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‘N-no If I end upa fool of s with anyone else’
Papa gazed down at her, tenderness in his shter loves him, ’tis Anders who’d be the fool not to love her back And Mr Anders, Puss, does not strike me as foolish’
She exhaled a shaky breath ‘Well, if he doesn’t want me, I can stay here and keep house for you, can’t I?’
Papa chuckled ‘Oh, I don’t foresee so dull a future’
The very notion of beco him with a kiss every day when he returned froht an upswell of joy within her ‘I think I would love beco mistress of a small estate somewhere’
‘Just make sure you’re the wife of the master, not just his mistress,’ Papa warned, a twinkle in eye
‘Papa!’ she protested, blushing as she recalled what she let Greville Anders do to and for her What she couldn’t wait to do again
‘Come talk with me after you’ve spoken with Mr Anders And don’t worry so much about his reaction I may be a dried-up old man, but even I noticed how he’slike his last friend had abandoned hi to turn your back on London will be everything you hope’
‘Oh, I hope so, too, Papa!’ she cried, throwing her arhtly that he protested he was hardly able to draw breath But with Papa’s blessing on her choice, her happiness was complete
As long as Greville Anders loved her
How long was she going to have to wait to find out?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Late that evening, mud-spattered and weary, Greville rode in from Blenhem Hill He’d pushed his tiredto spend another night on the road, so he
His excessive fatigue ht he wouldn’t dreaht that turned to bleak desolation as he discovered the i breaths filling his ears and exulting his heart, was only an illusion
After walking up fro short, the butler said, ‘Welcome back, Mr Anders! I wish you’d sent word that you’d be arriving tonight; I could have had so Shall I have Cook prepare you a tray?’
‘I’d beor Miss Althea to inform thereet them tomorrow’
Sands hesitated, as if he were about to add so, then nodded ‘Very well Shall I send the tray to your chamber?’
‘Yes, please And make it just a cold collation Before I retire, I wish to review the accounts, so Itomorrow’
Sands bowed ‘Very well, Mr Anders’
Greville thought longingly of a hot meal, a warm bath and a soft bed He could scarcely wait to wash off the grit of the road, but Lord Bronning was an early riser, and he wanted to greet his host already in possession of the latest details on the status of the estate
The allure of sleep did prompt him to quicken his step Half-an-hour’s inspection of Lord Bronning’s well-organised ledgers should be sufficient to bring him up to date, and then he’d rest
Greville checked in surprise at the threshold of the estate office ItSands to illu out into the hallway He was through the door and halfway across the room before he realised it wasn’t empty
Sitting at his desk, her face angled pensively towards the as Amanda Neville
Greville blinked once, then twice Memories of her had ridden on his shoulder, whispered in his ear all the way back fro the estate with Greaves, he’d argued with hio i her, this time point-blank and directly, whether the eh for her to consider giving up London and her dreams of a life there