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No alchemy in the world can create love where it is not meant to be.
“I know what I have. I would never do anything to jeopardize it.”
Lysander Theodore Barton, Marquess of Hawes, makes that declaration on a bright, frosty morning on the twenty-second day of December, in the year 1827. He is one of the guests at Myddleton House, the magnificent Derbyshire seat of the Earl of Hutton. And the declaration is made while looking at the woman he loves; Lady Catherine Northcott, the Earl’s daughter.
Catherine loves Lysander with equal ferocity. Theirs is a love eternal, a match surely made in Heaven. Yet, even as Lysander speaks the words, the hands of fate are busy molding and shaping a very different future to the one he has envisaged.
It begins, on that same day, with the unexpected arrival of the beautiful Miss Helena Elliot and her mysterious female companion, both recently returned from India. Lysander seems rather fixated with Helena. Does Catherine need to be worried?
But then his visit to Myddleton is cut short when he is urgently summoned back home. And it is during the days that follow when an unbelievable event takes place, leaving shock and disbelief in its wake. Hearts and trust are broken, and Lysander, with no explanation, retreats into the shadows. But life, as it will, goes on, and there comes a time when he returns to society, apparently hoping to resurrect what was lost.
Catherine, however, has long since embraced the life of spinsterhood, vowing never to trust a man again. Least of all, Lysander, who seems to think he can barge back into her life, asking forgiveness. All he’s actually done is resurrect her pain and anguish, and she refuses to hear him.
In the end, it will take a mysterious midnight visitor to tell Catherine the truth of what actually happened all those years ago. A witness seeking absolution after carrying a burden of guilt for years. It casts a new light on the events of that time, and might just give Catherine enough courage to trust again.
Trust is all she needs, after all. Her love for Lysander has never died.
Read Free in Kindle Unlimited!
(Note: This story was first published as part of the Anthology set titled A Duke in Winter in December 2022.)
Genre: Historical Romance
“I know what I have. I would never do anything to jeopardize it.”
Lysander Theodore Barton, Marquess of Hawes, makes that declaration on a bright, frosty morning on the twenty-second day of December, in the year 1827. He is one of the guests at Myddleton House, the magnificent Derbyshire seat of the Earl of Hutton. And the declaration is made while looking at the woman he loves; Lady Catherine Northcott, the Earl’s daughter.
Catherine loves Lysander with equal ferocity. Theirs is a love eternal, a match surely made in Heaven. Yet, even as Lysander speaks the words, the hands of fate are busy molding and shaping a very different future to the one he has envisaged.
It begins, on that same day, with the unexpected arrival of the beautiful Miss Helena Elliot and her mysterious female companion, both recently returned from India. Lysander seems rather fixated with Helena. Does Catherine need to be worried?
But then his visit to Myddleton is cut short when he is urgently summoned back home. And it is during the days that follow when an unbelievable event takes place, leaving shock and disbelief in its wake. Hearts and trust are broken, and Lysander, with no explanation, retreats into the shadows. But life, as it will, goes on, and there comes a time when he returns to society, apparently hoping to resurrect what was lost.
Catherine, however, has long since embraced the life of spinsterhood, vowing never to trust a man again. Least of all, Lysander, who seems to think he can barge back into her life, asking forgiveness. All he’s actually done is resurrect her pain and anguish, and she refuses to hear him.
In the end, it will take a mysterious midnight visitor to tell Catherine the truth of what actually happened all those years ago. A witness seeking absolution after carrying a burden of guilt for years. It casts a new light on the events of that time, and might just give Catherine enough courage to trust again.
Trust is all she needs, after all. Her love for Lysander has never died.
Read Free in Kindle Unlimited!
(Note: This story was first published as part of the Anthology set titled A Duke in Winter in December 2022.)
Genre: Historical Romance
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