The Ambitious Baronet by April Kihlstrom

Author:April Kihlstrom [Kihlstrom, April]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: April Kihlstrom

* * *

Alex sat across the table from Margaret and sipped the tea the older woman had placed before her.

“Am I making a mistake, Margaret?” she asked her. “You know I never meant to marry. I am five-and-twenty, after all! And I always swore I would never marry just for convenience. So am I making a mistake agreeing to wed Sir Robert? Am I reacting so foolishly to a face in a locket?”

Margaret sipped her own cup of tea. She studied Alex’s face for some moments before she answered. Behind her the fire dispelled some of the morning’s chill, but she still pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders before she answered.

“I do not think you are marrying Stamford for convenience,” Margaret said gently, “or simply because of the locket. Surely you do not believe the legend?”

Alex honestly didn’t know. “Did my mother see my father’s face when she looked in the locket?” she asked, needing very much to know.

Margaret hesitated again. “No,” she said reluctantly. “She told me she saw another. A man her parents refused to let her marry.”

Alex touched the locket at her throat, absurdly glad it had not shown her mother Lord Henley’s face. Even if it was nonsense, she did not want to think her parents’ marriage had been the answer to her mother’s wishes. Still, she felt very odd, almost a little dizzy. She tried to regain her composure. Margaret was speaking again.

“I can see your heart is touched by Stamford and that is a very different thing than choosing to marry for convenience or because one’s parents say one must. Or even because you think you saw a face in a locket.”

Still Alex was not satisfied. “Perhaps. And perhaps his heart is touched by mine. But he says he does not know what love is. Or whether he is even capable of feeling such an emotion.”

“I see something in his face when he looks at you that tells me he is capable of love. He just needs time to discover that he can,” the older woman replied. She paused and seemed to be choosing her words with care when she finally went on. “He is a good man, I think. One who has a softer heart than he wishes. He has been hurt, but not destroyed. You will heal him as he will heal you.”

“I do not need healing!” Alex protested with a gasp of outrage.

She would have risen then, but Margaret reached out and clamped a hand over her wrist and forced her to sit back down. Only then did the older woman answer.

“You are hurt. You have hurt from the day your mother died. From the day you realized your father did not care what happened to you or your sisters. But I care. And now this Sir Robert Stamford cares. You are foolish if you let fear cause you to throw away the gift that has been given you.”

“Margaret, you don’t even like men!” Alexandra protested. “How can you tell me to trust Sir Robert?”

The older woman let go of Alex’s wrist.

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