Never Marry a Marquess by Regina Scott

Author:Regina Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: romantic comedy, regency romance, single father, marriage of convenience, fish out of water, widowed father, aristocratic hero, romance clean and wholesome, baby in romance, fortunes brides
Publisher: Regina Scott

~~~

The next few days passed pleasantly. Ivy and Kendall saw Matthew off in the morning, and Ivy caught Travis bearing off the nightshirt as if he intended to have it bronzed. Her anise biscuits met with much success. She was certain she heard a groan of pleasure from Kendall as he took the first bite. Perhaps her favorite part of each day, however, was after tea, when Sophia was napping, and Ivy would take walks with Kendall.

After their walk the day Matthew had arrived, Kendall seemed to expect Ivy to accompany him. She certainly wasn’t going to protest. Away from his duties, he seemed more relaxed, willing to share their lives. They strolled through the formal gardens at the front of the house and the less formal plantings behind it. They walked to each of the rivers, discussed the merits of the stream, the dangers it could pose to those living nearby. They visited the farm at the very south of the estate, where Kendall discovered they did indeed have chickens. And always they talked, about the future, and about their pasts.

“You say little about your father,” he commented the third day as they walked to the north, where a folly—square and squat—looked up at the house from a precise angle. “Sir Matthew mentioned he began acting as head of the house when he was still a lad.”

Oh, how she hated discussing things that might encourage him to think less of her and her family. “As I told you, our father worked a great deal. You understand the responsibility of providing for a family.”

“Indeed.” He kept his gaze on their destination, the white stone building surrounded by willows. “I am blessed not to have to toil to do so. I cannot imagine having no time to spend with my child.”

Ivy stopped on the graveled path, drew in a breath of the warm summer air. “He had time. He chose to use it to drink himself into a stupor. He’d been hurt, at the mill,” she hurried to add as Kendall glanced her way, frown gathering. “There was nothing that could be done, and he needed to keep working. Drinking was his way of escape. We all understood, even if we didn’t like it.”

He took her hand, his fingers strong and warm, as if sunlight had infused them. “He was fortunate to have your love.”

“I think he knew that, deep down,” Ivy said, relishing the feel of his hand on hers. “And he did try to give us a mother, for all he chose the wrong person.”

“Ah, yes, this stepmother,” he said. “None of you are fond of her.”

Not fond. A very polite way of collecting all the troublesome emotions surrounding Mrs. Bateman. Perhaps it was the feel of his hand that made some of those emotions tumble out now. “She made us her servants. Matthew had left home by then. He sent money for our care. She found other uses for it.”

And there came the bitterness she fought so hard against.

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