He's Talking Secrets - Taylor Rose Page 0,1

Archibald came home a distraught and gibbering man only to announce that he had several inoperable brain tumors and only given months to live. Up to now no children had been produced, sex was not worthwhile and only happened sporadically. If Sophia was honest with herself sex with Archibald was an incredible let down. No emotion and certainly no closeness were ever involved. It was an exercise to produce a child, not an experience to remember. However the night that Archibald came home with his news, Sophia felt genuine sadness for her husband. One thing lead to another and for the first time in ten years of marriage there appeared to be some small form of affection in the act of sex. Shortly after this, to everyone’s amazement Sophia had an announcement to make herself, one that she had given up on, she was expecting! Archibald fought the tumors just long enough to see his beautiful little girl being brought into the world and died just three short weeks later. Sophia nursed him right to the end.

Archibald not only left behind a new born baby but a wife who hadn’t signed up for all the extra responsibilities and expectations of being a Lady of a very sizable holding with two villages as part of the Estate. Now there are two communities relying on the Glen Dorking Estate either directly or indirectly for their livelihoods. You see, Sophia Laird had never thought she was anything special and looking back on her thirty four years she often took a moment to wonder how she arrived at this point. Sophia Laird was a middle class girl who loved to ride horses; at one time she even had dreams of representing her country in Dressage or Eventing. When she applied for the position of assistant Equine Manager at the Estate she didn’t think she would be marrying the Lord just months later…..

Chapter One:

Sunday Afternoon.

Some men are just too good looking, really. And the one walking into the courtyard right now would be a fine example of that. Those eyes, yes, they would mean trouble to most women, if they looked too deeply, too long or too hard. And what’s more Sophia was not in a good defensive position, as she had her shirt off, exposing the world’s most sensible yet boring bra ever manufactured. Not a good upper hand position. Damn those thorny little weeds that catch in your clothing, so much so that they force you to de-clothe in order to remove them.

The gods really are not working with me today, thought Sophia. Not a lot she could do about it now he had obviously gleaned an eye full in the short few seconds it took to approach her. A very satisfied smile was plastered on his face as he approached her. This reconfirmed her instance opinion of him, a womanizer, how could he be anything else with those looks and physic? Tall, dark and very handsome, summed him up precisely. He was tall, over six foot, with Sophia being only 5”7’ and shirtless she was feeling distinctly disadvantaged.

“I’m looking for the Lady of the house, if she is around?” said Brandon with a very smooth smile. For a nano-second Sophia thought about saying that the Lady wasn’t in the house, which wouldn’t be entirely untrue. Sophia wasn’t in the house but standing in front of him, here in the courtyard, half naked. But then she would be lying and she was not a very good at lying. She then thought about putting on an accent and pretending she didn’t understand him, but her fair skin would have given this male stunner a major hint that there was something seriously unhinged about the woman standing in front of him as she certainly looked English and did the very worst of accents. The final straw that stopped Sophia from saying something flippant was the slightly determined look on his face which suggested that he would come back if this visit didn’t bear fruit. Then she would be faced with the embarrassment of trying to explain that one away. Unhinged, come back into mind.

“I’m the Lady of the house” Sophia finally said as she put her shirt back on with a grimace, because it still had any number of thorny seeds still stuck to the inside of it.

Brandon was very pleased for the interruption in eye contact as the shirt went on. He was sure he didn’t do a good job of hiding his expression