Trouble With The Earl by Olivia Kane

Author:Olivia Kane [Kane, Olivia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sweet romance, romance, romantic comedy, british, regency
Published: 2014-11-11T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

His dead cousins had made hay of Ludlow Lodge’s finances. Guy forbid himself to become overwhelmed by the complexities of the farm’s accounts, and put his faith in his accounts man, Jonathon Renfrew, to make everything right. Renfrew came highly recommended by several of the men in his London club.

“Renfrew has a good touch with the county governments and helped many a property in arrears back into good standing,” he was told.

And so far, the recommendation had been spot on. Renfrew was capable, confident, and a disciplined worker. He had the accounts and bills organized, the lapsed tax statements unearthed and the books updated and balanced as best as he could, rectifying years of neglect. There were several tradesmen who had not been paid and their debts were set aright, with interest. Guy insisted on that.

The work had been ongoing for the past six months, and in that time, Renfrew had seen fit to bring his daughter, Cecelia, with him to the Lodge. Initially, Renfrew thought he could use her second pair of hands to help sort and file paperwork but then, once he saw Guy’s ample inheritance and the enormous cash flow that the working farm brought in, he brought her around expressly so they could bump into each other regularly.

Cecelia and Guy struck up a friendship. This was not unexpected, as she was a young and pretty female who was always in his house and sometimes in his way. He had great affection for her; they often laughed while sitting at the table as Cecelia sketched out some of her ideas for the new garden plots. She was really quite a horticulturalist; the estate would thrive under her imaginative and modern approach to landscaping. He himself couldn’t tell a foxglove from a freesia. He could certainly find no fault in either her disposition or morals, and with her petite frame and wispy blonde hair, she often reminded him of a woodland fairy but without the wings.

He imagined that one day in the future, if he were to settle down, he would pick a woman like Cecelia. There was certainly no reason to rush. So he had thought, until that fateful visit to Bennington Park. Since then, poor Cecelia never had a chance.

“You seem distracted lately,” Cecelia said to Guy as they walked the patch of land targeted for the new kitchen garden.

“Really? Why would you say that?” Guy said, immediately bending down on the pretense of examining the soil quality.

Cecelia bent down with him, also looking closely at the dirt. She felt the shift in him as soon as he had returned from the cancelled hunting party at Childeston Hall. There was a disconnect between them that she initially put down to fatigue from his journey; but then later decided must be caused by his concern over the amount of bills due.

Now it was a week later and he seemed to still be going through the motions.

“I see the shrubbery was planted last week,” Guy noted, standing up.

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