Kindle Edition
Amazon
Kate Harriet
Amazon
Category:
Romance
ISBN-10: n/a
Type: Fiction
Pages: 415
Copyright: Dec 22, 2021
ISBN-13: n/a
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
When a family emergency brings Jess Smith back to her childhood village of Birling Grove, it seems that its notorious earl is already in the London copywriter’s bad books.
Worse still he is meddling in village affairs. As Jess struggles to save old traditions, can the couple rekindle the magic of their Christmas romance?
He is stubborn, a little arrogant and he is also an earl. And you can bet he is used to having his own way…
When a family emergency drags talented London copywriter Jess Smith back to her childhood village, she hopes to escape more unwanted news of her now-married crush Matthew Churchill.
Worse still, after her Christmas romance with the local earl was mocked in a society magazine, Lord Burness is now in her bad books...
Now saddled with PolkaDot Media’s most impossible client, she returns to Birling Grove to find the earl and the locals at loggerheads about the farmers’ spring ball.
Forced to act as peacemaker between the strong-willed Lord Burness and furious farmers, Jess must now juggle her new client’s endless demands.
Can she raise the farmers’ ball from the ashes, or will her old bully Amanda Huntley and her mother sabotage the event for their own nefarious ends?
And meanwhile, as old flames conspire to keep Jess and the earl apart, can they rekindle the magic of their fairytale romance?
A Spring Romance with the Earl is the second book in a series of sweet romance novels, featuring a handsome royal with a scandalous reputation and a feisty heroine who isn’t waiting for her happily-ever-after just to fall in her lap.
So if you want to enjoy an exciting but heartwarming romance book, set in a pretty Kentish village at the first blossom of spring—then get your copy today!
Excerpt
Chapter One
Thursday 22nd March
SILVER RAINDROPS SPECKLED the windowpanes of PolkaDot Media’s open plan office as Jess Smith sat at her laptop, a Christmas gift from the Earl of Birling Grove, and clicked send. She leant back in her chair, took off her tortoiseshell glasses and gazed out across the grey London skyline with a relieved sigh.
Thank goodness the ad campaign for Redbanana was finally over and not only was her client thrilled with the number of new sign-ups, they promised to write her a glowing review. Not that her boss, Clare, would ever feature it on Polka’s website.
Then Jess’s mobile phone began to hum on the desk. She flinched and cancelled the call.
Ashley Evans, her workmate and best friend of ten years, glanced up from the opposite computer screen with a sigh.
‘That’s the third time you’ve done that this morning. Why won’t you answer your phone?’
Jess scrabbled to slip on her glasses as the phone hummed once more. ‘What was that?’
‘You’re away with the fairies, again. I said why don’t you pick up your phone?’ Ashley stared at the culprit. It fell silent at once.
Jess shrugged. ‘See? It was nothing.’
The blonde’s eyebrows knitted in a frown. ‘You never ignore your phone. Is Matt bothering you again?’
‘Matthew never calls. Not since he got married to my most ardent fan, Amanda Huntley...’
‘You mean most ardent fan Amanda Huntley-Churchill,’ Ashley replied.
‘I was trying to forget. Besides, I blocked his number just in case.’
‘Then you’re ignoring calls from a certain earl from Kent.’
Jess typed as nonchalantly as she could. ‘Hardly had time to think about him at all.’
Ashley’s eyes narrowed. ‘Really?’ She stared at two withered rose bouquets lodged inside Jess’s wastepaper basket.
‘I’ve been up to my neck in Redbanana copy for months.’
Her workmate rolled her eyes. ‘As if a quirky name will distract anyone from that app’s extortionate bank charges. Now back to the earl-.’
The phone began to hum again.
‘Will you just answer that? It’s driving me potty!’
Jess put it on silent. The phone screen flashed instead.
Ashley slammed down her mouse. ‘Just pick up the ruddy thing!’
Jess’s fingers hesitated over the phone, then she snatched it up and dropped it into her blue satchel.
Her friend’s brow crinkled. ‘Now you’re hiding it?’
‘I told you I’m busy.’
‘Counting raindrops for the Met Office?’
‘He knows I’m at work.’
‘Aren’t you curious about what he has to say?’
‘As I’ve told you before, Matthew and I are not speaking.’
‘I’m not talking about that prat Churchill. I’m talking about the Earl of Birling Grove!’
Their fellow copywriters stopped typing to stare.
‘Shh,’ Jess hissed. ‘No-one’s supposed to know.’
From a corner desk Andy cleared his throat. ‘Actually, the whole office knows.’ Five other copywriters murmured in agreement.
‘That article could’ve been about anyone,’ Jess spluttered. ‘Besides it’s none of your business.’
Her colleagues grimaced then pretended to resume their work.
Ashley stared at her, incredulous. ‘You just confirmed it! Besides it’s not something you can hide; it was all over Jangler magazine.’
‘I have Lord Burness’s friends to thank for that, haven’t I.’
‘So he’s Lord Burness again, is he? What on earth did they say to you?’
