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 offered my arm to Arabella, and she took it with obvious reluctance. I was in such a brown study that after I seated her, I committed a faux pas: I sat at my usual place, which was at Sir Eustace’s right hand. Aunt Cecily cleared her throat, and recalling that I was now head of the family, I blushed and rose to take my proper seat.


Arabella frowned at the sight of me at the head of the table, but beyond that, she ignored me much as she did when Arthur was at the table with us. She was brooding over being forsaken by him, having gone from vowing to never forget him to vowing she’d never forgive him. I could have told her no matter for whom the brothers might care, they loved none so well as each other.


David, the young footman who was in training to assist Colling, served the first course, and I listened in silence, barely tasting the soup as the others conversed.


Chapter 34