we hadn’t yet returned to our home state of California, after following Auggie to Aldayne for the Queen’s 25th Jubilee in August.
Well, that, and that the biological father of my near-term baby was an abusive asshole who could never get access to my son. Outside of these borders he had access to me, inside he didn’t. I wasn’t going anywhere.
It had only been a little over five weeks since Queen Maeve’s announcement that Auggie had agreed to become king. It both sped by like a minute and felt like forever ago, mostly because we had to hurry up and plan a wedding to take place in Aldayne prior to the blessed event of my due date, which was rapidly approaching by the end of the month.
Most folks believed my due date was November 24th, but I was due on Halloween. The deception was necessary to spare my son from his biological dad, Christopher Tyler, the aforementioned asshole. I knew the minute I delivered early that he’d turn up again like some recurring nightmare.
We had worked together for years, but the relationship had been contentious because he was a pompous, sexist Dude Bro jerk who thought I was a second-rate female due to my size.
That didn’t stop him from sleeping with me when he was drunk and horny, though. And it certainly didn’t stop him from slipping off the condom without my consent.
Did you know stealthing was a thing? Me either, till the pregnancy test came back positive.
Oh, and he confessed it to me right after he hit me and right before he tried to rape me.
Like I said. Asshole. Dangerous, abusive asshole who wasn’t going to come a hundred miles of my son.
Auggie felt even more strongly about this than I did. We had long planned to marry before I delivered, but initially our simple plan had been a family thing at my parents’ farm, with my mother officiating.
Instead, we had five weeks to pull off a real wedding in a real church, since being a king required such things.
So, it wasn’t just any wedding. It was a royal wedding. One with presidents, heads of state and other royal families on the guest list, not to mention all manner of celebrities and notables from all over the world. Oh, and it was going to be televised live for a global audience.
It was a matter of Aldaynean pride to get it right.
I had an entire team of people assisting me with this gargantuan task. There was, of course, my sister and bestie, Fern, who likewise was planning her own wedding the following spring. There was my mother and my younger sister Dallas, and of course, everybody’s favorite, my baby brother, Dash.
There was Countess Audra Tremwell, Fern’s future sister-in-law and our new, dearest friend. She was officially part of the Royal Court, having served as Auggie’s personal assistant for all the years he’d been M.I.A. from Aldayne, and was about as fierce as they come. If she wanted something done, people did it. She never needed to ask twice.
There were the Princesses, Auggie’s aunts, Princess Fiona, Princess Mariel, and Princess Giselle, all of whom had all the charm and connections to fill in the rest.
I had my own personal assistant, Kelly Murphy, who was also trained to help me with any baby stuff that popped up along the way. This was necessary after having a pregnancy complicated by placenta previa, as well as a steady occurrence of Braxton Hicks contractions due to all the stress stemming from my growing obligations.
Taking an extensive leave from the United States, my two favorite fairy glam mothers, Jorge Navarro and Darcy Masters, were on hand to help dress the entire royal wedding party, consisting of all my brothers and sisters, half of the Tremwells, a couple of Quinns and a partridge in a pear tree.
But the most important member of the wedding planning committee was the queen herself.
Maeve Quinn was poised to become my grandmother-in-law, but she was also a legit monarch who knew how to make things happen. With one phone call, she secured the
venue, Crystal Sky Cathedral, an all-glass church that her husband had built for their wedding nearly sixty years before. A dozen calls more and we had celebrity performers, a fleet of dedicated newscasters (not one of which was affiliated with Christopher’s new employer PING,) as well as a virtual parade and cross-country tour, so I could be driven around Aldayne in a glass carriage for all the countrymen and women to see.
At seven o’clock the following morning, the processional would start from this very castle, Greystone, in the shadow of Grandpa Charlie, a dormant volcano officially known as Mount Charlemonde, and go all the way south towards the Queen’s castle, Shimmering Falls, and Crystal Sky just beyond. There I would exit the carriage, wave to the crowds, then walk down an aisle glimmering with the rainbows cast by all the beveled glass panes overhead, where my prince waited to make me an honest-to-goodness, bonafide princess.
