Duke of Enveigh – Pre-Release Edition (Seven Dukes of Sin, Book 5)

He was paid to seduce his best friend’s sister. He never planned on falling for her.

Archibald, the Duke of Enveigh, has lost everything. His fortune, his place in the brotherhood of the Dukes of Sin, and the woman he meant to marry have all gone to Octavius, the friend who betrayed him. So when someone offers him ten thousand pounds to seduce and ruin Octavius’s long-lost sister, Archibald says yes.

Lady Mercy Everard has only just come home from France. She would rather be studying the stars than dancing in a ballroom, and she can spot a rake’s charm from across the room.

“I see through you. And even though you are very good at it, none of this will work on me.”

She’s the one woman in London he can’t charm, and the only one he can’t stop looking at.

But the wager is still running. Mercy has no idea she’s his mark. Every night under the stars brings Archibald closer to a choice: take the money he desperately needs, or lose his heart to the woman he was paid to destroy.

Will he win the bet, or will she win him?

London, Early April 1815

If Archibald, Duke of Enveigh, could let his eyes rest on one person forever, it would be Lady Mercy Everard.
Octavius’s younger sister.
Dressed as a dragon in a dark green costume, Archibald watched the copper-haired young woman, who was currently surrounded by his brotherhood like patrolling hawks.
Beside him, Miss Natalie Nix was dressed as a bee, her yellow and black fan swaying. Her pretty mouth was moving, saying something in a futile attempt to impress him. Archibald should be paying attention to her, the potential solution to his financial problems.
But he couldn’t drag his gaze away from the woman who looked like spring itself. Lady Mercy’s mask was adorned with blooms and leaves that complemented her complexion, her copper locks arranged in a chignon with a diadem of fruit and flowers. It should have looked tacky. Instead, she looked lush, like life itself.
Six of the Dukes of Sin were a wall around her. The gap where he, the seventh, should have been was painfully obvious.
All of them stood together.
All but him.
His jaws tightened till his teeth hurt.
Octavius, the Duke of Eccess (also known as the traitor), had lied to his face and taken the woman Archibald had been courting.
There she was, Temperance, now the Duchess of Eccess, Octavius’s wife, talking and smiling with the Duchesses of Luhst and Pryde, as carefree as butterflies. The Duchess of Rath must be at home at Rath Hall, their country estate, with her new baby. Temperance had been the only woman Archibald could have imagined marrying and feeling something for.
Oh, how he despised them all. Despised them because they’d sided with Octavius…and ached for them all at once, missing his friends. His stomach churned with loneliness. He was in exile from the brotherhood that had meant everything to him.
His mouth tasted bitter.
He dragged his gaze away from them and forced out a smile to Miss Nix. Next to her, her mother, the wife of one of the wealthiest mill owners in the country, smiled when she caught his eye.
“…and of course, I play the pianoforte,” said Miss Nix. “And am accomplished in dancing…and speak French… Not as well as this mysterious Lady Mercy, who came back from France in the middle of the night… What respectable lady would do such a thing?”
Archibald despised gossip. The instinct to protect the family of one of his brotherhood was so knee-jerk that he was speaking before he could stop himself. “It wasn’t the middle of the night. It was morning. And she looked very respectable. Albeit tired.”
Both ladies blinked at him.
“Oh? Did you see her when she arrived?” asked Miss Nix.
Archibald cursed inwardly and forced another one of his charming smiles.
He had seen Mercy when she appeared at Octavius’s wedding breakfast on the first of January. Archibald was still not completely sure why he’d attended. To torture himself, perhaps. Not because missing his best friend’s wedding was unthinkable.
Former best friend, he reminded himself.
He remembered stumbling into Lady Mercy in the entry hall on his way out of the house. Her heavy winter cloak was wrinkled, patched, and covered in mud, her face exhausted, with dark circles under gorgeous warm brown eyes.
As Archibald accompanied her to Octavius’s study, his mind had bubbled with vengeance plans, although he didn’t know what they would be. But the need to remove the smug smile from Octavius’s face gnawed in his gut.
Octavius had gained a loving wife and a long-lost sister all in one day.
How could one man be so lucky?
And Archibald had nothing. No family but his sick mother. No money to repair his decaying house and no servants to work in it. All he had was his signet ring.
On his hand, the emerald shone. There was a six-rayed explosion of light deep inside, as though a star was trapped, glimmering through layers of green stone. The star emerald signet ring that had been coveted by every nobleman in the ton, including the Regent himself.
