Free Wicked Earl Seeks Proper Heiress by Sara Bennett Page A

much aware that Averil found the earl of Southbrook exciting. He was unlike anyone else of her acquaintance, and quite how quickly he had inveigled his way into her life, Beth found unnerving to say the least. She hadn’t told Averil everything about the earl’s scandalous past. She didn’t know everything, but she knew enough. He had run off with a woman far beneath him in status, but not before he had gotten her with child. Then she’d died in circumstances that were, if not suspicious, then certainly odd.
    Had the earl, wishing his wife dead, gone one step further?
    Elizabeth Harmon, known all her life as Beth, knew something of life—she was no sheltered flower. The eldest daughter of a pastor, she had several younger sisters and a mother who, while perfectly adequate at producing children, was never very interested in them afterward. Beth took on motherly duties from the age of six, and by the time she was ten years old, the nanny was dismissed and Beth found herself a full-time carer of the children.
    She expected to look after her parents when her sisters left home—that was what happened to capable unmarried daughters—but she secretly dreamed that perhaps one day she’d have enough money to buy a little cottage in a little village somewhere and be herself.
    Whatever “herself” was, she’d never really had the chance to find out.
    Suddenly, when her youngest sister was seventeen and already engaged, their father was killed by a falling tree while riding to see a parishioner during a storm. Instead of being needed to look after aging parents, Beth found herself pushed out of the nest. Much to her surprise, her mother decided to go to live with her middle daughter, who had just given birth to twin boys and was asking for her mother’s help. Beth had no idea how her mother would be of any help, but since the family home must go to the new pastor, suddenly she was in the position of being without anyone dependent upon her and without a home.
    It was the family lawyer who suggested it. A friend of his in London knew of the opening—a young girl whose father had died needed a full-time carer and nanny, and later on a companion. Beth seemed eminently suitable, and jumped at the chance to live in London. Looking after one child would be a simple matter after all of those sisters!
    What she wasn’t expecting was to love that child from the moment she saw her—four-year-old Averil, with her thick blond hair and her anxious gray eyes. They had been together now for sixteen years. Averil had grown into a fine young woman, and Beth had time for herself, to visit plays and operas and museums. All in all, Beth had had a wonderful second chance at life. But just recently she’d begun to wonder once more what would become of her when Averil no longer needed her.
    There was marriage, of course, and she wasn’t too old to find a nice widower somewhere. Beth knew she was no great beauty. Slight of build, with hair a mousy brown and eyes to match, she wasn’t much to look at really, and yet her sweet nature drew gentlemen to her. Beth knew that Averil would like to match her with Dr. Simmons, but she was going to have to disappoint her. Gareth Simmons did not appeal to her in the least.
    The truth was, she had no desire to be anyone’s wife. The little cottage in the little village no longer held much appeal either; she knew she’d miss her busy life in London too much. Her future was a niggling concern that came to her in the middle of the night, and one she’d so far managed to dismiss. But when Averil turned twenty-one it was quite likely she would want her independence from a companion, and certainly if she were to marry then she would no longer need Beth.
    In the meantime she had enough to worry about, with Lord Southbrook’s pursuit of Averil. Despite Averil’s instant rejection of the idea, that was what it looked like to her. Wrangling an invitation to the baroness’s champagne supper? Averil being thrust