Molly,
When I visited Ashmead last summer, I am certain you told me the Duchess of Glenmoor was a recluse. You were quite firm that she rarely left the Clarion Hall dower house. What is she doing barreling on past Birmingham on the coaching road?
We arrived stopped to refresh at the Crippled Cock on our way south and noticed a carriage with the Clarion crest in the yard. I hoped to catch sight of the Earl of Clarion, but who did we see leaving the private parlor but the duchess herself. She and her companion made no greeting and departed smartly. A male companion! I saw no sign of a respectable woman with them. assisted her into the carriage and road up behind on a fine mount.
An illustration of “The Follies & Fashions of our Grandfathers: 1807” by Andrew W Tuer. Getty Images
The innkeeper proved closed mouthed, but the serving wench talked freely. The duchess claimed the “companion” was her brother. Isn’t the earl her only brother, and him fair of hair and complexion? In all my years visiting Ashmead I’ve never seen a Caulfield with hair as black as this gentleman, if I can call him that.
Do you have any notion who it might have been or why they were in such urgency to travel east? Write to me as soon as you can to the Thomas’s townhouse in London.
Your devoted etc.
Maudy Flint
About the Series
The Duchess of Glemoor’s flight east takes place in The Defiant Daughter, Book 2 in Caroline Warfield’s The Ashmead Heirs. It will come out in October 2021. She is the sister of both the earl and of Sir Robert Benson.
The Wayward Son, Book One is available now.
About the Book, The Wayward Son
Sir Robert Benson’s life is in London. He fled Ashmead the day he discovered the man he thought was his father had lied to him, and the girl he loved was beyond his reach. Only a nameless plea from his sister—his half-sister—brings him back to discover he’s been left an estate with a choice piece of land. He will not allow a ludicrous bequest from the earl who sired him turn him into a mockery of landed gentry. When a feisty little termagant with flashing eyes—and a musket—tries to turn Rob off the land—his land—he’s too amused and intrigued to turn away. But the longer he stays, the tighter the bonds that tie him to Ashmead become, strengthened by the powerful draw of the woman rooted on land he’s determined to sell.
Lucy Whitaker’s life is Willowbrook, its land, its tenants, its prosperity, but she always knew it wasn’t hers, knew the missing heir would come eventually. When a powerful man with military bearing rides up looking as if he wants to come in and count the silver, she turns him away, but her heart sinks. She can’t deny Rob Benson his property; she can only try to make him love the place as she does, for her peoples’ sake. A traitorous corner of her heart wishes Rob would love it for her sake.
His life is London and diplomatic intrigue; hers is Ashmead and the land. How can they forge something lasting when they are torn in two directions?
Available on Kindle Unlimited or for purchase at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09484DC1D/
About the Author
Award winning author Caroline Warfield has been many things: traveler, librarian, poet, raiser of children, bird watcher, Internet and Web services manager, conference speaker, indexer, tech writer, genealogist—even a nun. She reckons she is on at least her third act, happily working in an office surrounded by windows where she lets her characters lead her to adventures in England and the far-flung corners of the British Empire. She nudges them to explore the riskiest territory of all, the human heart.
Links
Website: http://www.carolinewarfield.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WarfieldFellowTravelers
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Caroline-Warfield/e/B00N9PZZZS/
Good Reads: http://bit.ly/1C5blTm
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/caroline-warfield