A Heart for the Taking Read Online Free PDF

Limewood, as his estate was known. Since Sally Merrivale had been an invalid for a number of years before her death, Fancy had been running the household for quite some time and she didn’t think it the least bit strange that, after the funeral, her father had departed immediately for London. Of course, he had not been totally irresponsible; he had somewhat hastily installed an old aunt of his for appearances. But he had mainly left the true reins of control in Fancy’s young hands.
    Fancy didn’t mind. The life she led was the only one she had ever known, and while she might have wished that her father were different, she and Ellen were quite happy in their home and old Aunt Mary had been both amiable and kind. As she grew older, Fancy sometimes longed for a more interesting life, something other than making the frugal amount of money her father sent (when he remembered)cover all their expenses or dealing with the recalcitrant Meg, the cook, or convincing the butcher that they truly would pay their bill next quarter, or figuring out how she could save enough money for Ellen to get a new gown. There were some compensations to be had, for sure, such as riding her fat old mare down the winding country lanes and sneaking into Lord Wells’s prized and jealously guarded orchard to steal an apple or a pear.
    But while Fancy prosaically took care of her small household, at night, as she had stared out at the starlit black sky she had frequently longed for something more—a social life, for instance, one that included balls and routs and had a great deal more to offer for amusement than having tea and cakes with Aunt Mary’s friends or joining a family dinner party at the vicar’s on Sundays. Sometimes she wondered what her future would hold. Not even in her wildest dreams would she have guessed that one day she would be married to a handsome, wealthy peer of the realm.
    It wasn’t a love-match, and if she’d had time to consider the situation, if her father hadn’t pleaded so abjectly with her, Fancy didn’t know, even today, if she would have married her father’s cousin, Spencer, Baron Merrivale. But everything had happened so swiftly. Just turned eighteen, she had been stunned when her father had returned home unexpectedly . . . returned home to die. He had been wounded in a duel over a married woman, and his days on earth were few.
    As Edward lay dying, he had considered for the first time what his daughters’ fates might be without him. Creditors would swallow up his meager funds and estate, and his children would be thrown penniless upon the world. In desperation, he had written to the head of the family, Lord Merrivale, begging for help.
    Lord Merrivale, of an age and much the same ilk as his dying cousin, moved by a whim that he never quite understood, came to call at Limewood. At the time, having parted from his latest mistress and bored with the sophisticated,fashionable ladies of London, Fancy’s fresh young loveliness and exotic beauty aroused his jaded interest.
    His wife, after dutifully presenting him with three sons in rapid succession, had died while attempting to deliver a fourth, and Spencer had been a widower for nearly two decades. He had his heirs, his eldest son already the proud father of a child of his own, and since he was a wealthy man able to indulge his every whim, there had been no need to cast about for another wife. Until Fancy. Seducing his own cousin’s daughter was out of the question, although he did consider it briefly before deciding that not even he was that much of a cad.
    It can’t be said that Lord Merrivale fell in love with Fancy, but he came as close to that emotion as a man of his character was capable. When Edward explained his dilemma, Spencer astounded his cousin and himself as well, by offering for Fancy’s hand in marriage.
    Edward was overcome with gratitude, and since time was of the essence, with hardly two days’ passing between the offer and the marriage, Fancy