Love at the Tower Read Online Free PDF

Castle.”
    â€œYou are planning renovations?”
    â€œYes, much work needs to be done. My father was not interested in conserving the buildings and so it was left to crumble. The Tower is in a particularly dreadful state.
    â€œThankfully, my Uncle Sebastian bequeathed me a great deal of money in his will when he died last year and I will be able to use it to pay for everything. I have a fancy to open up the Castle to the public and hopefully this will make it pay for itself.”
    â€œThat sounds just so wonderful!” enthused Robina, “I would dearly love to see the old place again.”
    â€œThen you must come and pay me a visit very soon. They say that the French have immaculate taste and I would be glad for your advice on the decor as you have been surrounded by nothing but the best for the past year.”
    Robina blushed.
    She found it difficult to meet his eye and, although she had always called him Robert when they were children, she found it almost impossible to be so familiar now that they had grown up.
    â€œI would love to,” she murmured, casting down her eyes and blushing again.
    They stood for some moments in awkward silence.
    Finally Charles brought the Earl’s horse back.
    â€œThere you go, my Lord – we’ve fixed his shoe and he’s right as rain now.”
    â€œThank you, Charles.”
    The Earl mounted and smiled down at Robina.
    â€œDon’t forget – please come and visit me as soon as you are settled. I meant what I said about wanting your opinion.”
    â€œI will,” she replied, shyly smiling back up at him.
    With that the Earl spurred his horse into action and rode off with Robina watching him until he disappeared.
    â€œHe be a very fine man, the young Earl,” commented Charles, as he opened the door to Firefly’s stall.
    â€œYes, he is,” mumbled Robina pensively.
    As she led Firefly out of the stables, she was almost overwhelmed with an intense sensation of longing to see the Earl again very soon.
    â€œCome on, my boy,” she urged him, as she tried to push the Earl out of her mind.
    But even as she rode across the rolling green fields, revelling in the sensation, the image of the handsome Earl refused to leave her mind for even a second.

CHAPTER THREE
    As Robina galloped across the familiar countryside, she was filled with sorrow again that her mother was not here to enjoy the glorious landscape with her.
    It had often been like this since her mother had died – she would see something lovely or interesting, and the first person she would think of sharing it with would be her.
    â€˜And now she is no longer around and I miss her so much,’ she reflected, as she stopped Firefly at a crossroads.
    She paused to collect her bearings and realised that she was only a short distance from Hampton Castle.
    â€œCome on,” she urged Firefly, as she turned him in the direction of the Castle.
    Robina had no intention of paying a formal call so soon after seeing Robert again, but her curiosity was now getting the upper hand as the Earl’s description of his Castle had fired her imagination.
    â€˜Perhaps if I ride around the perimeter, then I can gauge just how far the Castle has deteriorated.’
    It did not take her very long to reach the copse that overlooked the estate. It was on top of a hill and afforded her a panoramic view over the Castle.
    â€˜Goodness!’ she gasped, upon seeing that the top of the Tower had crumbled out and its castellated battlements were no more. ‘It’s worse than I had suspected.’
    She recalled how, as a child, she and Robert would play King Arthur in the Tower – she would be Guinevere and he, Arthur. Ellis always wanted to be Lancelot and she remembered recoiling at such a prospect, as she had read in Morte d’Arthur that they were lovers and that meant that he might have to kiss her!
    Ellis.
    Were there ever brothers so incredibly unlike each