They Cut Her Gown and Sent Her to the Duke’s Ball in Ruins — Then He Asked Her to Dance First

Chapter 2

The Duke of Ravensbrook had spent the hour before his ball standing at an upper window, watching glittering carriages arrive, and feeling like a man attending his own execution.

To the county, Alexander Ravensbrook was everything a gentleman should be: wealthy, powerful, handsome, untouchable. But to himself, the title felt less like a privilege and more like a mask — a thing people bowed to while never once seeing the man beneath. His parents had died when he was young, leaving him a dukedom before he understood grief, and since then everyone had wanted something from him. Influence. Money. Marriage. Security. Very few had wanted truth.

His aunt, Lady Wexford, had stood behind him and sighed. “You look as though you are attending your own execution.”

“I have attended dinners with less mercy.”