The Lady And The Military Man: Conquer My Heart
The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall, Book 4
Penelope Redmont
The Lady And The Military Man: Conquer My Heart
By Penelope Redmont
The Eardleys Of Gostwicke Hall, Book 4
Book cover design and layout by Ellie Bockert Augsburger of Creative Digital Studios: www.CreativeDigitalStudios.com
Copyright © 2018 by Penelope Redmont. All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The Eardleys of Gostwicke Hall series of Regency romances
Lady Jane's story is the fourth novel in our series of clean Regency romances.
Did you miss the first three books?
The first novel, The Lady And The Rake: A Scandalous Arrangement (Melly's story), the second, The Lady And The Duke: A Dangerous Season (Elaine's story), and the third novel, The Lady And The Man Of Fortune: A Wicked Secret (Anne's story,) are available now.
Contents
Description
Chapter 1
Babette
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Catherine
Lady Margaret
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Lord Keaton Beaumont
Chapter 7
Major Grove
Chapter 8
An interesting man
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Kelly
Ferrymore Manor
Chapter 11
A wager
Chapter 12
The ball
Chapter 13
Horace Killock
Chapter 14
Madame
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Preview: Tara's Enchantment
About the Author
Also by Penelope Redmont
Description
To a confirmed spinster and a military man, love is a fantasy. And a nuisance. Not to mention inconvenient, and ridiculous. But love may conquer them after all.
She’s a spinster…
Lady Jane Vernon needs money. The family castle in Yorkshire is not only falling down, it’s mortgaged. Although she was glad to give up her former career of preparing debutantes to take their place in fashionable society, Jane accepts two more young ladies.
With enough to worry her, Jane finds herself with an inconvenient tendre for a handsome rake, Major Baker-Cornhill. Long past the age of schoolgirl infatuations, she’s happy with her decision to remain unwed. She’s convinced that she just needs to put him out of her mind.
He’s a military man…
Kelly Baker-Cornhill is the fifth son of an earl and a magnet to women. On the orders of the Duke of Wellington, the major must find a French spy in the heart of the English government.
Can Kelly trick the monster Napoleon, now confined to an island in the South Atlantic, into revealing the name of the spy?
Of course he can.
With that done, he only needs to prevent delicious (but irritating) Lady Jane from making the biggest mistake of her life.
Chapter 1
18 June, 1817, Kennystowe Castle, York
In the north of England, at Kennystowe Castle, the summer sun illuminated a wide green meadow with a group of men gathered at its center.
Lady Jane Vernon recognized the large figure of her brother, Lord Alex, arguing with her elderly stepfather, Lord Kennystowe, across a trestle table which had been set up some twenty yards from a large hole.
Alex, in his shirt sleeves, and without a neckcloth, shook his head, and slammed his fist onto the table. The group was too far away for Jane to hear the details of the argument.
Her attention focused on the hole. She sighed. Not again… Waist-deep in the hole, three workmen dug industriously, tossing soil and rock over their shoulders, while two workmen leaned on spades. Several other workers trundled wheelbarrows and a cart across the field.
"I told you," Jane's sister, Dorinda, said as she walked up behind her. "They're digging another hole. Just what we need, as if the estate were not already well-supplied with holes. I say we sell it all — let Horace Killock have it. Edie and I need you to help us to convince Alex to be sensible, my dear. And Father too, of course — if he remembers."
Jane sighed. At 75, Lord Kennystowe was losing his sight, his hearing, and his memory. Never an easy man, age hadn't sweetened him. He hadn't recognized Jane when she returned from London. For the first few hours, he called her by his wife's name.
Behind them on the Castle's original motte, now merely a grassy mound, servants yelled instructions over the thumps of a table and chairs being unloaded from a cart. Edie, Jane's other stepsister, checked the baskets of food they'd unloaded.
The cook and his helpers turned a haunch of beef, spitted across an open fire. Inhaling the inviting smells of the roast, Jane realized that she was hungry. At the same moment, she bit her lip at how expensive this picnic would appear on her balance sheet.
Jane rubbed her forehead. "Even if Father remembers, he won't sell, and neither will Alex." The constant digging proved that. "What makes them think that they know where the treasure's buried this time?"
Alex spotted them, raised his hand in greeting, then waved to her. Jane waved back. An image came to her of Alex, at 20, telling her that their father had died. She'd been eight years old. This time, as soon as she arrived back at the Castle, she realized that Alex now looked exactly like her memory of their father.
Dorinda lifted her hands and dropped them again. "What else — Alex has found another map. He says we've 4,000 acres, otherwise he'd dig up everything."
Jane had to laugh at that. Then she sobered. "How much do we owe Mr. Killock?"
"Almost £2,000. We've missed two mortgage payments," Edie said softly. She'd walked across the motte to join them. She patted Jane's arm. "We need to sell. We can't put it off any longer. Our debt to Mr. Killock is the least of it. The servants haven't been paid in months. The corn chandler won't extend any more credit, and we've duns arriving at the Castle every week."