‘Absolutely nothing,’ Jess replied. ‘When he invited me to his New Year’s Ball, they completely blanked me. Clearly thought I was some sort of festive fling—granted their first impression was of me wearing a reindeer onesie and pink Wellington boots whilst brandishing a loaded shotgun.’
‘Weren’t the earl’s wild bashes disturbing the local peace?’
‘If only that was what offended them most!’ Jess cried. ‘It was actually because I invited the whole village to his ‘frightfully tacky’ mulled wine party.’
Her friend’s eyebrows rose. ‘Tackier than snorting spicy talcum powder at a posh sex soirée?’
‘It wasn’t a sex party.’
‘Well that’s alright then!’ Ashley replied. ‘He did read them the riot act…’
‘Christopher was far too busy playing the gracious host to notice. So I just grinned and bore it till you sent me that link.’
‘Oh God, I ruined your New Year’s Eve!’
‘Actually, you saved me from further embarrassment. There was no way I was going to stay at a ball where everyone thought I was some money-grubbing social climber.’
‘Who cares what they think?’ her friend cried. ‘Christopher’s opinion is the only one that counts.’
‘That’s what hurt the most,’ Jess sighed. ‘He never even stood up for me. They all thought I was plotting to become his next fiancée, when the truth was I hadn’t gotten over Matthew.’
Ashley tilted her head. ‘Would things be different if he’d defended you?’
‘It’s not like Christopher didn’t apologise profusely. But apparently his family’s policy is: ‘Never complain, never explain.’ Never mind I’m being trolled in the press.’
‘Maybe he’s just a private man.’
‘With his notorious party-boy ways? He was practically camped out in the tabloids’ Sidebar of Shame and had no trouble defending his cheating ex in the press.’
‘I guess his magnanimity only extends to fellow aristocrats. So did you stay at the ball?’
‘I slipped out just before twelve.’
Her friend gasped. ‘Before the midnight kiss? Who do you think you are, Cinderella?’
‘Cinderella can’t drive a tractor in high heels. But unlike her it wasn’t a glass slipper I left behind…’
‘Personally I would’ve kept the diamond bracelet.’
‘It didn’t feel right if I was having doubts,’ said Jess. ‘Nor did I want to take a fifty-thousand-pound bracelet back on the train.’
‘Fifty-what?’ Ashley spluttered. ‘Did you think you’d get mugged by an OAP on the way home?’
‘I was more worried I’d lose it than get robbed. So I posted it through his letterbox that same night and ran. Besides it would’ve only got my hopes up that it was more than a fling.’
‘And I was so sure that your romance would last.’
‘It would seem his chums were right after all,’ Jess sighed.
Her best friend frowned in thought. ‘But if it was just a festive fling, then why three months on is he still sending you flowers?’
Jess pushed the bouquet-filled bin out of view with a foot. ‘Probably wants me to write more copy for his poxy new restaurant,’ she muttered.
‘None of my clients have ever sent me roses...’
‘I’m just grateful I ended things before he did and his friends didn’t leak my name to the press.’
Ashley folded her arms so tight that her white sleeves gleamed under the fluorescent lights. ‘I think you’re so shocked you’ve finally met a man who’s sane and solvent that you are determined to sabotage it.’
‘The estate at Burness Hall is not even his yet and you almost blew it by getting the wrong end of the stick.’
‘You can hardly blame me for thinking he was getting married. What normal man names both sons after himself?’
Jess shrugged. ‘The sort of man who has tea with the Queen?’
‘And his family thought highly of you as well,’ Ashley tutted.
‘I was a convenient way to get over his heartbreak,’ Jess replied. ‘I was supposed to hawk the family booze, not start seeing the duke’s heir.’
‘But it’s not his friends and family you’re dating.’
‘I got carried away by the Christmas spirit, that’s all,’ Jess sighed. ‘But now the magic and tinsel are gone I’m faced with the cold reality that it was never going to last.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘In the end Christopher is expected to marry a woman from his class, not some pleb who has to grind for a living. What New Year’s Eve showed me is that we come from different worlds and perhaps it’s time we both moved on.’
Her friend’s eyes narrowed once more. ‘Perhaps the real reason you won’t give him a chance, is that you still aren’t over Matt.’
Jess’s gut kicked, but she kept her composure. ‘Lord Burness’s silence confirmed my decision. I just need to meet someone with more in common. Someone I can actually relate to.’
Ashley eyed Clare’s office. ‘And what if the boss wants you to work for the earl again?’
‘I already told him things are busy in London and he should hire someone else.’
‘How can you be so cold? The man’s clearly in love.’
‘We spent less than a fortnight together!’
‘No-one gives diamonds to a fling.’
‘He’s rich,’ said Jess. ‘For all I know he probably buys all his bits of fluff Christmas-fling bracelets.’
‘Ugh! Stop making excuses and tell me the real reason you’re throwing this relationship away.’
Jess shrugged. ‘Christopher clearly wasn’t the gentleman I thought he was.’
‘Really,’ said Ashley. She stared pointedly at the exit as Paul the receptionist entered with a cream hat box.
Jess froze. Please let it be for Saskia…
Paul stopped dead in front of Jess.
