Reforming Lord Neil: A Regency Romance (Inglewood Book 5) by Sally Britton

Author:Sally Britton [Britton, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Another branch fell with a crack, causing Neil to wince. He looked down and over, to where Caroline sat in the sunshine with the dog in her lap, and the kitten pouncing on small insects nearby. The little girl was reading her sonnets out loud to the dog in an attempt to keep the animal calm.

She looked up, saw Neil watching, and waved. Her bright smile made his shoulders relax. He had tried to leave the dog in the stall, but the animal had whined and yipped until he let her out to follow him. But she did not like the crack of the tree branches falling. Thankfully, Caroline’s arrival had soothed the agitated animal.

“What should we name her?” Caroline asked from where she sat, one arm full of gray dog and the other holding her book. “We can’t keep calling her ‘dog.’”

They certainly could. “Pick something you like,” Neil called back, then turned to the next branch.

He had beaten back his disappointment over Teresa’s rejection for the better part of the night, and most of the morning.

Teresa had no intention of allowing anything more affectionate than friendship between them. That sounded about right for Neil. Not that he had been offering a great deal more than flirtation. Or the mutual enjoyment of each other’s company. He had not, he told himself firmly, dreamed up any plans of becoming emotionally or physically entangled with Teresa Clapham.

Merely looking at her, with her high-necked work dresses, spotless aprons, and kind eyes, was enough for a man to know she would countenance nothing but the sincerest of courtships. Neil had only attempted to court a woman once in his life, and she had happily strung him along until an heir to an earldom showed interest.

Another branch fell, and it was time to move on to the next tree.

Neil went down the ladder, saw in hand, and walked to the next cherry tree in need of attention. He climbed back up, his memory turning back to that horrid courtship. He had been twenty-three years old. Twelve long years had passed since that rejection, and his family’s subsequent mockery.

His elder brothers had thought it a great joke that Neil had considered himself any kind of catch. Without their father’s funds, he had nothing of his own. Lord Brunfield and then-Lieutenant Duncan had made it quite clear no woman would want him unless she already had a well-feathered nest.

Neil finished off another limb of the tree, wiped the sweat from his brow, and went back down to the ground. That task done, he started gathering branches into a heap. As they were dead or diseased, burning them in the house would not be a good idea until they were well dried. He needed to cut them into smaller pieces, stack them beneath the shelter of an eave, and find his next task.

Caroline stood and followed him, the dog on her heels, and cat pouncing along behind.

Despite his foul mood, Neil smiled when he saw the merry parade.

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