Rescued By the Country Gentleman

Widower Erasmus Mangevileyn has built a quiet life at Osney Abbey, content to raise his scholarly daughter and avoid the pain of ever loving again. But on the anniversary of his wife’s death, he discovers a terrified young woman giving birth alone in his threshing barn.
Within hours, Amy Abel becomes his wife — a marriage of necessity to protect her reputation and legitimize her newborn son. As spring turns to summer, Erasmus watches his reluctant bride blossom from frightened laundress into a woman of grace and newfound confidence. And when the shy gratitude in her eyes deepens into desire, it awakens a hunger he thought long buried.
But Amy holds a devastating secret about her son’s origins. When the truth comes to light, Erasmus must prove that love can conquer the past and their marriage of convenience can become a lifelong passion.

Rescued by the Country Gentleman is the complete 18,000-word first story in the Sad Victorian Daddies series.