Scandal at Greystone Manor Read online

  The villagers of Hadlea greeted the news of the double engagement with much relief and no surprise. As far as they were concerned, it was something they could all have predicted weeks before.

  * * *

  Two weddings took place on the same day at St Peter’s church to which they were all invited. Isabel wore the wedding gown Jane had made for her and Jane made another for herself in a rich cream satin. The wedding breakfast, held at Greystone, was the splendid affair Isabel had hoped it would be. The house had been refurbished, not because Drew had paid for it, though he was willing to do so, but because Teddy had come back from India a rich man. On the voyage out to India he had had time to think about his life and where it would lead if he did not mend his ways and, remembering what Drew had said about making his fortune in trade, had turned his back on the card table and tried his hand at commerce. His arrival on the eve of the weddings had made the happy day even happier.

  * * *

  ‘Well, Jane, my love,’ Mark said later that night. ‘We had our miracle, didn’t we?’

  ‘Only because you and Drew made it happen.’ She was sitting up in the four-poster bed at Broadacres, watching him undress. Dispensing with maid and valet, they had begun undressing each other, little by little, until she was naked and he was wearing only his trousers. It was then she became shy and he stood up to divest himself of the last stitch of his clothing. Then he tumbled on to the bed beside her.

  ‘Are you happy with our miracle?’ he asked.

  ‘I could not be happier.’

  ‘Oh, but I think you can and I shall show you how, my lovely wife.’

  She laughed a little nervously as he reached out for her, but then forgot to be nervous as he pulled her to him and began kissing her and stroking her gently and tenderly until she was roused to ecstasies of delight, responding so naturally that he was enchanted. It was a long time before they spoke again and by then they were sated and drowsy and the words ‘I love you’, said by him and repeated by her, were said in a sleepy murmur.

  * * * * *

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  ISBN-13: 9781460329115

  SCANDAL AT GREYSTONE MANOR

  Copyright © 2014 by Mary Nichols

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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