The Enticing of Miss Standish by Julia Justiss

Author:Julia Justiss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-05-06T19:13:39+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

As he had the last time he drove her home, Cam found he couldn’t make himself set the carriage in motion until he’d seen Miss Standish disappear inside the manor house.

What a marvel she was, he thought as he watched her walk away. Having listened to her describe the childhood events that prompted her to love reading and earnestly desire to help unfortunate children, having watched her delight as she entertained the mill students, Cam could no longer doubt either her sincerity—or the reality of the bright, shining spirit that glowed within her as brilliantly as the late afternoon sunlight that had lit up her golden hair.

In his wondering mind and uncertain heart, he felt a...stirring of something he hadn’t experienced in a very long time. The sense of being mentally, as well as physically, close to someone.

And then in a flash, it came to him—why he’d had this odd, niggling sense of her being somehow familiar. She reminded him of Molly, the older girl who’d become surrogate mother and protector of the small boy who’d been thrust from the foundling home into the grim, uncaring space of the workhouse.

Not that they were alike in any physical sense. Molly had been thin, rather than alluringly rounded, her eyes and her lank hair dark, rather than blue and golden. But she’d had the same purity of heart, her smile projecting the same gentleness and sense of caring as Sara Standish’s.

Molly had looked after him, protecting him from the older boys who would have stolen his food, showing him the spots furthest from the cold draughts that swept through the sleeping room, offering him the only warmth and kindness he remembered from that bleak period.

Then she’d died, leaving him all alone. A flicker of anguish stirred inside as he recalled the devastation he’d felt.

No wonder he’d buried the memories of her kindness so deep. He never wanted to experience so searing a loss again. Besides, he’d done well enough relying only on himself ever since, hadn’t he?

Time for him to return to the mill, in any event.

‘You may give them their heads,’ he said to the groom. ‘Good day to you.’

‘And to you, Mr Fitzallen,’ the groom said, letting go of the leader’s halter.

A cacophony of disparate thoughts tumbled about in his head as Cam drove the curricle down the carriageway and back towards the factory.

Wise as they’d been in pledging to keep their association decorous and proper, he hadn’t been able to resist kissing her.

And after that impossible kiss, he could no longer tell himself that he felt only the natural attraction of a healthy male for an appealing female. He knew what lust was, that sharp desire that could be aroused and satisfied by a pleasant interlude with a willing lass.

He’d lusted for Sara, yes, but even more, he’d felt...tenderness and a deep desire to give her joy. He’d known she wanted him, been delighted that she wanted him, but felt compelled to treat her passion with the gentleness her innocence deserved.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.