Cornwall Brides
Book One
REBECCA CONNOLLY
Also by
Rebecca Connolly
The Arrangements:
An Arrangement of Sorts
Married to the Marquess
Secrets of a Spinster
The London League:
The Lady and the Gent
A Rogue About Town
By Hook or by Rook
The Spinster Chronicles:
The Merry Lives of Spinsters
The Spinster and I
Spinster and Spice
Agents of the Convent:
Fortune Favors the Sparrow
Text copyright © 2021 by Rebecca Connolly
Cover art copyright © 2021 by Rebecca Connolly
Cover art by Tugboat Design
http://www.tugboatdesign.net
All rights reserved. Published by Phase Publishing, LLC. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Phase Publishing, LLC first paperback edition
April 2021
ISBN 978-1-952103-26-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021905272
Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file.
Acknowledgements
To the county of Cornwall herself, whose culture, beauties, and essence have instilled in me a lifelong love that cried out for a series in tribute.
And to my Cornwall crew for the greatest trip ever. Can’t wait to go again!
But most especially: For every reader who has asked me for this story.
Want to hear about future releases and upcoming events for Rebecca Connolly?
Sign up for the monthly Wit and Whimsy at:
www.rebeccaconnolly.com
Index
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue
Chapter One
Finally.
After five years of marriage, five long and arduous years, he had finally done it. Thomas Granger was a man of fortune again.
He had resolved his financial deficits and returned to the solvency he had known before his marriage, and further besides; recovered what was lost and found himself in an enviable position, though much more safely invested and secure. He had learned his lesson and educated himself sufficiently to prevent a repeat of his near ruination in the future.
He wanted to shout it from the rooftops, tell all of Society and the world that he had done it.
But most of all, he wanted to tell his wife.
Desperately.
But that would require crossing the expanse of their home at Rainford Park in Hampshire and breaching the boundaries they had set up for themselves since they had taken up residence together. He’d done that exactly twice, no more, and both times had been only to inform his wife of his departure when there wasn’t time to wait for the next time they would dine together. His wife had crossed to his side twelve times, six of which had been in the first year they were married. Then she had crossed less and less, until she had stopped crossing altogether.
They hadn’t actually arranged those boundaries verbally, but he’d respected the distance that years of polite cohabitation had generated, particularly when he hadn’t done anything to endear himself to his wife in five years.
He hadn’t done anything in this marriage for five years.
Marrying the woman he loved purely for her fortune had destroyed him, and he had spent every day of his marriage consumed with shame and guilt.
Until today.
Now, perhaps, his marriage could start.
But how did he go about starting something that should have started from the day he took his vows?
That was the question, and he had no answer.
He didn’t even know where to look for an answer.
Or how to begin.
Thomas set down his pen on his desk, looking over the most recent reports from his estate manager, as well as his shipping interests in Brighton, Preston, and Cornwall, his secret partnerships in three banks in London, and the other shareholders from his mining ventures in Cornwall. More details from his sole interest in India had yet to arrive, but they’d always been on more of a delay compared to his England-based investments, and the numbers there had been his most promising in the last few years.
He was always careful to keep a close eye on that particular investment for any indications of a less than savory nature. He’d heard too many horror stories of actions bordering on the inhumane for him to trust too far there. He’d be looking at getting on a ship to India himself before too long, if for no other reason than to put his own eyes on the places and people that were getting his funds and attention.
He’d been exploring any and all options for investing his money since the day he’d lost it all on a poor speculation that he’d had no business joining. It was the day he stopped listening to business proposals over the gaming tables and only bothered with opportunities that had already proven fruitful to others. He took no chances anymore, not with his money, and not until he had already proven he could make a decent amount of earnings.
Well, his own money had held very little meaning up until the last few years.
He had invested his wife Lily’s money. Her dowry, to be precise.
Initially, all he had was the money he received from the marriage settlement. The house in Hampshire had been purchased with her dowry, purely because Rainford Park was the neighborhood of Knightsgate, where her cousin Caroline, Lady Montgomery, had lived with her husband and children. It was as close to an apology for his jumping into the marriage for her fortune as he could get, short of verbalizing one.
And as there was no way to use words to apologize for the magnitude of his sin, verbalizing wasn’t an option.
He’d made his reasoning for their hasty, loveless marriage right. He’d earned back every farthing he’d ever used of Lily’s money, doubled the money he had lost himself, and set aside the exact amount of the extensive dowry
