Matthew held her gaze, his ragged breathing loud in the silence of the room. She pushed harder against him and stepped back. Instantly his gaze sharpened and he gripped her shoulders, preventing her from retreating further, wringing a gasp from her.
âI have been searching for you ⦠following you ⦠trying to catch up with you ⦠worrying about you â¦â
âBut ⦠why? I thought you wereââ
âYou need protection. Iââ
âProtection?â
Eleanor, now with her wits fully about her, stiffened. For one fleeting, joyful second she had thought maybe he had followed her for her own sakeâbecause he felt something for her. As speedily as the thought arose she quashed it, inwardly berating herself for being a romantic fool, beguiled by a handsome face and rugged charm. She and Mr Thomas were worlds apart.
Author Note
Eleanor, Baroness Ashby, is a rarity: a peeress in her own right. The early English baronies were created by a writ of summons to Counsel or Parliament (rather than by letters patent, as later became the norm). The remainders of these baronies by writ devolve upon the âheirs-generalâ rather than being limited to male heirs, meaning an only daughter can inherit the barony. Itâs interesting that if there are two or more daughters the title will fall into abeyance until the co-heirs can come to an honourable agreement as to which of them will claim the title. The claimant must then petition The Crown to have the abeyance terminated.
I really enjoyed writing about Eleanorâshe is loyal, courageous and independent, but her outer confidence masks a deep insecurity at her core. She is also impulsive at times, and I knew she needed a resilient hero. Enter Matthew: strong and honourable, but with a secret in his past that might easily damage Eleanorâs determination to be fully accepted by Society and to gain admittance to Almackâs Assembly Rooms.
I thought it would be fun to see how a proud man like Matthew would cope with falling for a wealthier, higher-ranking woman than him.
If you have read Mary and the Marquis you might like to know that Eleanor is the cousin of Lucas, Marquis of Rothley. Lucasâs mother, Lucy, is Eleanorâs chaperon, and his younger brother, Lord Hugo Alastair, also makes an appearance.
Chapter One
April 1811
Eyes streaming, coughing and choking, she tugged at the window, but it refused to budge. The floorboards scorched her feet and she could hear the ominous roar of the fire below. Dragging the pungent air deep into her lungs, she screamed.
âEllie. Ellie. Wake up!â
âWhat?â
Eleanor, Baroness Ashby, roused to the gently rocking rhythm of her carriage. She stared groggily into the anxious eyes of Lucy, Dowager Marchioness of Rothley. Eleanor levered herself upright on the squabs, her nightmare still vividly real.
âYou screamed. Was it the nightmare again?â
Eleanor drew in a deep breathâfresh, clean, untainted. âYes. Iâm sorry if I frightened you, Aunt.â Her heart slowed from a gallop to a fast trot. âEverything seems so real in the dream. And I can never get out.â
âWell, we must be thankful you escaped the real fire, my pet. It doesnât bear thinking about, what might have happened.â
âMilady?â Lucyâs maid, sitting on the backward-facing seat, opposite Eleanor, leant forward.
âYes, Matilda?â
âIs it true someone set fire to the library deliberately?â
âYes.â
Eleanor did not elaborate. Someone had broken into Ashby Manorâher beloved homeâat the dead of night, piled books into the middle of the library floor and set fire to them. The whole east wing had been destroyed. All those beautiful books!
âI told you.â Lizzie, Eleanorâs maid, also travelling in the carriage to London, nudged Matilda. âIf milady had not woken up when she did, sheâd beââ
âLizzie!â
Lizzie cast an apologetic glance at Eleanor as she subsided into silence. Eleanor needed no reminding of what would have happened had she not woken when she did, two weeks before. She shuddered, recalling that terrifying moment when, climbing from her bedchamber window, her searching toes met empty space where the top rung of the ladder had, only moments before, been placed against the wall by her head groom, Fretwell. If Lizzie had not come looking for her when she did... Fear coiled in Eleanorâs belly. Lizzie had arrived just in time to see a shadowy figure knock Fretwell out cold before flinging the ladder to the ground.