‘S’pose these are for you, again,’ he said and proffered the box. Jess snatched it before he turned on his heel. ‘Alright for some.’
She opened the large box to find it filled with royal red roses.
‘More flowers?’ cried Saskia from her laptop across the office.
‘You’ve been married three years, accept that romance is dead,’ Ashley said. ‘Besides who gets married at twenty-six?’
‘Those who can?’ Saskia replied with a satisfied smile, then returned to work with a toss of amber curls.
‘Want some ice for that burn, Ash?’ said Jess.
‘She has no right to be envious,’ her friend muttered. ‘Though the size of that bouquet would make Elton John jealous. I think this man’s going to marry you.’
As Andy choked on his coffee, Jess read the card:
Please tell me what I’ve done wrong. Love, C
She felt a pang in her heart but dumped the hat box beside the stuffed wastepaper basket without further ceremony. ‘Who’s talking about marriage? I saw him for less than two weeks.’
‘Sometimes that’s all it takes.’
‘To be the victim of a serial-killer?’
‘He certainly wouldn’t have rescued you from Amanda if he had murderous intentions.’
‘But who wants to be known as some posh bloke’s bit of rough?’
Ashley shrugged. ‘If you say so. But on the upside at least Matt’s no longer pestering you.’
‘Small mercies,’ Jess replied with another slight pang. ‘And now Manda’s plastered herself in my dream wedding dress all over social media, she no longer needs to flaunt my school skirt as a trophy.’
‘Nah, she’s still wearing it in her LinkedIn profile.’
‘What is wrong with that woman?’
‘If it cheers you up, apparently Matt wept inconsolably after saying ‘I do’. Or after Manda forcefully elbowed him in the ribs when he hesitated.’
Jess forced a smile. ‘Seems like my childhood crush has finally been cured…’
Pity it was by a tall dark and handsome earl whose calls she now avoided.
Now her blue satchel started to hum.
‘Perhaps you should ignore it. Heaven forbid Christopher buys you a ring to match that bracel-.’
Jess dived into the satchel and answered the phone without checking the screen.
‘Hello Christopher?’ she said and hurried towards the exit.
‘Not that awful stuffed shirt,’ a familiar voice tutted in reply. ‘It’s your nearest and dearest, Matty.’
‘What?’ Jess cried before the door slammed behind her. She stared at Unknown on the display, then glanced up to see the entire office watching through the door’s window.
Who is it? Ashley mouthed.
Jess mimed the most derogatory gesture she could think of.
Ashley rolled her eyes. Matt.
‘Don’t hang up!’ he cried.
‘What do you want?’ Jess snapped.
‘Hardly the warm welcome I expected from my bestie. I just wanted to talk.’
‘First of all, I’m not your bestie. Secondly, you’re the last person I want to talk to right now and thirdly, why are you withholding your number?’
‘Jessie Bear, I know you’re still heartbroken after I got hitched-.’
‘I couldn’t care less!’
‘Yes, you’re a strong independent woman who doesn’t need any man, but the reason I called today is because I need to run something by you.’
‘Here’s a novel concept: Talk to your wife!’
‘I would ordinarily, but it might prove a little perilous...’
‘Goodbye Matthew.’
His voice grew serious. ‘Jessica Jane this is important.’
Jess exhaled. ‘My mother only calls me that when she’s livid and I’ll remind you that the last time your wife found out we were talking she almost committed ABH.’
‘That snow globe incident was blown completely out of proportion,’ he scoffed. ‘Besides she’s hardly the boss of me.’
‘Then why are you whispering?’
‘I’m not whispering,’ he whispered.
‘Or using a burner phone? Do you want Amanda to think you have a mistress?’
‘Wouldn’t want to arouse her suspicions,’ Matthew muttered. ‘Though if you’d like to be considered there’s always a slot…’
‘That does it!’ Jess went to hang up.
‘Wait!’ he cried. ‘I have something important to tell you. And I can’t seem to get past your building’s ruddy security.’
‘You’re at my workplace?’ Jess squeaked. ‘That is stalking!’
The whole office still stared at her. ‘Injury lawyer,’ she shouted.
Oh, her colleagues mouthed then pretended to work again.
‘Besides I have no-one else to talk to,’ Matthew pouted. ‘Not since you had that ridiculous fling with that stuck-up berk.’
‘That’s still none of your business and I no longer care about your problems. Never contact me again, goodb-.’
‘Amanda’s going to have a baby!’ he cried.
Matthew’s words punched a hole through her chest. The baby was an inevitable next step, but the news felt as if the floor had crumbled from beneath her feet.
Jess mouthed soundless words before she finally stuttered. ‘You…you told me you never wanted kids.’
‘Until I met the right woman,’ Matthew replied smoothly. ‘And as my closest, dearest friend I thought you should be the first to know.’
Jess sat down on the steps in shock. ‘You’re having a baby?’
First, Amanda stole her school skirt during P.E.
Then she stole her childhood crush, her dream dress and wedding venue.
Now her rival would have the very child she had dreamed of for years with Matthew Churchill.
She had to get over it. She must get over it! But when would the shattering of her dreams ever stop?
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