The Heiress's Homecoming. Regina Scott
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Terms of the Will
To keep her cherished childhood home, Samantha Everard must marry by her twenty-fifth birthday. Yet she refuses to marry on a whim, not even to save her fortune. When she returns to Dallsten Manor to say goodbye, the last person she expects to see is her handsome, disapproving neighbor William Wentworth, Earl of Kendrick.
Will is certain the scandalous Everard family is nothing but trouble. He shouldn’t care about Samantha’s predicament, but her feistiness and kindheartedness intrigue him—as does her refusal to wed. He wants to help, especially when he perceives the threat that surrounds her. Soon his greatest wish is to persuade Samantha that her true home is with him.
“You did not favor me with a dance last night. I hope you’ll save one for me at the party,” Lord Kendrick said.
“I will certainly see if I can find time for a dance,” Samantha promised. “But I expect to be very busy, my lord.”
“I thought all young ladies wished to dance with eligible earls.”
Did he consider himself eligible? She thought every lady within miles must be setting her cap at him. Given his history, she’d somehow considered him immune.
“I suppose they do,” she acknowledged. “But I have no interest in attaching eligible gentlemen. Thank you for your company, my lord. I should return home.”
He looked ready to protest, eyes narrowed, head high. But he nodded a farewell, and she turned the horse. She tried to look calm, but she couldn’t keep herself from looking back. Once more he was watching her leave, but this time the determination on his face told her that he intended to learn her secrets, whether she wished it or not.
REGINA SCOTT
started writing novels in the third grade. Thankfully for literature as we know it, she didn’t actually sell her first novel until she had learned a bit more about writing. Since her first book was published in 1998, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages including Dutch, German, Italian and Portuguese.
She and her husband of more than twenty years reside in southeast Washington State with their overactive Irish terrier. Regina is a decent fencer, owns a historical costume collection that takes up over a third of her large closet and is an active member of the Church of the Nazarene. You can find her online blogging at www.nineteenteen.blogspot.com. Learn more about her at www.reginascott.com.
The Heiress’s Homecoming
Regina Scott
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
—Proverbs 3:5,6
To my mother, who carries her burdens with love, grace and determination; and to my
heavenly Father, who can carry all our burdens
in His capable hands, if only we remember to ask.
Contents
Chapter One
Cumberland, England
June 1813
Oh, but he needed a diversion.
William Wentworth, Earl of Kendrick, gazed about the crowded hall of his ancestral estate. Every member of the gentry for miles around had come to celebrate his son’s birthday with dinner and dancing. All but one member of the local aristocracy had also graced Kendrick Hall with their presence. Even though he had never met the missing Lady Everard, he was fairly certain she knew that any Everard was forever unwelcome in his home.
But his other guests did not seem distressed by her absence. They promenaded along the gilded walls, wandered out the three glass-paned doors to the terrace that ran along the back of the house and danced to the strains of a string quartet. The glow from the twin crystal chandeliers glinted off velvet, reflected off satin. Voices rose in conversation and good cheer. Yet Will kept remembering other balls, other dinners, some held far away, where jasmine scented the air. The memories made him long to pull off his dramatically tied cravat and dive into the pond behind the house to escape.
But tonight he must play host. After all, he had only a borrowed hostess. With a remarkable dearth of females in his family, he had had to prevail upon the kindness of his nearest respectable neighbor. He was merely glad that the elderly Mrs. Dallsten Walcott, who had known him since he was born, had been willing to help.
Still, he felt the breeze of fans plying as he gazed around the room, noted the speculative glances of a dozen ladies. They thought his long-awaited step into