True to Her Heart by Martha Schroeder

Author:Martha Schroeder [Schroeder, Martha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 2001-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Jeffrey had dreaded returning to London. The life he had led there before he went to Turkey, that of a wealthy man in search of a wife, no longer held any appeal.

When he had first left his mills in the north of England to come south to the capital, he had a plan clearly in mind. He would gain access to the highest social circles his money and his school contacts would provide him. He would look at the available young women in those circles and pick the one who would interfere the least with his work and provide him with the most comfort and ease. One who was steeped in proper behavior and feeling, who would never give him a moment’s anxiety. He would propose, she would say yes, and that would be that.

His plan would be completed as conceived, a plan as time-consuming but nowhere near as rewarding as the one that had enabled him to branch out into the manufacture of inexpensive cotton fabrics along with the high-grade wool that had been his mill’s trademark output. That plan had resulted in double the profits. This one was simply necessary for his comfort and to ensure a family.

No wife meant no children to inherit his hard-won fortune. And he wanted children. Children would be the crowning emblem of his success. By giving them a socially acceptable mother and showering them with everything money could buy, he would demonstrate how far he had come from the ragged little weaver. A wife, the right wife, would set the seal on his new life.

Then he had met Lucinda Harrowby.

His first sight of her had ignited something deep within him, something disturbing because it came from the soul. He had thought to marry a woman he could wed, bed, and ignore, but now he was immediately drawn to one whose appeal was deep and mysterious, who drew him with a power he could neither explain nor ignore.

At first he had been able to convince himself his feelings were based solely on her gleaming hair and dazzling smile, the swell of her bosom and her tiny waist. After all, he had been attracted to her before they had ever exchanged a word. The basis had to be simply her beauty.

But her conversation had intrigued him even more than her vivid looks. Here was a woman he could talk to, one whose ideas could spark his own, one who in some way called to the idealism that still lurked beneath the surface of the hard, cold businessman. That had been the most frightening thing of all—the influence she unconsciously wielded over his mind.

He had gone to Turkey in response to the argument they had at the ball. Only now could he admit that. He had given himself a thousand reasons for the subscription and the trip, but he realized now Lucinda had inspired his desire to help the soldiers. Not until he learned she had gone as a nurse had he decided to travel in person to donate the funds he had raised to Miss Nightingale.

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