Flirting with His Forbidden Lady--A Regency Family is Reunited by Laura Martin (good novels to read txt) 📕

‘You weren’t lying, Lady Elizabeth. I take it back.’

He winked at her, prompting her to play along.

‘A lady never lies, Mr Ashburton.’

‘This must be the industrious Mrs Turner.’ He took her flour-covered hand and bowed over it as if she were the queen of Spain.

‘Indeed,’ Mrs Turner said, as yet unimpressed by Josh’s charm.

‘Lady Elizabeth told me you ran the kitchen all by yourself and I refused to believe her. Not after those exquisite soufflés last night.’

Somehow he’d picked exactly the right thing to compliment Mrs Turner on and before Beth’s eyes the older woman visibly softened.

‘They were far from my best. The kitchen is too far from the dining room to do them justice. A soufflé should be served straight from the oven.’

‘If they were not your best, Mrs Turner, I do not think the world is ready for your best. I for one would refuse to leave Birling View, waiting each day for one of your delicious soufflés.’

It was too much, surely it was too much. He was being too effusive, too over the top, but to Beth’s amazement Mrs Turner was actually blushing. This was the woman who had chased her and Annabelle from the kitchens even as grown adults, muttering that it was her domain and they should stick to waltzing around upstairs. Now Beth was wondering if she was about to start fluttering her eyelashes at Josh.

‘I wonder, Mrs Turner,’ Josh said, leaning in conspiratorially, ‘if I might ask a favour.’ He held his hands up quickly, continuing to talk before she had a chance to answer. ‘I wouldn’t dream of asking you to pack a picnic for us, I know how much you have to do cooking for all the other guests, but would you mind terribly if Lady Elizabeth and I took an apple or two and perhaps a few slices of bread for our picnic?’

There was a long silence and Beth thought she was going to throw them both out of her kitchen.

‘I can’t have just anyone rummaging through my kitchen.’

He flashed her his most charming smile.

‘But if you sit down I’ll pack you a little basket you can take out with you.’

Josh sat, taking a biscuit from the tray fresh out of the oven when offered and making all the right noises. Mrs Turner offered Beth one as an afterthought and Beth had the sense to munch on it quietly, being as unobtrusive as possible.

Ten minutes later, heavy picnic basket in hand, they left the kitchen. It felt illicit, exciting, and Beth felt her heart lightening as they slipped through the hall.

‘Enjoy yourself,’ Annabelle’s soft voice called out from the shadows of the hallway. Beth spun and smiled at her sister, feeling the familiar guilt as she realised that once again she was going to enjoy the day whilst Annabelle stayed cloistered inside. Quickly Beth turned back and grasped her sister’s hand.

‘Go,’ Annabelle urged.

‘I’ll stop by the village before the shop closes tonight and pick you up that book I promised you,’ Beth said, leaning in and kissing her sister on her cheek.

‘Thank you.’

Beth turned and stepped away, casting one final look back over her shoulder at Annabelle.

Chapter Seventeen

They didn’t take the horses, instead choosing to walk over the grassy cliffs, heading east from Birling View up the steep hills that climbed towards Beachy Head. It was another warm day but there was a pleasant light breeze that stopped it from feeling unbearable as they strolled arm in arm.

‘I remember coming to the seaside in England when I was a boy,’ Josh said as they stood at the top of the cliffs, looking out over the sea below. As always it was crashing against the cliffs here; even on a completely calm day the waves were impressive around the point of the coastline. ‘I don’t know where it was but, given our family home was in Kent, it makes sense it would have been somewhere not that far from here.’

‘I can’t imagine only remembering fragments of my time in the country where I was born.’

‘I don’t think of it as home, just a distant memory of somewhere I used to live.’

‘Are you glad you came back?’

‘Yes.’ It was said without hesitation, and he realised he didn’t have to think about it. There had been so many good things about coming to England, so many important things. It was worth the six-month voyage in both directions, worth a year of his life spent at sea even for a few short months in the country. ‘I would choose to do the same again in a heartbeat.’ He offered Beth his arm and they continued their leisurely stroll before he continued. ‘Before I left India I was aware how lucky I was. I had the business waiting for me, a future. I had people who loved me, friends, a life. Despite all that I felt as though a part of me was missing.’

‘Your family.’

He nodded. There had always been a hole; no matter how happy and fulfilling the other parts of his life, he had always been acutely aware of the people who were missing.

‘I can’t ever know my parents, and I was so young when they died the memory of them is hazy, but Leo was here. Alive and living the life we both should have had if fate hadn’t intervened.’ He smiled at Beth. He didn’t want her sympathy; he didn’t want her to feel sorry for him. His life had been blessed in many ways and now he had reconnected with Leo he felt more complete. ‘I may not see Leo for another ten years but at least now I know him as an adult, as a man, not the boys we were when I last saw him.’

‘I’m really pleased you have reconnected with your brother.’

‘There has been another good thing about this trip to England.’

She looked up at him, the sun glinting off her hair and making her blue eyes sparkle, and Josh had to stop himself from taking