"So I have three days to convince Alex to sell to Mr. Killock — Mrs. Grove writes that Major Baker-Cornhill will be here on Saturday."
"Can't you put him off?" Dorinda asked.
Jane winced. "No," she said. "I can't upset Mrs. Grove."
Major Baker-Cornhill's face swam into her mind. It was too strong to be handsome, with high cheekbones, and a broad mouth. His slate-grey eyes looked green in some lights, like the sea… she swallowed hard, and pinched herself. Dreaming, like a schoolgirl. At her age, almost 30, a spinster, whose heart thudded whenever she thought of him.
It was shameful, and worse, it was silly. The major was a notorious rake… Although he was the son of an earl, his father had long given up on him.
She'd received Mrs. Grove's letter yesterday, telling her that the major would arrive at Kennystowe Castle on Saturday, June 21st. He'd been visiting Lord Delmere's estates in the north, and would escort her back to London.
Her first inclination had been to ride to York, then take the stage to London. Anything to avoid him. She couldn't, of course. She wasn't such a fool, but she had no wish to face him after what she'd learned.
She'd been shocked when Edie had calmly stated a few days previously, after she'd mentioned that the major would escort her to London, "not a good
idea for him to come here — he shot Alex. Didn't you know?"
Edie told her that a decade previously the major and Alex had fought a duel, which ended with the major shooting Alex. Luckily, a minor wound. Jane hadn't known of it. "It happened during your first London season…"
Alex, married to his first wife, had remained at the Castle to manage the estate. Her stepsisters were married, and her father had accompanied her to London.
Alex had a quick temper, especially when he was drunk. He'd fought several duels that she knew of. No doubt there were others.
"It's all right," Edie said briskly. "Alex won't be here. I've asked him to take me to York on Friday. We'll return on Sunday."
"What about that?" Jane pointed at the hole. "Will Alex leave the digging?"
Edie chuckled. "Oh yes, Alex has a chère amie in York. I've a few pounds left from selling my diamond bracelet, so I'll lend him £50."
Jane turned to face her stepsisters. She stared at them. Both were widows in their forties. They were wasting their lives. If the Castle were sold, perhaps they would marry again. Why should they not?
Dorinda, the Countess Nelvanta, was even taller than Jane, and as slender, with intelligent blue eyes, and a wide, smiling mouth. When she wasn't compiling a family history, she was managing the Castle's gardens.
Edie, Mrs. Canderwin, was many inches smaller than Dorinda, with a voluptuous figure. Jane could still remember the family's fussing when Edie married Captain Edward Canderwin, who traded in wool, silks, and sometimes, smuggled barrels of rum. The captain had died at sea, when his ship sank in a storm.
She bit her lip. Dorinda and Edie had invested their inheritances from their husbands in Kennystowe Castle. It hadn't been enough. It would never be enough. Dorinda was right. Somehow they needed to convince the males of the family that they had to sell to Mr. Killock.
Or she could marry the man.
"No," Dorinda said. She'd immediately guessed the direction Jane's thoughts were taking.
"You can't," Edie's tone was firm.
Mr. Killock had offered for Jane twice. He needed to marry again, he'd told her. His four children needed a mother. He'd even said that he would allow her entire family to stay on at the Castle. He would make Lord Alex one of his heirs.
Such an offer was never likely to come Jane's way again.
She felt guilty. Not merely for refusing Mr. Killock, but for refusing the other marriage offers she'd had in the decade after her first season. She'd valued her independence. Somehow she'd fallen into the occupation of preparing debutantes for their comeouts. After launching two girls from a noble family with the immense success of engagements — to a marquis and a baronet — ton families passed her name around.
That occupation had ended last year. She'd been hired by Lady Delmere, who was still Lady Kingston at the time, to prepare Miss Eva Bywater for her season. Eva hadn't taken to Jane at all, and she'd been set to leave the household, when dear Lady Delmere asked her to become her secretary, helping her man of business to manage her estates.
If she married Mr. Killock, she would remain in the north. She would live a staid life as a banker's wife. She swallowed down a lump in her throat when she realized that that might be necessary.
"Who's that?" Dorinda asked.
Jane looked in the direction her sister pointed. Three riders, one of them leading another horse from the saddle, trotted across the meadow from the gatehouse. She walked quickly around the top edge of the motte so that she could see the Castle. Edie and Dorinda followed her.
A carriage entered the stable gate. Her eyebrows lifted. "Guests?" She asked.
Edie frowned."Surely not? Perhaps Alex — but he would have told us."
"Duns again," Dorinda said, releasing her breath in a long sigh.
When Jane glanced back at Alex and her stepfather, she saw that they were meeting the riders. Her father, who'd long walked with a stick, tottered forward. One of the gardeners followed behind him in case he should fall.
Her brother put his hands around his mouth and called out Jane's name. He waved at his sisters to come down from the grassy motte.
