failed to find a husband, she wouldn’t just be putting her father’s workers out of business. She would be hurting hundreds of suppliers as well, not to mention the businesses that depended on the output of these factories.
The second thing she realized was that she couldn’t let them down. She had to accomplish this mission, regardless of how much she disagreed with her father’s mandates. He’d done this to her, not to the workers. If she’d been a better daughter, she would have gone to him and worked with him to find a compromise. Instead, she’d simply gone off to school, ignoring his preferences because she’d considered this to be her life. Not anymore. Her choices for the next twelve months would result in so many people being able to pay their mortgage and put food on their tables.
She wasn’t opposed to marriage. She just hadn’t thought she’d be married so young. But it wasn’t unheard of to be married by twenty-five. Her mother had been married by the age of twenty and had given birth at twenty-one.
Oh, if only her mother had been able to conceive of another baby, she thought with a deep sadness that left tears streaming down her face. She curled her legs up underneath her and pulled the soft, blue cashmere blanket around her. Where would Jessica be right now if her father had been able to raise a son as well as a daughter? Or what if she’d been born a male instead of a female? What if she’d just given in and gone to finishing school as her father had wanted? If her marriage to…whoever he’d chosen hadn’t worked…would he still be angry with her?
As exhaustion took over and her eyes closed, she accepted that these scenarios didn’t really matter. Because she had been an only child, she’d been born a female and she’d gone her own way at eighteen. So all her musings were pointless because, in the end, she was still here and she still had to face the hard reality that her father had distrusted her so much and been so angry at her defiance that he’d created a will that trapped her into looking for a husband over the next twelve months.
The last thing she thought about before she gave in to sleep was that she needed to contact this Charles Livingston, the man named as executor of her father’s will, to see what he could do to help her through this problem of finding a husband quickly and under bizarre circumstances.
Chapter 1
Edward Livingston, Earl of Locton, straightened his tie as he walked down the central stairway of his ancestral home, accepted the steaming hot, black coffee from his butler and walked out of the house, his mind already reviewing his busy schedule for the day. As he was every morning at this time, his driver Tim stood at the bottom of the stone stairs, the door to the back of the limousine open. Tim bowed ever so slightly as Edward descended the stairs. “Good morning, my lord.”
“Good morning, Tim. How is Martha?” Edward asked, referring to Tim’s wife who helped out in the kitchens occasionally.
“Very well, thank you, my lord.” And that was the end of Edward’s socializing with his staff for the day. He was already pulling out a file folder for his first meeting by the time Tim closed the door and walked around to the front of the vehicle. Edward pressed a button on the panel of his door to call his executive assistant and instantly a crisp, efficient voice greeted him.
“Good morning, my lord,” Alice replied.
Edward didn’t even acknowledge the greeting, nor praise her for being in the office before him and prepared for the day. He paid her a very good salary and he expected her to be professional, punctual and detailed. He called her precisely at seven-thirty each morning for any updates to his schedule or events that had occurred overnight. Alice rarely disappointed him and on those rare occasions when she did, he never raised his voice. He found that a pointed look was sufficient to gain the expected results he required of his staff. His companies ran like a well oiled machine and he expected results from everyone on his team, or they could find other employment.
“Good morning, Alice.” He didn’t ask for the updates. Alice knew to simply deliver them since that was the exact purpose of this call.
“I’ve already updated your schedule and it is on your blackberry