When a Girl Loves an Earl (Rescued from Ruin Book 5) by Elisa Braden Read Free Book Online Page A

was a good thing Victoria was the forgiving sort. Lucien always agreed.
    James now cast his friend a sidelong glance, noting the contentment on the too-handsome features, etched there permanently by Victoria’s gentle hand. “Marriage has served you well, Luc, I surely cannot deny it.”
    Lucien raised a brow and navigated past an aged man who had stopped in the middle of the path to retrieve his windblown hat. “But?”
    Shifting in his saddle, James sighed. “It is not for me. You know I have my reasons.”
    Lucien had been present the day James had returned to his mother’s cottage after seeing his son’s grave. Never again could he endure such pain. And if he avoided marriage, then he would not have to. In James’s estimation, the logic could not be simpler.
    “You realize your title and the care of Shankwood Hall may only pass to your heir, yes?”
    James shot him a glance. “Why do you suppose I am in London for the season?”
    “Not to find a wife, clearly.”
    “No. Because she demands that I participate. Wretched old woman.”
    Lucien’s lips twitched. “Remind me again why you are permitting Lady Wallingham to lead you about like a prized ox through the marriage mart?”
    This time, James’s grunt was one of frustration. “Gates has reached a standstill with his inquiries. Lady Wallingham is the only known link to the grandmother of my heir presumptive. She refuses to contact the woman until I meet her demands.”
    Indeed, James had only learned that he had an heir presumptive two years prior, when Hargrave had died. James still mourned his longtime solicitor, who first had been his guardian in all estate matters until he’d reached his majority, then had been his advisor and friend. He missed the man as he would a father.
    Yet for years, Hargrave had misled him, insisting no other line of the Kilbrenner family remained to inherit the Tannenbrook title and take charge of Shankwood Hall. James could only guess that, much like Lady Wallingham, Hargrave had wished to force him to accept his duty to marry and procreate—a duty to which he’d been decidedly resistant.
    But upon hiring his new solicitor, Mr. Gates, James had learned of a distant cousin from a branch of the family that had settled in America. According to Gates’s research, James’s great-uncle, Robert Kilbrenner, had married an Englishwoman named Ann-Marie Roxham before leaving Scotland to work as a printer in Philadelphia. Robert and Ann-Marie’s grandson, Elijah Kilbrenner, would inherit both title and estate if James failed to marry and beget a legitimate heir.
    Providing the man was alive. Reports were conflicting in that regard.
    “I assume you have attempted to contact your heir’s grandmother, yourself,” said Lucien, brushing a wayward seedpod from his shoulder and tipping his hat at a pair of elderly women in a passing landau. The women fluttered and blushed as though they were thirty years younger.
    “She refuses to answer anyone except Lady Wallingham. Apparently, they have shared a correspondence since they were girls. Lady Wallingham claims Ann-Marie Kilbrenner is her ‘source inside the Colonies,’ and she does not wish to press her and risk the connection.” James paused while another gust blew a leaf past his nose. “Which is perfect rot, but I cannot find a better option. According to Gates, Ann-Marie’s son remained a British loyalist throughout the American rebellion, returning to England after the war. Gates has determined that while the parents appear to have perished in a house fire, it is unclear what became of Elijah Kilbrenner. All traces of the boy disappear around that time.”
    “Mmm. Uncommon name, Kilbrenner,” Lucien observed. “I assume he either changed it or—”
    “Or he is dead.” James tightened his jaw. “Yes, it has occurred to me. Hargrave may have known, but I’ve found only vague references to a living heir in his papers. Unless Gates discovers some new revelation, Lady