Fleeting Encounters: Lady Francesca

Fleeting Encounters:

Lady Francesca

Arabella Sheen

Fleeting Encounters: Lady Francesca

Copyright © 2022, Arabella Sheen

ISBN: 978-1-7397710-2-7

Publisher: priceplacebooks

Electronic Publication: February 2022

Editor: Pamela Tyner

Cover: Fantasia Frog Designs

eBooks are not transferable. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

Back Cover Copy

Fleeting Encounters Series … offers erotic bedtime reading

Dare Lady Francesca Chapel bed down with her steward?

Lady Francesca has been recently widowed. And at the reading of the will, when it’s revealed her husband has gambled away the family fortune and her sizable dowry, she realizes she must find a way to save Chapel Grange, her son’s inheritance before it is lost. Penniless and desperate to survive, is Alexander the answer to Francesca’s problem?

With the turn of a card, Alexander Milton has won a parcel of land from Lord Chapel. The trouble is, he doesn’t want the Chapel estate, and more to the point, he doesn’t need it. When it’s suggested he approach the widow with an offer to form a working partnership in order to save Chapel Grange, he soon discovers he wants to merge with Lady Francesca in more ways than one.

Can Francesca and Alexander work together, or will their passion for one another stand in their way?

Content Warning: Contains erotic love scenes

​ CONTENT

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

About the Author

Chapter 1

Lady Francesca Chapel was dressed from head to foot in black. Lifting a handkerchief trimmed with black lace to her eyes, she carefully dabbed the falling tears away from her cheeks. She felt sorry for herself. Not because she mourned the loss of her husband whom she had recently buried, but because she now had to face the world alone.

Before her marriage, Francesca had been cossetted and cared for. Firstly, by her parents, who had provided for her physical and earthly needs, and then secondly, by a series of governesses, all with varying skills in the art of enabling a young lady to take her place in society. Francesca had been educated with the talents required to ensnare an eligible spouse. And then her life had changed. She had married Lord Charles Chapel and her idyllic world had altered beyond recognition.

Charles had been a hard man to please, both in and out of the bedchamber. And as a husband…well, he hadn’t been cruel exactly, merely unthinkingly neglectful.

Often, for months at a time, Francesca had been left alone at Chapel Grange to fill her days with idleness while Charles, free to come and go as he pleased, had traveled to London to follow his pleasures and deborturous pursuits.

It had annoyed Francesca that her days and evenings were lonely, but she hadn’t complained. However, her solitary nights were another matter. She’d been thankful for Charles’s prolonged absences. The chance to crawl into bed and curl beneath the sheets to sleep alone had been most welcome.

If you would care to be seated, Lady Francesca. Mr. Adams, the family’s lawyer handling the affairs of the estate, pointed toward a chair positioned at one end of the long drawing room table. We shall begin the reading of the will as soon as your son, Lord Chapel, joins us.

Francesca, if she was honest with herself, was a little intimidated by the lawyer’s manner. He was overbearing and was quite crotchety at times.

Like many of the family retainers her husband had employed, Mr. Adams was of senior years and set in his ways. But Francesca hoped to change things. Depending on the outcome of the will, she wanted to make improvements to how things were run at Chapel Grange…if only she dared.

Looking around, she noticed the room was full of strangers all dressed in dark, sobering black. A few faces were familiar, but most of the people she assumed were distant relatives that she’d never met.

Even though Charles had been head of the family, he’d never mixed with his kinfolk, yet since his death, members of the Chapel dynasty were crawling from the woodwork with the sole intention of latching on to anything and everything that remained of Charles—namely his wealth.

Mr. Adams, is it really necessary to have Theo here with us when the will is read? Francesca sat and rested her trembling hands in her lap. She hoped no one would notice her nervousness. He’s so young and is still grieving the loss of his father.

My lady, I’m afraid it’s advisable that he does so. If Master Theo… Mr. Adams coughed, adjusted his cravat, and continued. "Forgive me, I had meant to say Lord Chapel. If Lord Theodor Chapel should have questions concerning his inheritance or any entitlements from his father’s estate, I shall be on hand to answer them. He will soon be of an age to manage his own affairs and will need to know how to proceed.

But my son is only seventeen and― Francesca fell silent when she caught sight of Theo.

Her son was standing in the doorway, listening. He looked pale and anxious, and she wondered what was playing on his mind. Was he, like her, concerned about their uncertain future at Chapel Grange?

Catching Theo’s attention, Mr. Adams signaled for Theo to take the vacant chair at the head of the table. He then seated himself and gestured for the others to follow suit.

Everyone waited with strained anticipation for the reading of the will to begin, and when Mr. Adams withdrew several documents from a folder and laid them with great aplomb on the table, the room fell silent. The atmosphere was tense.

The graveness of the occasion