Manor for Sale, Baron Included: A Victorian Romance (A Romance of Rank Book 1) by Esther Hatch

Author:Esther Hatch [Hatch, Esther]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-02-24T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

First a present, and now Miss Duncan was inviting him to do something with her. True, it was a boxing lesson in full view of anyone in the house and not far from where Mr. Ashton and Victoria would be working on their boxing lesson, but still. In the past three days she had initiated contact twice. His first week here she hadn’t at all.

Well, unless he counted her telling him to remove himself from the pond.

An invitation to leave shouldn’t count.

Her arm was wrapped in his as they walked down the path toward the winter garden. How often had he walked this path with his mother? The roses and other parts of the garden weren’t in bloom then like they were now, but the garden would always hold a sense of home for him.

And here he was walking it again, only this time with his future wife’s arm about his. Everything was moving along even better than he had planned. Miss Duncan was still surprising him much as she had done on their first meeting. Life with her would never be lonely or dull, and her sister was a delight as well. Perhaps the struggles of his family in the past were all leading to this reward: a home that was filled with happiness. If his mother had found a spouse that had suited her, rather than being paired with his father, perhaps she could have been happy as well.

He had escorted a multitude of women at balls and even while on walks in the countryside, but everything about escorting Miss Duncan felt different.

It felt like triumph.

She wouldn’t take a boxing lesson from him if she didn’t like him at least a little bit. The wide round brim of her hat prevented him from seeing any part of her face, but he wished he could see her reaction to him. Just then, her fingers tightened on his arm almost imperceptibly. Something strange lit up inside him—a sudden intense feeling of possession. He wanted to make the woman by his side his, and only his, not in just a legal and written way, but in a real way. He wanted her to choose him, to give herself to him always.

It was a strange way to think about a woman he had only just met. He swallowed and increased the space between them. What was he to do with this growing attachment? He had always seen Miss Duncan as a woman he could grow to love. He glanced up at his mother’s home. He had risked it on the chance that Miss Duncan would eventually agree to marry him.

But what if she didn’t?

He would lose the manor and the young lady beside him. The world around him grew hazy and he blinked hard to clear his vision.

He was gambling heavily on the chance that Miss Duncan would accept his offer. When he had embarked on this journey, all he was risking was Greenwood Manor. Now that he had spent time here again, his heart had remembered everything that was associated with it—Mr.

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