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 limped to my seat. Aunt Cecily noticed and hastily averted her gaze. With my uncle almost a fortnight in his grave, I wondered to what she ascribed my limp. The first and only time the subject had been brought up was shortly after I’d come to stay at Laytham Hall. She had observed my hesitant gait and inquired about it, asking if I’d taken a tumble from my pony, and I’d told her frankly that Sir Eustace had taken his cane to me. She’d raised her handkerchief to her mouth, sick and pale, and tottered from the room; the next time she saw me limping, she didn’t ask the cause.


“You were conversing about something when I came in.” I set down my laden plate, took my seat, and sliced my sausages with the utmost concentration and precision. “Please don’t let me interrupt your conversation.”


“I was just telling dear Geo that you’re usually very punctual, Ashton,” Aunt Cecily remarked, and I glanced up. So they had been discussing me. The smile on her lips was not reflected in her eyes.


Chapter 43