A Stranger's Touch
Page 22
Morwenna nodded, snuggling down into her feather mattress. Her eyelids were heavy and she could feel herself drifting away.
Epilogue
‘So, what do you think of your new home, my love?’
They had stopped the travelling coach beyond the entrance to the park and walked over the rise together to see the house from a vantage point. It was high summer and more than three years since the building was begun. Until this moment they had lived in their fine house in London, visiting Jacques and May at Melford Hall for several weeks in summer and at Christmas. They had also spent some time travelling in France and Italy. Now at last their house was ready for them.
‘Oh, Rupert.’ Morwenna caught her breath. The stones of mellow Cotswold stone were golden in the sunlight, the long windows reflecting the light in tiny leaded panes. The house was larger than Melford Hall, but not huge and rambling, of modern design in the shape of an E with a main building and three wings built around courtyards. ‘It is beautiful. I can hardly believe we are to live in such a lovely house.’
‘I should not dream of giving my wife anything less. It is a fitting place to bring up our sons do you not think so, my love?’
‘Yes, Rupert, I do,’ she breathed, her lovely face alight with happiness. ‘And, if I have my wish this time, our daughter.’
She placed her hands against her slightly rounded stomach. This would be their third child and the last birth had been much easier than the first, perhaps because Rupert had been with her all the time.
Rupert laughed, reached out and pulled her closer.
‘If we have another son we can always try again,’ he said and gave her a wicked look. ‘I never tire of trying, dear heart.’
‘No.’ Morwenna laughed, feeling the warmth of the sun on her head as they linked hands and walked down the slope towards their home. ‘Nor I, Rupert. Nor I.’
* * * * *
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2012
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.
Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Anne Herries 2012
eISBN: 978-1-408-94395-3
Table of Contents
Excerpt
About the Author
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Copyright