"Let's go down," Jane said. Even though she knew everyone in the county, she didn't recognize the three men.
Once down in the meadow, and closer to the riders, her eyes widened. All three men rode fine horses, but the horse on the leading rein was superb. Tall, with a lovely head, superb conformation, and a rich chestnut coat. He gleamed red-bronze in the sunlight.
The closer they got to the visitors, the more intrigued Jane became. The three men were fashionably dressed, so they had to be Alex's friends.
"I'll help Father," Edie said. "The beef looks to be ready, so I'll take him up onto the motte." She waved to one of the workers, a Castle footman, and asked him to tell the cook that they would have three guests for lunch.
The men had dismounted when Jane and Dorinda reached them. Alex put his arm around Jane, and introduced them. As she'd expected, they were his friends.
Later, she couldn't have remembered their names with a gun to her head because she was so shocked by what Alex said. He pointed at the chestnut. "Meet The Pirate — he has incredible breeding, and he'll change our fortunes completely after the Newmarket races on the 10th of July."
That evening, Jane waited up for Alex in the library. Her sisters had retired, as had her father. She hoped that Alex wouldn't be too drunk when he returned from carousing in the village with his friends. She had to speak to him.
The butler opened the large double doors to the library. Alex ambled through it, tall, broad across the shoulders, and amiable in drink. Still handsome, even in his early forties. His auburn hair, which a friseur regularly trimmed into the close-cropped Brutus style, heightened the green in his hazel eyes.
He winked at her, then poured himself a brandy from the decanter on a silver tray. A tray, Jane knew, which had to be sold… she forced her thoughts away from that.
Alex had lost two wives, one to the sweat, and the other in childbirth. He adamantly refused to marry again. As he'd said, what was the point? He'd nothing to leave a wife and children other than debts.
He grinned her. "Well? What do you think? Isn't The Pirate the most amazing horse you've ever seen? And he's fast. Mark me, Jane — that horse is a sign. Our fortunes have turned at last. We'll find the treasure, I know it."
Jane recalled the afternoon they'd spent. After their picnic on the motte, they'd gone to stare at The Pirate in his loose box.
"We'll give him a couple of days of easy exercise before I take him down to Newmarket," Alex mused. "There's only three weeks until the races, so I'll take him down by easy stages."
She inhaled deeply, then said in a rush, "Alex, we have to sell Kennystowe Castle to Horace Killock."
He fired up at once. "What? Not this again. You're all about in your head. What foolishness is this? The Pirate will win at Newmarket. We've already formed a syndicate to bet on him – I tell you, no other horse can beat him. He'll win."
"Dearest, it doesn't matter whether he wins or not. You know yourself that we've no hope of finding the many thousands of pounds that it would take to make the castle livable. It's falling down around our ears. Besides – we don't have money for grain. Or cattle. Or sheep… The tenants are leaving – they don't want to stay when there is no work for them. We have to sell."
"Then the Castle will just have to fall down around our ears. You and the girls have no say in it."
"It's their home, and they've put all their money into it — money that they need to live. Would you see your sisters in the poorhouse? Or living on relatives? I daresay there will be someone who'll offer them charity."
"Get yourself back to London," Alex growled. His eyebrows lowered; his expression dark. "Leave me to manage here. You have no say in any of it. D'you think I'll sell to Killock, when we could be just days away from finding the treasure?"
The treasure.
Jane closed her eyes, and firmed her mouth, biting bac
k the words. By the time she'd recovered her equilibrium, Alex had sprawled across the sofa opposite, his eyes closed. He was asleep.
An hour later, in her chilly bedroom, which was drafty from missing window panes and crack in the stone walls, Jane shivered.
Alex was right, she thought. She had no say in any of it — unless she married Horace Killock.
Babette
Next morning, when Jane joined her sisters in the breakfast room, Dorinda told her that Alex had left for York with his friends. "He was cross. You argued with him, my dear?"
Jane shrugged. "He refused to consider selling to Mr. Killock."
"Well, he's up in the boughs, and said nothing to me, other than that he'll make arrangements to hire a horse trainer. We're to expect him back on Monday, so at least he won't be here to see Major Baker-Cornhill."
"One blessing, he won the horse at gaming," Edie said. "He didn't pay good money for him… not that Alex has any money. He'll see his mistress, I suppose. I wish we could travel to Newmarket next month, but it's almost 150 miles — we can't afford it."
"My dear, even if we had money to travel, we daren't leave the Castle," Dorinda said. "We've missed two mortgage payments. We would return to find that Mr. Killock had ransacked everything we owned to sell it. And no doubt occupying the Castle."
Jane decided that she would spend the morning wrestling with the accounts in the library, while Dorinda and Edie inventoried the remaining silver, furniture, and paintings. Last year, in London, she'd sold the last remaining tapestries. Now the last of the good furniture had to go. Most of the horses had been sold. Next, it would be the carriages.
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