(After reading the Extended Epilogue, turn the page to read the first chapters from “How to Claim a Governess’s Heart”, my Amazon Best-Selling novel!)
How to Claim a Governess’s Heart
Introduction
Ever since her parents died, Bridget Thatcher has been left destitute and determined that she will never find happiness in her life. Having been left with no choice, she becomes a governess to earn her living. Fortune smiles on her, though, when she is assigned to a little girl that quickly warms her broken heart. Life takes a terrible turn when the child’s parents die, and she is tasked with bringing the girl to her new and mysterious guardian. Even though she can't stop thinking about him ever since she met him, she knows that she has to put love aside and stand by the little girl who needs her more than ever. Will she manage to protect the lonely child and win a place to her charming guardian’s heart? Would life finally hand her a happy ending?
Lord John Hughan is running out of time, as he has only one year to prove to his brother that he can succeed as an author or else he will lose his inheritance for good. It doesn’t seem his life could get any more complicated until a strange woman appears on his doorstep with the orphan that has been left in his custody. With each passing day, he becomes very protective to the little girl, and he finds himself drawn to the most loving governess he has ever seen. But his family’s constant deterrents will make his life a whirlwind, forcing him to reach decisions that will deeply hurt his heart. Will John manage to keep both ladies safe? In the end, will he follow his heart and make his dreams come true?
Though the timing is all wrong, Bridget and John cannot turn their back to their growing affection. However, Bridget carries the guilt of a secret that could rip all her happy dreams, if ever discovered. Will John and Bridget claim each other’s heart before the last rose petal of their love falls? Will they become the parent figures that the lovely girl deserves and heal her broken heart?
Chapter 1
Lord John Hughan paced the area between his desk and chair. Though his footfall was muted by the lush Persian rug, his irritation could be felt. Writing had always been a passion of his, and he knew from a very young age that it would be a career choice for him. However, now having been given a deadline to find success in the venture, he found he had little, and possibly nothing, to say.
Lord John had only arrived in London a week earlier determined to prove his brother, the Duke of Ludford wrong. Second born to a distinguished dukedom only ensured that next to no decisions in Lord John's life would be of his own choosing if he hoped to keep his living.
Most often, fathers and elder brothers decided the situation of younger siblings in such a case. Ludford had been no exception. Usually, second siblings were pushed to clergy work or military life. Ludford had insisted on the latter owing to Lord John's physique. The late Duke of Ludford, their father, had often commented throughout John's youth that he was lucky to so clearly have skills blessed by God to be successful in life.
Despite a physical form that towered even over his older brother, Lord John had no desire to join the military. In fact, if the truth were told, he abhorred violence. His mother called it a gentle soul, and not with appreciation. His father had insisted that military training would root it out of him.
He wasn't entirely sure that either opinion was altogether correct. Though he did not wish to fire a gun in the face of an enemy, he did not shy away from