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 couldn’t focus well, but I was able to discern what I saw: Uncle had toppled to the floor and was writhing upon it, his fingers scrabbling at his neckcloth, his face an alarming shade of purple.


I watched in numbed disbelief as a vicious temper coupled with years of heavy drinking and high living got the better of him, and then haltingly made my way out of the room.


The family physician was just coming down the stairs from Aunt Cecily’s suite of rooms, and I blinked in a vain attempt to bring his features into focus. “Dr Medford. You got here very quickly.”


“Mr Ashton. Miss Arabella was…indisposed, and I had been sent for. You seem to have misplaced your spectacles.”


I raised a hand to my face, then dropped it. So that was why my vision was so blurred. “Yes. I believe I have.” Pain was washing over me in waves, and I put out a hand to the banister to steady myself, grateful the side of my face Uncle had struck was away from Dr Medford. “Is Aunt Cecily all right?”


Chapter 24