When an Earl Meets a Girl (Chase Family, #1)

by Lauren Royal

Her fingers clenched tight around Lord Greystone’s ring as the tears that had been threatening welled up, and before she could stop herself, she dropped to her knees beside him. “Papa, look at me. Me!” She reached for his hands and grasped them in hers, the ring trapped somewhere amidst the tangle of their fingers. “Papa! Remember you told me I’d have a love, a love like yours and Mama’s? You promised, but it hasn’t happened! I don’t love Robert!” She felt a tear escape and roll down her cheek as her desperate eyes implored his pained ones. “If something happened to him, I wouldn’t gaze at his picture, I wouldn’t—” “Enough!” He stood so abruptly that Amy fell back. Never had he raised his voice to her. Now in his fear, his loneliness, he lashed out. “I loved your mother—I still do—and she’s gone! I cannot work—I stare at her painting—I loved her so! Better you and Robert think straight. Not like me!” His shoulders slumped, and his voice dropped to a husky whisper. “Not like me.”