My Earl the Spy by Audrey Harrison Read Free Book Online Page A

someone who had acted in such a selfish way, disregarding the impact on his children and their futures. Milly would never forget the tears of her brothers as they berated themselves for not realising what was happening. She had tried to comfort them; there was a large age gap between the siblings, the ones who had been born between Milly and her brothers not surviving the first months of pregnancy, which contributed to the feelings of bitterness already developing within her mother.
    “You should have done something to secure the engagement! You just sat by and watched him walk out of your life!” Mrs Holland snapped. She looked at her daughter with disgust for failing in her duty to secure a good match.
    “Mr Connor wanted nothing to do with me or this family once he realised there would be no dowry after father’s death,” Milly said. She had not had to utter the words for four years, but they still stirred up feelings of the complete betrayal she had experienced when hearing them from the man she had loved.
    “You were engaged!”
    “And he withdrew the offer, facing the scandal of that action, rather than the lack of funds. He knew full well that we couldn’t sue for breach of promise.” It had been the worst time of Milly’s life, even worse than losing her father, if she were honest. A death stirred sympathy, a broken engagement caused gossip and unkind speculation. Especially, as it was rarely heard of for a gentleman to call off the engagement from a lady.
    “You could have used the word compromise,” Mrs Holland said, not for the first time.
    “And completely ruin my reputation and either have a husband who despised me, or an abandonment issue with which to contend and even more gossip to deal with!” Milly responded tartly. She sighed. “I will soon have a paid position, Mother, and be off your hands again. I’m sure it will only take a short time.”
    “In the meantime, I’m living in this hovel when I could have been living with you in the grand house that they now live in!”
    Milly let out a breath; her mother would never accept anything other than she was ill-used; she would always abhor the house she lived in. Admittedly, it was not as grand a house as they had all lived in until Mr Holland died, but the reality was that they would have probably lost that house because of the debt anyway if he had not died so suddenly. The death had purely hastened the inevitable and given Mr Connor the opportunity to renege on his offer.
    Mrs Holland hated her little house. It was in a good part of town and although it had only two downstairs rooms in addition to the kitchen area, there was a pleasant upstairs drawing room and three bedrooms. Thanks to Charles, Mrs. Holland was able to afford a cook who came in each day, a housemaid who worked daily and a man of all works who visited twice a week to carry out all the tasks the maid and cook could not or were not prepared to do.
    For a lady living alone, this should have been enough; Milly was aware of many people who did not live in such luxury, but Charles had insisted on providing for his relation, and Mrs Holland would never have considered the burden of her needs on Charles’ funds. So she had moved from her far grander home on the outskirts of Farnham to the centre of town and had not stopped complaining since.
    The bombardment on Milly by her parent continued until she sought refuge outdoors. There were still some people she considered friends in the town where she had grown-up in and she visited them without her mother in tow to dampen the mood.
    One such friend, the now Mrs Sarah Hastings greeted Milly with open affection after reading the card she had supplied to the footman. Sarah was the same age as Milly, securing a very early marriage and now lived very comfortably with her husband and her increasing brood.
    “So, how many children is it now? It must be double figures!” Milly teased with a smile as she took a sip of Jasmine tea.
    “You know