It was his love affairs, and there had been a great number of them, that had prevented him from marrying as he should have done and providing an heir to the title.
It had, of course, been to the present Earl’s advantage that this neglect of duty had resulted in his inheriting.
But he saw now that the task ahead of him was not to be as easy as he might have anticipated.
As if she sensed what he was thinking, Purilla said,
“Only you can change everything. Only you can put right what has been wrong for a very long time.”
The Earl rose to his feet and walked across the flagged floor of the Orangery to stand at the open door looking out onto the garden.
The sunshine was warm and the air mellow and the last few days had brought all the flowers into bloom.
Already there was a glorious prof
