Once Upon a Dreamy Match: A Historical Regency Romance Book Read online

  Benedict chuckled. “Just as you are my golden Lady.”

  “I wonder which their foal will take after?”

  Benedict gave her a knowing smile, eyes flitting to her belly. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

  Daphne unwound Lady from the carriage, leading her effortlessly into her new stall. Once she had been safely stowed amongst the fresh hay, Daphne and Benedict returned to the sunshine. Gazing down across the hill they had ridden so many times, a glimmer of anticipation ran through her.

  How easily she could picture the three of them – her, her husband, and their child – together on horseback. She placed a hand over her belly once again, and this time Benedict put his hand atop hers. Life had so much in store for them now, and she could not wait to embrace it together.

  THE END

  Can't get enough of Daphne and Benedict? Then make sure to check out the Extended Epilogue to find out…

  What kind of ceremony will our couple attend, and how will Daphne feel about it?

  What surprising turn could Walter’s, Daphne’s father's life take over the course of time?

  In what new way will Daphne and Benedict's heavenly love develop along the way?

  Click the link or enter it into your browser

  http://bridgetbarton.com/daphne

  (After reading the Extended Epilogue, turn the page to read the first chapters from “A Wildflower for the Wounded Lord”, my Amazon Best-Selling novel!)

  A Wildflower for the Wounded Lord

  Introduction

  Harriet Howard has always been a rebellious soul and hard to tame. Much to her mother’s distaste, she has never had any interest in the commodities that other girls desire and has always detested the idea of getting married. However, everything is about to change after she comes across her best friend’s brother, who re-enters her life after a fateful twist of luck. From that point on, she is captured by his presence and starts believing that a chance at love may be within reach. While her heart secretly dreams of a happy future with the charming gentleman, her parents have other plans for her, and Harriet has to escape before it’s too late. Will Harriet find the courage to stand up for what she truly wants and take the leap of real love? Will she trust her heart and go against everything that is threatening to destroy her happiness?

  After the unexpected death of his mother, Lord Byron Maxwell escapes to his father’s estate in France. Always avoiding his grief and scared of getting hurt, he has been dismissing every chance to match with an eligible wife, in fear of losing her, like his father did. When his father becomes tragically ill, he rushes back home as soon as possible. To his own surprise, that’s when he meets a woman who will change the course of his life by helping him overcome his previous fear and believe in soulmates. However, it will be an uphill struggle to find happiness by her side and he will have to defy everyone who is against his new love. How far will Byron go to claim the only woman who managed to mend his broken heart? Will he survive the sudden storm and cherish the sunshine of his one true love?

  Byron and Harriet soon realise that their real happiness has been right under their noses all along and it’s nowhere else but in their blooming connection. There’s only one problem though; their fathers have always dreamt of another future for them and do not intend to back down until they achieve what they want. However, Byron and Harriet know that their life has no meaning without each other and are determined to break down the walls that tend to keep them apart. Will they find a way to overcome the challenges and have their happily ever after? Or will they both be destined to a doomed fate that will throw them into an endless and loveless sorrow?

  Chapter 1

  1812

  Harriet was always happier outside. From an early age, much to her mother’s distaste, she had been content to run and frolic about in the fields, climbing trees with her closest friend, Bryce Maxwell, the youngest son of Lord Maxwell.

  While the other girls were busy gossiping and talking about the latest fashions, she would rather be getting her skirts dirty in the gardens.

  At just twelve years old she found herself skimming pebbles across the surface of the pond at the end of Lord Maxwell’s estate, laughing at Bryce who seemed unable to do it.

  “Just flick your wrist, like this,” she said, showing him once again that she was an excellent pebble skimmer.

  Bryce scowled and screwed up his face in concentration as he tried once more, and failed.

  “I don’t think I will ever be able to do it.” Bryce sighed and dropped down onto the pebbly ground, bringing his knees up to his chest. Harriet shook her head and adjusted her skirts to sit beside her friend.

  “If you give up now, you’ll never be able to do it,” Harriet pointed out and handed him another stone from her own collection that she’d picked up well before starting. She had selected it for its perfect smoothness and slender proportions, knowing that it would be one of the best stones for skimming. She had been saving it for last, sure that it would go further than any of the other stones. But seeing Bryce’s lack of confidence, she would do anything to try to boost his morale.

  Instead of taking the stone, Bryce ran his fingers through his tussled brown hair and looked at her with grateful blue eyes.

