A Wife of Her Choosing
Dominic Granville needs a wifeâwhether he wants one or not! And governess Serena Somerton intends to find one for him. A marriage of convenience would provide the wealthy widowerâs five children with a motherâs tender care. And yet none of Dominicâs prospective brides can meet Serenaâs increasingly high standards.
Unconventional, certainly. Outspoken, to be sure. Even so, Miss Somertonâs quirks canât curb Dominicâs growing interest in the spirited young woman. After his wifeâs death, Dominic was sure he couldnât love again. But faced with the prospect of losing Serena to another, one fact becomes clear. His imperfect governess could be his ideal wife.
âI will do my best for my children in this matter of my remarriage, Miss Somerton, you may rely on that. I am more than conscious that they depend on meâindeed, I would give my life for any of them.â
What on earth had possessed him to say something so dramatic? Blame it on the midnight madness. Serena made a little smothered sound. Dominic raised his eyebrows at her, daring her to comment.
She shook her head. âItâs time I returned to my chamber.â She bent over and kissed Louisaâs forehead. The way she smoothed a lock of his daughterâs hair reminded Dominic of Emily. For one moment, he found himself wanting that touch on his own hair, that tenderness directed at him.
No.
Yet instinctively, he drew closer, and as Serena straightened, she bumped into him. Dominic grasped her arms to steady her. Immediately, he released her.
They stood, staring at each other.
âGood night,â she blurted. And almost ran from the room.
ABBY GAINES
wrote her first romance novel as a teenager, only to have it promptly rejected. A flirtation with a science fiction novel never really got off the ground, so Abby put aside her writing ambitions as she went to college, then began her working life at IBM. When she and her husband had their first baby, Abby worked from home as a freelance business journalistâ¦and soon after that the urge to write romance resurfaced. It was another five long years before Abby sold her first novel to Harlequin Superromance in 2006.
Abby lives with her husband and childrenâand a labradoodle and a catâin a house with enough stairs to keep her semifit and a sun-filled office with a sea view that provides inspiration for the funny, tender romances she loves to write. Visit her at www.abbygaines.com.
Chapter One
Woodbridge Hall, Leicestershire, England, 1816
Dominic Granville seldom troubled himself with the running of his household. He had a spinster sister and a host of servants to take care of that. Besides, he had plenty to occupy him, between his land and its tenants.
Oh, yes, and his children.
His assumption that things would continue very much as they had for the past five years had proved correct. Until today.
Until heâd opened the letter newly arrived from London, fixed with a seal of aristocracy that he remembered from his school days at Eton, but hadnât had much occasion to see since.
Blast.
Dominic reread the letter, penned in a firm, elegant hand. It said exactly what he thought it had on his first reading.
He tugged the bellpull behind his desk. While he waited for his butler, he scrutinized the letter a third time. How inconvenient.
âSir?â Molson had a habit of materializing silently; somehow heâd opened the library door without Dominic noticing. Over the years, Dominic had mastered the art of hiding his start of surprise, so now he looked up calmly.
âIs Miss Somerton in the schoolroom?â he asked.
âI believe, sir, Miss Somerton and the children areââ Molson hesitated ââin pursuit of lepidoptera.â
âChasing butterflies?â Dominic said blankly. âWhy?â
âMiss Somerton felt it was an occupation Masters Thomas and William should practice, sir. I believe she called it a lesson in nature sciences.â
âWhat about the girls?â Dominic asked. âShouldnât they be stitching something?â
âMisses Hester, Charlotte and Louisa are also pursuing lepidoptera.â
Dominic frowned. In the past three weeks alone, heâd had to send word to the governess that shrieking outside the library window wasnât acceptable. That allowing the children to drink lemonade in the billiard roomâwhich, technically, was forbidden territoryâleft a sticky residue everywhere. Both times, instead of contrition, her response had been to invite him to play with the children. Extraordinary.