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

Jem stood at his head, stroking the sweat-streaked neck and murmuring into his ear, trying to comfort the colt, who was shuddering and uttering soft sounds of distress.


Jem looked up as we approached, his eyes over-bright. “A bad business, Sir Ash. A very bad business.”


The colt’s near front leg was indeed swollen, and only the tip of that hoof touched the ground. His near flank, covered in welts, was also sweat-streaked, but there the sweat was tinged red with blood where the skin had been broken. His off side was coated with mud from where he’d gone down, but I had no doubt that beneath the mud his hide had been cut by the crop.


“Aye, sir. It’s a wonder he didn’t break both legs. And look at his mouth.” Jem had removed the bit to give the colt some ease. I dismounted and went to the colt’s head. “Even if he’d been a willing jumper, sir, he couldn’t have made that jump.”


Chapter 80