Free His Island Bride by Shadonna Richards

 
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“ Happiness is where we find it, but rarely
where we seek it…”
– Jean Antoine Petit- Senn (1792–1870)
French-Swiss Poet
     
 
     
 
     
“You have to meet this young man, Jess. I’ve heard so many great things about him.”
     
“Sorry, Mom! Not this time. I’m really not interested in being hooked up.” Jessica Mills sat in the kitchen sipping her coffee as she eyed her mother.
     
“And why not, Jess?”
     
“Because the last time you played matchmaker it turned out to be a total disaster! Remember?”
     
“Oh, Jess. Nobody’s perfect, darling. I mean, how was I supposed to know that Mrs. Pawl’s nephew was a kleptomaniac for God’s sake. A kleptomaniac !” Her mother replied, scrubbing the frying pan with such force one would think she was displacing her anger on the pan.
     
“Yeah, he was supposed to steal my heart, not my jewellery, my cellphone and my best friend,” Jessica tightened her lips, trying to conceal her fury. She placed her cup down on the table and gazed out the window as the morning sunlight beamed into the kitchen.
     
“Okay, that one was a screw up, dear. But trust me, Jess. This one’s different. You remember that reunion I went to a while back? Well, one of my former classmates married into an aristocratic family and well, they have a darling son who has trouble settling down. And in order to take over the estate one day, he should marry suitable.”
     
“You mean marry a rich girl, of which I am clearly not.”
     
“No, we’re not…yet, dear. But we have some aristocrat in our blood line. It’s sort of like Lady Diana Spencer before she became a princess. You know?”
     
“Yes, I know. The difference is, nobody knows about our supposed link to some dead forgotten duke. And besides, we’re a struggling working class family all the way. No glamour there.”
     
“Well anyway, his name is Earl and he’ll be… get this…an earl! His uncle was actually the title holder  but recently died and left no heirs.”
     
Jessica chuckled. “His name is Earl and he’s an earl?” She sighed. “Okay and his uncle didn’t have any sons so it bumped to the nearest male member of the household. Am I right?”
     
“Right. So all of a sudden this young man inherits the title as earl of a huge estate in England. I heard he’ll inherit 14,000 acres of beautiful countryside property. The estate holds charitable events and all sorts of wonderful things. Could you imagine? Well anyway, he has to marry or at least they prefer him to marry someone of an aristocratic bloodline.”
     
“You mean someone in the highest social class in society, next to being royalty?”
     
“Exactly!”
     
“Which we are not, Mother!” Jessica playfully rolled her eyes, trying hard not to burst her mother’s enthusiastic bubble.
     
It was too late. Her mother looked deflated as she finished up the dishes and dried her hands on a sheet of paper towel.
     
“Up until recently we were just common people,” Jessica tried to rationalize her stand on the situation. “And we just found out we have an ancestor who was some duke or something hundreds of years back in England—so how could that make me eligible?”
     
“We have blood ties to the Honourable Elbert Mills IV, the Duke of Arrington. That makes you eligible, dear.”
     
“Yeah and I was only too happy to Google my great-great uncle’s history. I looked up Arrington, his supposed estate which, by the way, became an impoverished, debt-ridden estate that no longer exists today. Not even the Mills House exists. I read it was destroyed during the First World War.”
     
“Darling Jessica, why are you being so negative…so resistant? Don’t you see that what your father and I are trying to do for you is for the best?” Her mother’s voice grew impatient.
     
“Yes, well some matches don’t end up being what they’re supposed to be, Mom. I’ve made huge mistakes before and I really don’t know if I want to