Archibald returned his attention to Miss Nix. “No matter. What I meant was Lady Mercy is not important.” He gave Miss Nix his most charming grin that had a satisfying blush blooming under her mask. “You, on the other hand, Miss Nix—” He looked over her appalling bee costume. The bright yellow dress with black stripes made her look squat and square, the coloring completely wrong on her skin, contributing to an unhealthy green undertone. “—look striking. This must be the most eye-catching costume I’ve ever seen. Did you think of it yourself?”
Miss Nix’s already flushed cheeks grew into a shade akin to a radish. She began twisting from side to side, fanning herself faster. Her mother pressed her lips together to conceal a satisfied smile.
“I did!” Miss Nix said with pride. “I’m very pleased you noticed.”
Oh, dear God. She had no inkling how distasteful this was. She wouldn’t do as a duchess at all. He could not imagine waking up to this vain creature every day for the rest of his life.
His personal preferences aside, a union with Miss Nix could be easily achieved. He’d get the fortune he needed to improve Mama’s care. And the merchant Nix family would be raised into nobility.
If not for Octavius, he wouldn’t need to deal with this. He felt his upper lip crawl as he looked at his former friend. So satisfied, so happy in his Dionysus costume. It was quite a statement. Octavius, who had reformed his gluttony thanks to Temperance, was wearing the costume of the god he’d been a slave to. It made Archibald’s stomach turn.
That happiness, that satisfaction should have been Archibald’s.
His gaze drew to Mercy.
If only there was a way to teach Octavius the same lesson.
The Nix women got distracted by another group of ladies and he excused himself. He walked through the crowd under the ceiling painted as a dark night sky with white stars. He could see Ursa Major, Libra, Sagittarius. Serpens… the broken constellation.
Like him.
“Enveigh,” said a smooth male voice, and Archibald turned. “How peculiar seeing you alone and not among your six friends.”
A red and black mask covered the upper part of the man’s face, including his forehead and his golden hair. Black and red horns curved inward. His pristinely shaven big square jaw and chin stuck out under the mask. He wore a crimson velvet coat and a black vest underneath, both adorned with flaming patterns, with a black silk shirt and a high inky-black cravat. His pantaloons were tucked into black boots on which were painted gray goat legs. At first glance, the hooves looked uncannily realistic.
Enveigh bowed. “Vannity… Lovely horns. Did you have them custom-made, or do they sprout naturally?”
The Duke of Vannity laughed, then gestured over the dance floor to the group of six dukes still surrounding Mercy. “So it’s true? You had a row within your brotherhood?”
Enveigh glared at him. “A disagreement, yes.”
“Ah.” Vannity grinned with his wide mouth, showcasing a row of white teeth, too narrow to be an otherwise pleasant smile. “So they have an opening for a seventh.”
Through teeth clenched so tight they screeched, Archibald said, “Feel free to inquire.”
Perhaps, after years of longing and being rejected, Vannity would finally become one of the Dukes of Sin. That had been the man’s deepest desire, and he’d never hidden it from anyone.
Archibald turned to walk away from the blasted man when Vannity called after him, “So you don’t know her, then…?”
Archibald stopped. “Who?”
“The most interesting debutante of the Season on the marriage mart.”
Archibald followed his gaze straight to Mercy.
“Rich, noble, mysterious, beautiful,” Vannity continued. “Rumor has it her brother is searching for a marriage candidate to make the Regent happy, although the reason is unknown.”
Archibald’s nostrils flared. He had a good instinct about dangerous conversations, and this was about to be one of them. “If you excuse me—”
“One woman you can never have,” said Vannity, unhurried. “Wouldn’t you say?”
Something hot and sharp slashed through Archibald’s middle. He spun back to Vannity. “What?”
Vannity’s blue eyes sparkled behind his black mask. “Well, I only mean… Clearly you wouldn’t want to marry her because of your disagreement with her brother.”
Now the wall of the six dissipated into a half circle as a gentleman came to face Mercy. Clearly, Octavius was introducing him. Even over the heads of over a hundred guests, Archibald saw the way Octavius arranged his features in a pleasant, everyman sort of expression, one he did when he was deliberately charming someone.
A suitor?
“Unless, because of the disagreement with Eccess, you’d just kidnap Lady Mercy to Gretna Green…” Vannity laughed at the thought.
Archibald’s eyelid ticked. For Christ’s sake… “Your Grace, is there a point you’re trying to make?”
