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

“That you loved someone who didn’t return your affection.”


He laughed, but there was no amusement in the sound. “Oh, no, it wasn’t I who loved unwisely but too well.”


“My mother, poor lady. She loved but one man her whole life, my father, and her devotion was rewarded by his indifference.”


“I have heard she went into a decline.”


“A decline? Yes, I suppose it could be called that. She could no longer bear to be the object of pity and derision.”


“Have you no experience of the ton? They commiserate to your face and mock and sneer behind your back. Even here in the country they will not let her be.”


I wanted to put my arms around him and hold him, as I had yearned to be held when I’d realised Mama and Papa would never be coming home, but I was afraid he would rebuff my silent offer of compassion, so instead I said, “I understand she was quite lovely.”


Chapter 57