The Bastard Duke: A Slow-Burn Regency Romance of Secrets, Scars, and a Swapped Bride (The Officer’s Vows Book 2) Kindle Edition

UPDATED EDITION NOTICE (22 February 2026)This book was updated on 22 February 2026. If you downloaded it before that date, please remove the download and re-download the book to make sure you have the newest version.If Kindle isn’t showing the newest version, try deleting the download from your device and downloading it again.I’m sorry if you notice minor tweaks—I’m still polishing the text to make sure this story feels right.Thank you so much for your patience and support. 💛A scandal, a secret, and a marriage neither of them chose.She took her sister’s place.He never chose a wife.Now neither can look away.Clarissa Alden was never meant to wear the veil. But when her elder sister is caught in a scandal days before her wedding, Clarissa is asked to do the unthinkable—take her place as bride to a duke she’s never met, to settle a family debt no one speaks of aloud.She becomes the duchess no one wanted. The bride offered out of obligation, not affection.A bride by deception. A duke with scars. A marriage neither wanted—until desire took hold.Captain Alexander Wycombe, Duke of Windale, has spent his life obeying duty: to the crown, to the cavalry, and to the calculating woman who raised him as her own. Illegitimate by birth, trained as a soldier, and hardened by war, he has earned everything—except the right to choose his bride.What begins as a cold, strategic arrangement soon simmers with tension neither expected. Clarissa is gentle, clever, and not easily cowed by her brooding husband or his mother’s venomous games. Alexander is scarred, both inside and out, but beneath his controlled exterior lies a man capable of devastating passion.But trust is hard to win when secrets rule the household—and when Clarissa discovers she’s carrying his child, everything hangs in the balance. Especially when Alexander is called away, and the dowager duchess’s cruelty turns dangerous.Can a marriage built on lies survive the truth?Or will love arrive too late to save them both?A slow-burn Regency tale of intrigue, illegitimacy, and one unchosen wife.This is not a romcom. Expect slow-burn intimacy, emotional wounds, family intrigue, and the quiet war of surviving what no one else sees. Read more