Earls Rush In


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. 
 Copyright © 2023 by Jennifer Haymore. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
 Entangled Publishing, LLC
 644 Shrewsbury Commons AveSTE 181Shrewsbury, PA 17361
 [email protected]
 Scandalous is an imprint of Entangled Publishing. 
 Edited by Heather Howland
 Cover design by Bree Archer
 Cover photography by Period Images
 Iuliia Zavalishina/Getty Images
 ISBN 978-1-64937-566-7
 Manufactured in the United States of America
 First Edition May 2023
 
 
 
 At Entangled, we want our readers to be well-informed. If you would like to know if this book contains any elements that might be of concern for you, please check the book’s webpage for details.
 https://entangledpublishing.com/books/earls-rush-in
 
 
 Chapter One
 “Miss Chapman, would you be amenable to me asking your uncle for your hand in marriage?”
 Charlotte stared at the man gazing up at her from bended knee. On some level, she had expected this—all signs had led to Mr. Bagshaw’s imminent proposal. Even so, a wave of dizziness crashed over her, and she gripped the arm of the sofa as if it could keep her from tumbling further into the odd version of reality her life had become ever since her brother’s death.
 She licked her lips. Parted them. Tried to form the words she knew she had to say.
 Failed.
 Mr. Bagshaw’s brows drew together in dawning concern.
 The last thing she wanted to do was make him question her. She didn’t want him to regret his proposal. She wanted to marry him. More than anything.
 Well, all right. Maybe not anything.
 Maybe she didn’t want to marry him at all.
 But she needed to. Of that there was no question.
 Goodness. All she had to do was be cheerful and bubbly, and she knew how to do that. She just needed to be herself. Charlotte 
 Chapter Two
 Finneas Jones, the Earl of Trevelyan, stopped his horse and faced the small knot of women clustered on the road. They surged toward him, matching looks of anxiety twisting their expressions.
 One of the women, her gray-streaked hair pinned haphazardly atop her head, tears streaking her rounded cheeks, pushed to the front of the group, a second, equally distressed-looking woman at her heels. Finn recognized them at once. The leader was Mrs. Thompson, upon whom he had bestowed a living when her husband had died from consumption last year. Just behind her was Mrs. Taylor, mother of seven, the youngest of whom was the little scamp, Archie. The last time Finn had ridden into the village, Archie had trotted up to him and started chattering to him about his mount, calling the horse, in a very older-than-five-year-old manner, “A very fine piece of horseflesh!”
 “Milord, it’s Jimmy and little Archie,” Mrs. Thompson cried. “They’ve gone missing.”
 Finn tugged out his handkerchief and handed it down to her, then glanced at the gray sky. The temperature had dropped considerably in the past hour, and a light snowfall had begun