December 20, 1816—Rockmorton Manor, Cornwall
December 20, 1816—Rockmorton Manor, CornwallThere was no evading the fact that Rhys Bettencourt was utterly indifferent to his wife. He had left his London house for his country estate for Christmas without sparing the lady in question a word of farewell.
Catherine Bettencourt née Carruthers, the wife in question, wished she might have felt the same way about her handsome rake of a husband. Rhys was everything she was not: impulsive, reckless and devastatingly charming, at ease in every situation and confident before every challenge. She was incredulous that Rhys had wed her at all, but the Duke of Haynesdale was not a man to be put aside.
Even the duke, with all his influence, could not force a marriage to be happy. Catherine and her husband
