Merely a Woman by Jo Barrett

Author:Jo Barrett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, historical, sensual
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2012-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

Several weeks passed and Selena had not yet mended her heart. She feared she never would. Her absence from Primrose House had done nothing to remove the memory of her mistake—of Horace’s rejection. She’d stopped receiving callers after the first week, her mood and emotions too fragile to control.

“This came for you, miss,” the maid said, handing her a letter.

“Thank you, Sarah.” She gazed out at the street a moment longer as she blindly slid her finger under the flap of the envelope.

As she pulled the letter free, her heart slammed against her ribs as her lungs begged for air. Her tear-filled gaze flew across the words written by her father’s solicitor.

George Wilton was dead.

She sank to the floor on her knees, her arms wrapped around herself, as a keening wail left her constricted throat.

***

The solicitor sat behind her father’s desk and shuffled several papers. It was odd to see someone other than her father there. She closed her eyes a moment and let the sounds, however subtle, filter through her, allowing her to dream, to wish, if only for a moment that it was her father sitting before her and that nothing had changed.

“Are you quite all right, Miss Wilton?” the solicitor asked.

She blinked away the fantasy and took a deep breath. She could feel Horace’s gaze on her from where he stood to the side, but refused to look at him. She was in enough pain with the loss of her father. To see him standing there, looking so handsome, she was sure to make a ninny of herself and beg him to hold her while she wept upon his shoulder.

She cleared her throat, and said, “Yes, please continue.”

“Very well.” He adjusted his spectacles and began to read again. “With the exception of a small allowance to Miss Wilton, monies to further Dr. Kensington’s research and various charities, Mr. Wilton left the entire estate to the church.”

“He left—” the words refused to come out of her mouth.

“Yes, Miss Wilton,” Mr. Beauchamp said, looking up from the papers, a grim frown on his face. “I’m afraid so.”

“This is ridiculous,” Horace said, his voice bristling with anger as he stepped closer. “Surely there’s some mistake. He can’t have left his only daughter, his only child with so little.”

“No mistake. May I proceed?”

Selena nodded, as wave after wave of nausea wafted through her. Why take away all she’d ever known, even the very house she was raised in?

“In the event that Miss Wilton weds Dr. Kensington by the thirtieth day after Mr. Wilton’s death, all of these directions are revoked, leaving the estate in full to his daughter and Dr. Kensington, and monies to a few select charities.”

The lawyer’s words yanked her from the mental puzzle her father had left her. “What did you say?”

Mr. Beauchamp repeated the stipulation, forcing Selena to her feet. “That’s—that’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard!” She didn’t spare a glance at Horace, she couldn’t bear to look at him in the face of such absolute mortification.

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