Lord Alexander Dutton, 12th Earl Marksman, was the next to last of the five boys Lord Macdonald Duncan took in to raise as his sons. Alexander was, however, the oldest at age 12, when he actually came to live with Duncan. The other four boys were all around nine to eleven when they came under Duncan’s care.
I suppose I should explain that Lord Duncan and his late wife, Lady Elsbeth, tried and tried again to conceive children. They had their daughter Theodora, who is Alexander’s love interest in this tale, but experienced miscarriage after miscarriage until Lady Elsbeth died in childbirth.
Alexander’s father and mother ran off to marry because Lady Madelyn Smithfield was engaged to another. Because their marriage severed important marriage contracts and cost them retributions, both the Honorable Robert Dutton and Lady Madelyn were disowned by their respective families. They were presented a farm by his father, and she had a small allowance from her maternal grandmother, but neither had the skills to survive such a life.
Madelyn adapted quicker, but Robert Dutton began to drink and drink and drink. They lost the farm and were forced to move again and again until they lived in one room in London’s slews. Alexander was born into those conditions and spent much of his life navigation their existence. A few years later, the Duttons had a daughter, who they named “Annalise.” That daughter is the heroine of book 3 of this series.
Anyway, Robert makes the decision to sell his wife and daughter at a marketplace. Robert tells himself such is better for his “womenfolk,” but it is an act that sends him further into depression and drinking. Before any of you criticize this plot point, it was, for a time, legal for a man to sell his wife as a means of a divorce. Please recall that for a lord of the Realm to divorce, it was a very public matter before the House of Lords. The line in the marriage vows of “two shall become one” was taken seriously.
Alexander was a bit over 8 years old when he watched his mother and sister sail away on a ship.
So how did Alexander make his way from living in London’s slums to becoming the 12th Earl Marksman? FATE and my steady black ballpoint pen both played a big part in the story.
Alexander’s father, whose backstory we know from above was the Honourable Mr. Robert Dutton and the fourth son of the 9th Earl Marksman. As I said above, Robert was disowned when he eloped with another man’s betrothed, bringing shame on the family.
When Lord Jonathan Dutton, 9th Earl Marksman (Alexander’s grandfather) dies, the eldest son Lawrence becomes the 10th Earl Marksman. However, he dies of a heart attack shortly after his succession to the peerage, and Lawrence had only sired daughters. The earldom was to pass through the male line.
The second son Richard was to succeed Lawrence, but Richard dies in a duel on the Continent and does not even know he was to be the 11th Earl Marksman.
The third son Evert Dutton rushes home when the news reaches him of Richard’s demise, but Evert is thrown from his horse and dies without succeeding to the peerage.
Robert is found by Lord Macdonald Duncan in London’s slums and is brought home to become the 11th Earl Marksman. It is said that Robert’s greatest achievement was to live long enough to claim the earldom for his son, Alexander.
Finally, when his father dies, Alexander becomes the 12th Earl Marksman, and comes to live under Duncan’s care until he is old enough to claim the peerage. BTW, Alexander’s and Duncan’s estates march along together in Derbyshire.
Convoluted, I admit, but is it not deliciously coincidental. LOL!
Lady Theodora Duncan is the only child of Lord Macdonald Duncan and his wife Lady Elsbeth. She is raised in the same household as each of Duncan’s “sons,” beginning with Lord Richard Orson, who shared a love of astronomy with Lady Elsbeth, who was followed by Lord Aaran Graham, a child of one of Duncan’s tenants, whose story is more twisted than is Alexander’s, and then by Lord Navan Beaufort, an Irish earl whose parents were slaughtered in an attempted takeover of the earldom.
Lord Duncan is the senior lord of the Scottish delegation as part of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords. He also leads a division of the Home Office and trains each of the young men he protects to be agents for the Crown. The last two are Alexander and then Lord Benjamin Thompson.
Like Duncan’s “sons,” his daughter Theodora also trains to fight, though Duncan has not yet permitted her to search out spies and forgers and the like. Duncan is, after all, an indulgent father, but Theodora wants to do more than be a “princess on a velvet pillow.” Somewhat like Alexander, she is impulsive, but some of her impulsiveness must be carved back, for she is a female, with a headstrong father and five brothers. Theodora is most efficient with a bow staff and archery.
The family has always assumed Theodora and Alexander will marry. They were essentially raised together, for when Alexander came to live with Duncan, he had had no education, so Dora and Alexander spent a lot of time together in the schoolroom in those early years, and he has made Theodora a promise to find his own mother and sister and share them with Dora.
Theodora has never truly learned to run a household, though she has often served as her father’s secretary, etc.
Lyon’s Obsession: The Lyon’s Den Connected World
Short on temper. Long on pride. True to his word.
Lady Theodora Duncan, daughter and only child of Lord Macdonald Duncan, reluctantly embarks on a London season in hopes of making a suitable match. She had always thought she would marry Lord Alexander Dutton, 12th Earl Marksman. After all, they had been raised together in her father’s house since Duncan became Marksman’s guardian when his lordship was but twelve. Her father’s estate marches along with Marksman’s, and they had shared multiple words of devotion, as well as stolen moments and heated kisses. Yet…
Lord Alexander Dutton always planned to marry Lady Theodora Duncan, but not until he finds his family. His father, long before Robert Dutton became the heir to the Marksman’s peerage, had sold Alexander’s mother and younger sister to the captain of a sailing ship. Alexander has searched for them for some ten years, spending thousands of the Marksman fortune in his desire to reclaim them. He cannot think truly to know happiness until he can share his title and his wealth with them. Assuredly, Theodora understands why he has not made an offer of marriage. Yet, if she does, then why does he constantly find her on the arm of a Sardinian count? He never expected Theodora’s abandonment, but Alexander is finally so close to knowing his real family again.
Must he risk one dream to know another?
Tropes you’ll love:
✔️ Friends to lovers
✔️ Soul mates
✔️ Secret identity
✔️ Fish out of water
✔️ Unrequited love
✔️ Dark secret
✔️ Emotional scars
✔️ Marriage pact
✔️ Innocent cohabitation
✔️ Love interest vs. Missing family
✔️ Honorable marriage
✔️ Marriage pact
✔️ Emotional scars
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Every Woman Dreams... 