Tinnean

Ashton Laytham was a happy little boy until, at the age of seven, he lost his parents. Sent to Fayerweather to be brought up by his uncle and his uncle’s wife, he was perceived to be an unhappy, unlovable child. Shunned by family and servants and permitted no friends to visit, he grows to adulthood alone and aloof, with only an occasional illicit rendezvous to lighten his days. When his uncle dies, leaving the estate virtually bankrupt, it’s left to Ashton to make good on his uncle’s gaming debts and save Fayerweather. But how? The family talisman, worth thousands of pounds, has been stolen and the suspects vanished in the night, leaving Ashton to face the loss of the home he’s come to love. Geo Stephenson, who works in His Majesty’s civil service, has ghosts of his own. The product of a marriage of convenience, Geo has known all his life his father never loved his mother, and he vows that will never happen to him. Marked by a physical scar earned in battle, none of his previous lovers could bear looking at it without shuddering; his mental scars are due to the many friends lost in useless battles. Geo arrives with a fistful of Sir Eustace Laytham’s IOUs and a solution: Ashton accommodating him in bed, thereby paying off the debt. Attracted to Geo in spite of himself and desperate for any human kindness, Ashton agrees ... never expecting to lose his heart to a man who has sworn he’ll never give his. Can these two men find a measure of happiness together?

Bless Us With Content

“I…I want—” He licked his lips and gestured helplessly, an action one seldom associated with a Scarlett.


“You’ll have to tell me what it is you want, John. I’m not psychical.” Meanly, I decided he wouldhave to ask. For too many years I’d been shunted aside in favour of his brothers, and I couldn’t resist just a tiny bitof revenge.


He worried his lower lip. It was obvious he was still uncertain as to what he wanted. He sent me a glance from beneath his lashes, no doubt hoping I’d treat him with kindness, and I would have given a bark of laughter at the folly of that thought. Instead I waited patiently.


Finally he managed to stammer out, “What…what you were doing in the stables—”


Furious colour mounted his cheeks. Did he truly think I would denigrate the act, simply because my partner was a servant?


He avoided my eyes but nodded. “Yes. That.”


Chapter 9