Tristan Richards

Duke Richards, a character in the Desire & Decorum series, is the Duke of Karlington. He is first seen in Book 1, Chapter 4.

Appearance
Duke Richards is a middle-aged man with dark brown hair with some gray strands, gray eyes, and fair skin. He wears a red jacket with a white shirt underneath and brown trousers.

Personality
Duke Richards is a highly arrogant and entitled man. He uses his title as a duke, two generations removed from royalty, as an excuse to act however he wants. He is used to getting his way with most women. In the past, he slept with Mr. Sinclaire's wife, Roselyn, and continues to mock Mr. Sinclaire for it in the present. He is constantly trying to claim the main character for himself, making unwanted sexual advances and remarks each time they meet and going so far as to almost sexually assault her in Chapter 11. He even taunts that he can tarnish the main character's reputation with no consequence for himself due to his nobility. In Chapter 16, he lies to your grandmother about your engagement, resulting in you being betrothed to him.

Your Character
Duke Richards is infatuated with your character. He is very possessive over your character and is constantly making unwanted advances and remarks towards her. He also attempts to sexually assault her, but is stopped due to the intervention of Ernest Sinclaire. At the end of Book 1, he manipulates the Dowager Countess into believing they are engaged, which leads to her publicly announcing their "engagement" in the finale.

Ernest Sinclaire
Duke Richards and Ernest Sinclaire have bad blood between them. Duke Richards had an affair with Sinclaire's wife, Roselyn, and enjoyed seeing Sinclaire's anger and pain when he found out. He also mocks Sinclaire's status compared to his own. He competes with Sinclaire for your character's affection.

Dowager Countess Dominique
Because of his title, the Dowager Countess considers the Duke a sterling option for your character to marry, and repeatedly recommends that you consider him for marriage. In the finale of Book 1, the Duke uses this goodwill to manipulate Dominique into thinking your character has accepted a marriage proposal from him. This leads to Dominique announcing this "engagement" at the Duke's ball, much to the dismay and chagrin of your character. It is only until the Duke makes himself more than comfortable at Edgewater that he reveals his unsavory nature, when Dominique finally sees the error of her ways.

The Marlcaster Family
It is revealed that Countess Henrietta and her first husband were former friends to Duke Richards, but their friendship disintigrated after Edmund's father refused to sell their land to the Duke. When Henrietta's first husband died, the Duke went to great pains to ruin the widowed Henrietta to the point were she was barely able to save enough fortune for Edmund's future. Once your character learns of the bad blood between the Countess and the Duke, she proposes an alliance with Henrietta to take him down.

Roselyn Sinclaire
Duke Richards had an affair with Roselyn, leading to the intense animosity between himself and her husband, Ernest. She ended up getting pregnant with the duke's baby, but he refused to have her and take care of the baby that was concieved through their affair. She died in childbirth while giving birth to the Duke's baby, while it is presumed the baby died as there is no mention of either Richards or Sinclaire being a parent.

Lady Ida
Lady Ida was a noblewoman who the Duke had "feelings" for. He tried to get her to marry him. But, she figured out that he was no gentlemen or equal to her and refused and dumped her glass of wine on him much to the eavesdropping and glee to Countess Henrietta.

Trivia

 * It was revealed in a premium scene in Book 1, Chapter 12 that Duke Richards was Rupert's (Vincent's father) protege.
 * He shares his title with Godfrey from The Royal Romance series.