‘I wish I could say yes—I really do... He surged to his feet. ‘You cannot possibly still be harbouring any doubts, surely?’ ‘I cannot help having a few,’ she protested. ‘I mean, when I suggested marriage I thought I had many practical reasons for doing so. Only when we got...
It was as though he had retreated into a dark and lonely room, slamming the shutters against her. She was positively relieved to get home, where her maman greeted her with enthusiasm. 'I never thought to have secured such a brilliant match for my plain daughter!' she beamed. 'But we must do somet...
But at length, just before dinner, she ran him to ground in his study. ‘Please take a seat,’ he said, when she hesitated just inside the doorway, her heart in her mouth. He was dressed for dinner, as was she by now. His face was shuttered. He had never looked more unapproachable. She took a seat....
Snow would have been less unpleasant against his face. ‘I ordered the coach to take us to the church,’ said Julia, darting him an anxious, and apologetic, look as he stepped back up into the shelter of the porte-cochère. ‘As soon as I knew you intended to come with me.’ ‘Y...
But after trimming her pen and smothering a series of yawns, she had to accept she was in no state to write anything sensible. And, though it went against the grain to lie down in broad daylight, Midge was too tired to do anything else. It had been worth it, though, she thought drowsily, toeing o...
‘Is not the apartment to your satisfaction?’ ‘The rooms I have so far seen are most satisfactory,’ she conceded. But at the sound of crashing crockery from behind the scuffed door that led to the kitchens, she cocked her head. ‘That,’ said Monsieur Le Brun, drawing himself...
‘I think there has been some mistake,’ she said, recalling his insistence she must share a room with him. ‘No mistake,’ she heard his harsh voice ring out from a shadowy alcove, which turned out to be a connecting door to another room. ‘Walton sent a man ahead to book us a suite. That will be all...
Lady Caroline Fallowfield peered through the window of the hired hack, her nose wrinkling in disgust. Though from all she had heard, this did look exactly the sort of low haunt Lord Sinclair frequented these days. “Oh yes ma’am,” Arbuthnot assured h...
She lifted her chin as a footman held out a chair for her and took her place at the table. He would thank her one day. She just had to have the determination to ride out his annoyance and stick to her guns. Why did one talk about sticking to guns? She had often wondered. I...
Cwenneth tightened the shawl that the farmer’s wife had insisted on giving about her shoulders. They had made good progress after leaving Aefirth’s crypt without anyone challenging them. Without prompting, Thrand had set Aud on Myrkr while Cwenneth and Hilde walked beside ...