Charity

Charity Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: Charity Read Online Free PDF
Author: Deneane Clark
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical, Regency
insist upon hiring only people from the village.”
    “Ashton is their home, and I am their lord. We’ve discussed this many times. For too long the lords of this castle held themselves aloof from the people of the village and surrounding area.” He gave the older woman a stern look. “Do not forget your beginnings, Mother. You were once a villager yourself. Now, if you’ll excuse me?” Without waiting for a response, he stepped inside the master chamber and closed the heavy oak door.
    Summarily dismissed, Eloise stared at the solid panel of wood that stood between her and her infuriating eldest son. His ingratitude for the sacrifices she’d made for him stung. After all, had it not been for her quick thinking when his scoundrel of a father impregnated and abandoned her, he’d be nothing but a villager himself, and a bastard to boot.
    She turned and walked slowly back down the hall, lost in the past. As a young woman, Eloise Gardner had been considered the most beautiful girl in the village. She was the only child of the richest merchant in town, and she could have had her pick of the men who came from miles around to court her. Or, more correctly, tried to court her. Eloise had looked at none of them. Her mother despaired and her father blustered, but she steadfastly refused to even consider anyone who came to the door of their modest home on the outskirts of the village. She turned up her pretty little nose at all of them, judging them nothing more thanill-mannered louts and instead insisting over and over that she wanted to go to London for a Season.
    “Out of the question.” Her father refused to budge on the issue, and Eloise, at first cajoling and then tearful, had finally resorted to an angry little tantrum.
    “Why not?” she’d demanded, when he first insisted they didn’t have the funds available for even a modest trip to the capital. “Am I not worth it?”
    “Even if we could afford it, we don’t have the connections required to gain entrée into the social circles you seek, Eloise. We could purchase you the most beautiful gowns and obtain a fashionable address, but you still wouldn’t be invited to a single event. Not without a noble connection to sponsor you.”
    Eloise had frowned and looked out the window. Her eyes settled on the keep that overlooked the village, crumbling away up on its hill. The Marquess of Asheburton, she knew, resided there, unmarried and alone. He never came into the village—was in fact rumored to be a complete recluse, never leaving the keep at all. There were rumors he suffered from periods of instability, black moods, and an irrationality long established in the Kimball family do to tragic consequences, but nobody in the village really knew if it was true. He was, however, a peer of the realm, and that was precisely what Eloise required. Her thoughts had turned speculative.
    The very next day found her climbing the hill to the dilapidated old keep, picking her way carefully in her best frock and nicest shoes. “I’d like to see the Marquess of Asheburton,” she demanded when she reached the massive front doors. The dour-faced servant who answered her knock didn’t say a word, just opened the door wider and turned away. Eloise took that as an invitation to come inside.
    The castle was as unkempt on the inside as it was without,and gloomy besides. The structure was built to withstand siege, and none of the lords of Asheburton had seen fit to modernize it since the middle ages, so there were no windows in the place. The only light filtered weakly in from arrow slits high up in the walls, supplemented by the occasional sputtering torch.
    She followed the servant down a dank hallway until they reached a door which stood ajar. He indicated that she should go inside. Eloise did so and then stopped after a few steps, waiting for her eyes to adjust. Once they did, she looked around.
    “You are . . . ?”
    Startled, Eloise looked to her left. Seated in a corner of the room
Read Online Free Pdf

Similar Books

Her Kind of Hero

Diana Palmer

Broken Dreams

Bill Dodd

A Certain Latitude

Janet Mullany

Parched

Melanie Crowder

Casting Off

Elizabeth Jane Howard

His to Possess

Christa Wick

Going for the Blue

Roger A. Caras

Bay of Secrets

Rosanna Ley