  “Even if I manage it, I’ll never be as good as you,” he said. “I’d rather you give it a good go for me.”

  Harriet shrugged and stood up. She pulled back her arm to skim the stone across the surface, in the same direction she had thrown all the others.

  It bounced on the surface, one, two, three times, before sliding beneath the water.

  Even as it disappeared Harriet could hear the sound of footsteps coming up the path behind them. The voices and chuckling that ensued as they drew closer told Harriet everything she needed to know. Bryce’s older brother was coming and he wasn’t alone.

  “Oh, look! It’s the girl who wishes she was a boy.” The female voice was cold and hard, making Harriet cringe even as she glanced over her shoulder to see the four older children had stopped at the end of the path. Every single one of them was staring at her as though they had never seen anything quite like her before, all of them except Bryce’s brother.

  Byron was taller and more athletic than his younger brother with jet-black hair and grey-blue eyes that reminded Harriet of a stormy winter sky.

  “Hasn’t anyone ever told you that it’s unladylike to skip stones?” the other boy in the party asked. Harriet had never liked him. She had always thought that he was snarky and unpleasant. And she liked him even less now as he laughed at her with open amusement.

  “Byron, what are you doing here?” Bryce asked, seeming to ignore the boy’s taunts. He pushed himself to his feet and turned to face his brother’s party. Harriet followed him, brushing the dirt from her skirts, knowing that she would never be able to get it all. Her mother would probably scold her for getting yet another good dress dirty.

  “We came to see what the animals were doing,” the first girl practically purred. She glared at Harriet as though she was nothing better than something one might find on the bottom of their shoe.

  “I do believe we’ve found a couple of lovers instead,” the second girl, a mousy, petite brunette, chuckled. “I mean, who else would wish to court a dirty wildflower like you, Harriet?”

  Harriet’s stomach clenched at the comment and she glanced at Bryce, wondering whether he might stand up for her.

  “That’s enough.”

  Harriet was surprised by the way that Bryce’s older brother stepped in. He never took his eyes off Harriet as he added, “I’m sure there are plenty of young men who would find Harriet’s adventurous side endearing.”

  “If that’s what you can call it.” The first girl laughed and her female companion chuckled along with her.

  “They may as well look in the kitchens for a scullery maid,” the other boy said. “I mean, look how dirty she is.”

  Harriet’s cheeks began to redden then and she glanced down at herself, able t
o see for the first time what she must have looked like. The hem of her blue dress was torn and tattered and there were mud splatters all the way up her skirt, stopping just above her knees.

  “Come on, Harriet.” Bryce gripped hold of her forearm and began to pull her away from the rest of the group. “You don’t need to listen to this.”

  “Why must you always be so unpleasant towards her?” she heard Byron ask his friends as she allowed Bryce to lead her away.

  She might have run if not for the fact that she knew they would see it as a weakness. She had learned a long time ago not to show weakness of any kind. Her father had always warned her to be strong and follow her heart, even when she didn’t wish to follow the usual paths laid out for those of her gender. It was yet another thing that her mother disliked. She simply wanted Harriet to be like all the other girls, worrying over her looks and spending time on her needlepoint.

  They didn’t stop until they came to a thicket of bushes. As soon as they were out of eyeshot, Harriet gently pulled her arm out of Bryce’s grip and asked, “Do you think that they are right?”

  “What do you mean?” Bryce asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

  “Do you think we will one day be married?” Harriet asked. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought though not with longing.

  Bryce laughed at that and shook his head.

  “I’m sure you will have plenty of suitors when you are older. We are much too young to think of marriage now,” he pointed out. “Besides, we are friends. I could never risk our friendship like that.”

  Harriet was relieved by his answer though she couldn’t help but wonder whether the others had been right. Nobody would want to marry her in the state that she was in. Boys liked frilly girls who never let their hair fall out of place and spent time picking out the most beautiful dresses in the morning.

  “Don’t look so worried,” Bryce insisted. “You’ve got plenty of time to start worrying about marriage. Until then I like you just the way you are.”

  And that’s exactly why they think we’ll be married someday, Harriet cringed. Although she would have been happy to spend the rest of her life with Bryce, she couldn’t ever imagine loving him the way that she had read about in the romance novels she’d snuck peaks at in her father’s library.

  The other children’s taunts seemed to have sapped all of the fun out of the day and Harriet was just leading the way back to the house, getting ready to leave, when she heard hurried footsteps come up behind them on the main path.