Princess Peaches. Can you believe it?
If, on the previous New Year’s Eve, you had given me a million guesses that this was how my year would have gone, I would have never landed on any of this.
I honestly didn’t know whether to be grateful or terrified.
Then, I thought of the man who would be waiting for me at the end of that aisle. If there was anyone to make this crazy ride worthwhile, it was Auggie.
My heart had skipped gaily out of my possession the first time he said, “Hello.” He was beautiful. He was sexy. He was kind. He was self-assured. He was generous. He had been my hero on more than one occasion. He was a man who had a lot of love to give and nowhere to give it, until he met an awkward girl with a funny name, who just happened to find out she was pregnant.
After that, he was determined to make all our dreams come true.
I cradled my full tummy, where my son Jack slept soundly. It had been a fairy tale for both of us, and he wasn’t even born yet. I didn’t know how much our world was going to change. But if there was one thing that I had learned from our journey thus far, that was probably for the best.
I balled a fist in my back. As we were approaching the finish line, Jack had started to move lower and it was really playing hell on my lower back. I was still having Braxton Hicks contractions, which often played hell with any romantic time with my husband-to-be. This had been the frustrating pattern from the jump. Jack had pretty much made all the rules since we first met. It wasn’t anything we weren’t already used to.
Auggie and I had just sort of decided to roll with it, saving it all for our wedding night.
Still, I had many reservations. Though I no longer shared my life on my socials, I still got alerts whenever someone went through my old posts, liking or commenting as John Q. Public was known to do. Christopher had made his presence known, even though he was legally barred from entering the country. He made damn sure I knew he was watching me like a hawk regardless.
It wasn’t that he wanted me or Jack, he wanted an exclusive to the scandal, or a lot of money, or both. I knew I couldn’t risk an early birth. At least, any earlier than the “early” date of Halloween when I was scheduled for a C-section.
Still, my Auggie was a hard man to resist. When he pulled me closer, there was no pulling away.
That was why I had spent the last few weeks at Greystone Castle, preparing for the wedding of the century. The world watched and waited for the next royal wedding, and I wasn’t about to let them down even if I had to continually pinch myself that the blushing bride that they were talking about was me.
By the end of the next day, I would no longer be known as Peaches McPhee. I would be Peaches, Duchess of Iver, an official member of the House of Quinn.
All I wanted was to be Auggie’s wife. These last two weeks were the longest we’d been apart since we met. I could tell by his texts that it was killing him every bit as much as me, though Queen Maeve made damn sure he stayed busy in the interim.
He had returned to Shimmering Falls, where he began his official grooming to become king. Fortunately, he had finished his education during his Duke of Mayhem days, which he had agreed to in exchange for his freedom to tour. Still, as the King of Aldayne he would be the leader of their armed forces. He required standard military training before he could take the throne. This would put off his coronation for another couple of years, after his 35th birthday.
Both of us were fine with this.
My job was public outreach. After our two-week honeymoon in a location Auggie had decided to keep secret, I would then begin making public appearances to represent the royal family.
Of course, all that would grind to a halt after Halloween when Jack made his “early” appearance, but we had to plan events into November to keep up the ruse.
A quick knock preceded Kelly poking her head around the slightly open door. “They’re almost ready for you, Mum.”
I smiled. The McPhee family had taken over Greystone to prepare for the big day. They had insisted on a bachelorette party the night before the wedding. I expected barbecue, disco, and karaoke in true McPhee fashion. I hoped the ghosts of Greystone would be able to keep up with us, because it promised to be a party unlike anything they’d ever seen. “I’m almost ready,” I told her.
“I’ll let them know,” she said, walking further into the room. “You had another delivery,” she grinned as she held up a small package.
