if the circumstances were kept quiet, was bound to be fodder for gossip and speculation.
Huffing out a breath, Philip turned his gaze to the passing scenery outside.
Everwood was an apt name for the manor house, given the grounds were surrounded by thick forests of conifers as far as the eye could see. His grandfather had built the property as a newlywed over fifty years ago. His marriage to the daughter of an Irish earl had ensured that Philip’s family felt an affinity with this beautiful, emerald isle.
And while Philip’s father hadn’t felt overly attached to the place and only ever used it for hunting parties, Philip had loved coming here as a boy. While the earl and countess had spent time in Town during the Season, he’d come here with his grandfather on breaks from school. The forest had felt almost magical to him, and he’d spent wonderful summers rambling through it. The nearby beach had been a constant place of adventure and freedom. He hoped that Timothy would experience the same.
The coast was rugged and raw, lashed by unforgiving rain more often than not, but stalwart all the same. And Everwood House stood on one of the many clifftops. Tall, imposing, and austere but beautiful nonetheless.
Philip hadn’t been here since he’d been a boy of ten. And the house hadn’t been used in years, but he’d never sold it. The expense of keeping a skeleton staff was minimal and even if it made him a sentimental sot, he couldn’t rid himself of the place.
And he was glad of it now.
It would be an escape. A refuge. Somewhere away from the prying eyes of whispering servants and the curious gazes of suspicious townsfolk.
Somewhere that he wouldn’t see her body every time he looked out the window of that cursed bedchamber.
A shudder ran through Philip as he tried to push the memories of that night from his mind.
He couldn’t drown in them. He needed to move on. For Timothy.
His gaze darted once more to his sleeping son.
A lock of sandy hair fell across Timothy’s brow, and his cheeks were flushed as he breathed deeply in and out, in and out.
Philip was relieved to see that this sleep at least seemed peaceful.
The afternoon light was beginning to fade and soon, darkness would descend.
His valet, Jones, had thankfully ridden ahead and would ensure that Everwood House was ready for its master’s arrival.
There wouldn’t be time to show Timmy around today but tomorrow, hopefully after a decent night’s sleep for both of them, he could take his son to explore all the best parts of his childhood adventures in this small, isolated corner of the world.
A rare feeling of contentment washed over Philip, and he turned back to the view with a small smile playing across his lips.
Losing himself in his thoughts, he startled when a movement in the trees caught his eye.
Was it a deer? A fox perhaps?
He kept his eyes trained on a gap in the trees and suddenly, he saw what had caught his attention, and the breath left his body in one, short gasp.
Standing in the middle of that gap in the copse of trees was a woman.
Philip’s heart thudded as his gaze raked over the figure by the roadside.
“My God,” he spoke aloud without even realising he’d done so.
She was like nothing he’d ever seen before.
Her hair was a deep, chocolate brown mixed with dark, fiery red, and it flowed to her waist in a waterfall of waves, unbound by pins, unadorned by combs or ribbons.
It was ethereal Just like her.
As the carriage drew closer, he took in the features of her face. Smooth, unlined, and hauntingly beautiful with eyes that made the breath catch in his throat. She had the darkest, widest eyes he’d ever seen. They seemed almost black in the fading sunlight, glittering with something he didn’t understand but which made gooseflesh break out on the back of his neck.
How could he see them so clearly from a passing carriage? Yet see them he did. They bored into him, into his very soul.
As the carriage rumbled past, those eyes watched him, and nothing could have dragged his gaze from hers.
Right before they were too far past her, she suddenly smiled. A small, secret smile. As though she knew something he didn’t.
A potent and powerful desire roared to life in Philip, shocking him to his core.
He sat back, winded by a feeling that was almost otherworldly in its intensity.
“What the hell was that?” he whispered.
Darting over once