  Her heart skipped a beat and she felt herself cringing as she wondered whether the older children had come to give her another round of name-calling.

  But when she turned, she found that Byron was totally alone, his face set in a grim expression as he slowed near them and came to a halt.

  “Harriet, I’m glad I caught you.” He panted as though he had run all the way from the pond. If Harriet listened hard enough, she could hear the rest of his party laughing and having a good time down by the water.

  I hope they stay there, she thought.

  “What do you want, Byron?” Bryce grumbled as though he was in no mood for it either.

  “I just came to apologise to Harriet on behalf of my friends,” Byron said and his words left Harriet shaken with surprise.

  “Why would you do that?” Bryce demanded. “It’s obvious they hold no remorse for treating her the way that they do otherwise they would have come to apologise themselves.”

  Harriet knew that her friend was right but still, she couldn’t help but be grateful to Byron for at least trying.

  “Don’t worry about it.” She shrugged her shoulders and tried not to meet his eyes as she realised her cheeks were beginning to flush a bright, crimson red.

  Byron had always had that effect on her. She had always been so calm and collected around his brother but Byron held a different air about him, one that made all the other girls swoon. Harriet always tried not to let him get to her but it was difficult. She couldn’t help but admit that he was handsome though she’d never let him know to his face. His head would grow far too big if he knew the truth.

  Byron seemed to ignore his brother’s angry words and instead turned to Harriet. She was surprised when he reached out and took hold of her hand.

  “They shouldn’t have spoken to you the way that they did,” he said softly, squeezing her hand until she felt a jolt run up her forearm and into her chest.

  “I still don’t know why you are friends with those nincompoops,” Bryce shook his head but Harriet could barely hear him. She was too caught up in Byron’s grey-blue eyes. They seemed to hold her in place, forcing her to look back at him as he leaned down and pressed his lips to her hand in a way that made the skin of her knuckles tingle.

  “You’ll make a good marriage one day and if that just so happens to be my brother, he will be a lucky man indeed,” he said, looking up from where he was still bowed over her hand. Her heart skipped yet another beat and she opened her mouth to reply but found that words had quite escaped her.

  With that Byron straightened up and turned to leave. He left her standing there, trembling even as Bryce rolled his eyes at his brother’s constant need to be charming.

  “He’s just as stupid as the rest of them,” Bryce grumbled and turned back in the direction of the house.

  Although Harriet found herself nodding in agreement, inside she couldn’t help but feel as though he was wrong. Byron was not like the other children who teased and bullied her. He was a gentleman and she knew that no matter what his friends said, he would always stand up for her. Maybe it was loyalty to the fact that she was his brother’s dear friend but she couldn’t help but wonder whether it might be something else, something deeper than that.

  “We should really get home,” Bryce suggested then even as Harriet found herself watching Byron as he headed back to his friends. “Your parents will be most displeased with me if I don’t get you home in time for dinner.”

  As though the mention of her parents had triggered good sense in Harriet, she nodded and began to follow Bryce as he continued up the path.

  Chapter 2

  1814

  Byron always felt at his best whenever he was riding. The freedom of galloping over the fields on his black stallion, Thunder, left him feeling refreshed.

  A cool breeze swept in from the south, the smell of grass and wildflowers carried into his nostrils as he breathed deeply.

  The sound of a bird’s wings swooping high above his head caused him to look up and he suddenly realised that the sun was almost at its highest point.

  He was due to meet his tutor back at his father’s manor at midday. Both his father and his tutor would be scolding him for the rest of the week if he didn’t get back in time.

  Pulling up on the reins, he slowed Thunder before turning him back in the direction of the estate. Breaking into a gallop once more, he didn’t slow down until he came to the path that led up to the stables.

  As he drew closer to the yard, he began to get a sense that something was wrong. The entire estate seemed quiet—too quiet.

  Pulling his horse to a halt, he slipped down from the saddle and handed the reins over to the servant who stepped out from the stables.

  “Is something going on?” he asked the boy who could have been no more than fourteen, around the same age as his younger brother. “It’s very quiet.”

  “You haven’t heard my Lord?” the boy looked a little sheepish as he spoke, a worried flash in his brown eyes.

  Byron still couldn’t get used to being called ‘lord’ even though they’d called it him that practically since he was born. Although he had been given the courtesy title, it was his father who was the real lord.