I chuckled. I barely even expected to get married, much less have hundreds of gifts pouring in every day. They came from all over the world, but the Aldayneans would not be outdone. They wanted me to know that they approved of Auggie’s choice.
I think they just loved the idea of a wedding. Who didn’t?
“Put it on the pile with the rest,” I decided.
She shook her head as she handed it to me. “It says it’s to the bride.”
My brow furrowed. I had gotten tons of gifts, some to Peaches, some to Miss McPhee, some to Mrs. Auggie Agassi, but this one was just as cold as she said. I took it and examined the writing. It was bold black lettering. “There’s no return address,” I mentioned.
“It was hand delivered, mum.”
I walked to the window. Down in the circular drive below was a black Alda luxury sedan. I could see Cillian Byrne’s silhouette from where I stood. I shivered from that icy blue stare even from hundreds of feet away.
Only family could get this close to the castle. Regrettably, the House of Byrne was exactly that, so he had been allowed passage.
I gulped. “I’ve got it,” I said, dismissing her with a small nod. I waited until she disappeared before I opened the package with trembling fingers. There was a note on top of a black velvet jewelry box. I pulled open the note written on delicate stationary with CB embossed in gold in the corner.
I underestimated you, it read. I won’t be doing that again. If you are as smart as I think you are, then you won’t underestimate me, either. Especially come Halloween.
I gulped again as I withdrew the box and opened it. A gold locket was nestled on the black velvet. My fingers shook as I opened it, my belly filled with such dread it made Jack jump in the womb. I gasped as I focused on the picture placed inside the locket.
It was a picture of Christopher.
With a sharp cry, I tossed the box across the room with a clatter. When I turned back to the window, the black Alda was gone.
But he didn’t need to stick around, did he? He had thrown that stick of dynamite right in the middle of my fairy tale wedding, the damage was done.
He knew my secret.
Now I just had to wait to see how it all blew apart.
Chapter Two
I was still standing in my bedroom, processing the shock, when Fern came to fetch me to start the evening’s festivities. “Hey, what’s keeping you? Did your water break?” She chuckled at her own joke. Then, she processed the look on my face. “Oh, my God. I was kidding. What’s wrong?”
I sighed and held up the letter I still held in my hand. She walked over to read it. “Well, shit,” she mumbled.
“That sums it up nicely
,” I muttered in response.
“Are you going to tell Auggie?”
I shook my head. “No. No sense in ruining his wedding day like Cillian ruined mine.”
Fernie balled up the expensive stationary and tossed it over her shoulder. “He can only ruin it if you let him.” She walked over to take my hands in hers. “And we’re not going to let him ruin anything. We’re McPhees, for fuck’s sake.”
I chuckled. “For about twenty-four more hours anyway. Then I’ll be a Quinn.”
We absorbed that heady thought for a moment before we both started to squeal in excitement. She grabbed me in a powerful hug. “You’re gonna be a princess, Pea! And then you’re going to be Queen.” She pulled away. “Well, you always were. But this makes it official. Even the haters can’t deny it now.”
I laughed. “I’m sure they’ll still try. They get even louder the more untouchable you become. In case you hadn’t noticed.”
Did fairy tales normally come with protesters? Mine sure did. Though many Aldayneans had come to accept me as their new princess, a very vocal number had not. They missed no opportunity to tell me to take my “bastard child” back to America where I belonged.
Even being protected by the thick stone walls of all these castles hadn’t muffled the sound.
She shrugged. “It’s all white noise to the important things you’re going to be able to do now.”
That was even more heady than the thought of getting married. The royal duties, particularly for the House of Quinn, centered on service. Instead of reading about problems in the headlines and being powerless to do more than send thoughts or prayers, Auggie and I would have the power to help people. And I already knew, from his time as the Duke of Mayhem and the quiet service he had always conducted even before he had agreed to become king, that we would do amazing things.
He was a fine man. He would be a noble, generous, empathetic ruler.
The Duke Takes a Bride (The Rocking Royal Trilogy Book 2) Page 1