“But the possibility of matrimony never stopped you if you wanted to enjoy a woman’s affections, did it?” continued Vannity as though he didn’t hear Archibald’s impatience, his honey-smooth voice running straight into Archibald’s ear. “You could, probably, seduce pretty much any married woman you set your eyes on…ruin any of the debutantes, no matter how watchful their mamas. But not this one. Not when her brother watches her like a wolf. Not only that, but how could she let herself be compromised, even by such a charmer as yourself, when the Regent himself is involved personally in her marriage affairs?”
Oh, to the devil! The man knew his soft spot. Archibald’s lip twitched as he felt his jaws work. He was cold, cold and dead inside. And yet, his sick mind began calculating all the ways he could achieve the impossible.
Vannity laid his hand on his shoulder. Archibald didn’t flinch, though every instinct screamed to shrug off the touch. He remained perfectly still, like a predator deciding whether the interloper was prey or threat. Vannity murmured straight into his ear, “Want to bet on it?”
Across the hall, the gentleman kissed Mercy’s hand and talked to her under the watchful eyes of Octavius. Mercy seemed perfectly polite, but the tense angle of her shoulders, the way she slouched slightly, as though protecting her chest, told Archibald she was highly uncomfortable.
“Vannity, I—”
“Seduce Lady Mercy Everard…ruin her before she’s wed…and I’ll pay you ten thousand pounds.”
Archibald stared at the man, peering into his eyes to see if he meant it. “Ten thousand— You can’t be serious. That’s a fortune.”
A fortune that would solve all his financial problems. He wouldn’t need to marry at all. He’d be able to give his mother the very best care and not fear an asylum for her.
“It is. Seduce her, and it’ll be yours. Fail, and I’d like…” Vannity took Archibald’s hand and raised it, the trapped star in the emerald catching the light. “Your signet ring.”
Archibald tore away his hand as though he was burned. “Why? What is Lady Mercy Everard to you?”
The devil before him laid his hand on his lower back and took a deep inhale. He peered over at Octavius, who was now introducing another gentleman to Mercy. “Let’s just say you’re not the only one who has a disagreement with the Duke of Eccess. Ten years ago, when the Seven Dukes of Sin were just forming, I wished to be one of you. It was Eccess who insisted I was not good enough… Well, I merely intend to give him the taste of what it’s like to lose something you wish for more than anything in this world.”
Archibald’s stomach dropped. Was it not exactly how he also felt?
But Archibald couldn’t hurt an innocent woman who had nothing to do with Octavius’s choices…could he?
“Ten thousand pounds, Enveigh,” singsonged Vannity. “And wouldn’t you, too, like to show to Octavius what your disagreement cost you?”
He really would. Octavius had taken what was rightfully Archibald’s and broken their fourth credo: A lady claimed by one of us is forbidden to the rest.
But Archibald was no longer part of the brotherhood.
So he didn’t need to worry about the second credo anymore: Protect each other’s family as your own. Mercy was now but a stranger. He didn’t need to consider a stranger’s reputation above his mother’s well-being and his own ache for revenge.
But to bet his signet ring, his most prized possession? Was he ready to part from it for a bet, when he couldn’t even force himself to sell it because it was Edmund’s? Edmund, his dead brother who was supposed to be the Duke of Enveigh. Archibald was always only the spare, who’d survived when the rightful duke was dead.
Separating from the ring would be like separating from his own limb. He’d truly have nothing left.
But between marrying Miss Nix and taking ten thousand pounds for something he did for fun—seducing the women who were impossible to seduce—he’d take the latter.
He turned to Vannity. Two blue eyes peered at him intently.
For the first time that evening, a genuine smile curved Archibald’s cold, sharp lips. “Fine. I’ll seduce Lady Mercy Everard.” He extended his hand. “But when I succeed, I want property. An estate with reliable income. Something that will keep my mother in comfort for the rest of her days.”
Vannity’s eyes glinted with interest. “I have just the thing. A small estate in Yorkshire. Two hundred acres, tenant farms, a manor house. Brings in approximately eight hundred pounds per annum.”
That would be enough to cover his mother’s expenses and his own. And he’d be able to borrow money against the estate to cover the debts. Worst case, he’d sell it.
“Have your solicitor draw up the deed. I’ll sign it when Lady Mercy is thoroughly compromised.”
Vannity’s grin widened as they shook. “I’d expect nothing less from a Duke of Sin.”
“Former Duke of Sin,” Archibald corrected him, his voice soft as silk and twice as smooth. “Which means I’m no longer bound by their tedious code of honor.”
The slight twitch of guilt that turned in the bottom of his heart was nothing.
Just an echo of the man he used to be.