Heartless

Heartless

A Regency Romance

by Jaimey Grant

©2008, 2012 Laura J Miller

Deception excerpt ©2010 Laura J Miller

All Rights Reserved.

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means without prior written permission of the authors, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Cover design by Laura J Miller

www.anauthorsart.com

Published by TreasureLine Publishing

www.treasurelinepublishing.com

First published September 2008

Third Edition

The following is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, to factual events or to businesses is coincidental and unintentional.

Kindle Edition License Statement

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Author's Note

Dear Readers,

Heartless
debuted in 2008, one of my four self-published titles. It was contracted to TreasureLine Publishing in 2011 and underwent a makeover, inside and out.

I never felt completely at peace with the earlier edition. There were parts untold, things unexplained, and maybe a few things that could have been better explained. I tried to do that in this new revised edition.

If you’ve read
Heartless
before, I hope this edition brings you as much pleasure or more. If this is your first time reading this particular story, I hope you enjoy it. I am deeply grateful to you, my readers, old and new, for your continued support.

Jaimey Grant

Dedication

This edition is dedicated to my beta readers, past and future. I cannot express the depth of my gratitude for your time and effort.

A special thank you goes out to Rachel Rossano, Linda Boulanger and Jennifer Lyons. I can never repay you for all your support. Thank you.

Chronological Regencies

~Honor~

(the story of Connor and Verena)

~Betrayal~

(the story of Adam and Bri)

~Deception~

(the story of Levi and Aurora)

~Spellbound~

(the story of Tristan and Raven)

~Heartless~

(the story of Hart and Leandra)

~Redemption~

(the story of Darius and Jenny, and Miles and Gwen)

Short Stories

~Assassin’s Keeper~

(Regency fiction in
Unlocked
)

~Survival~

(fantasy fiction in
Unlocked
)

~Eliza’s Epiphany~

(Regency romance in
Whispered Beginnings
)

~The Dragon’s Birth~

(fantasy fiction)

~My Lady Coward~

(serial Regency romance at
www.jaimeygrant.com
)

~The 11
^th
Commandment~

(serial Regency romance in
InD’Tale Magazine
)

Heartless

1

London

October 1820

The third Duke of Derringer slammed his fist on the solicitor’s desk. An inkwell, a pen, a tea cup and Mr. Grimsby jumped.

The black-haired, black-eyed duke gave him a searching look. Did the little man jest? If so, he was less intelligent than Derringer had thought. But Mr. Grimsby looked more terrified than amused so he decided that the bespectacled gentleman was not lying.

“Indeed?”

“Just so, your grace. I can only apologize that we did not find this until recently,” he added with a nervous swallow. His large Adam’s apple bobbed and Derringer found himself distracted. The man was not blessed with any amount of good looks, the duke thought. He pushed his thoughts back to his present problem.

The Duke of Derringer had just been informed that he could not have his inheritance unless he married by a certain date. He’d always had whatever money he wanted, been given free rein with his finances. Then, after the death of the senior member of the solicitor’s office, a clause to the late duke’s will was discovered. 

Now Derringer sat across from this spindly-legged little man awaiting the date of his life sentence.

“How long do I have?” Derringer snapped.