The Marquis’s Misstep by Kathy L. Wheeler

Prologue

Colchester, England – 1819

T

he breeze in Colchester stirred the trees in the softest flutter of discernible utterances. Winslow Spears, Viscount Yates and future sixth Earl of Griston, ambled down the country lane. He was only eight years old, but that was old enough to know several life-altering facts: His father had gone mad, and Winslow could never hope to outlive the shame. His grandmother would likely not allow him back at Eton. And a Mr. Julian Featherstone, his appointed guardian, had already been installed.

Another was a less believable yet irrefutable truth. With his father now gone, the trees had grown much quieter. Winslow still heard the chants, but they were very faint now. It was a bit of a relief. Lately, when father had been about—Since the house party, Winslow thought—the sounds were… deafening.

Solitude made for a long life, and he was terrified that was what his life was being reduced to, for a reason not of his understanding or choosing.

Winslow kicked at a pebble on the dusty path, ran up, and kicked it again. Then again, until he was running. As hard and as fast as his legs would carry him. Until tears streamed down his face and there was nowhere else to run.