Читать онлайн «Promise Of A Family»
Автор Jessica Steele
Get ready to be swept off your feet by perfect English gentlemen!
Harlequin Romance® brings you another fabulous, heartwarming read by bestselling author
JESSICA STEELE
Jessica’s classic love stories will whisk you into a world of pure romantic excitement.
Jessica Steele is a much-loved author of over eighty novels.
Praise for some of Jessica’s books:
“Jessica Steele pens an unforgettable tale filled with vivid, lively characters, fabulous dialogue and a touching conflict. ”
—Romantic Times BOOKclub
“A Professional Marriage is a book to sit back and enjoy on the days that you want to bring joy to your heart and a smile to your face. It is a definite feel-good book. ”
“Jessica Steele pens a lovely romance…with brilliant characters, charming scenes and an endearing premise. ”
—Romantic Times BOOKclub
Promise of a Family
Jessica Steele
Jessica Steele lives in the county of Worcestershire, with her super husband, Peter, and their gorgeous Staffordshire bull terrier, Florence. Any spare time is spent enjoying her three main hobbies: reading espionage novels, gardening (she has a great love of flowers) and playing golf. Any time left over is celebrated with her fourth hobby, shopping. Jessica has a sister and two brothers, and they all, with their spouses, often go on golfing holidays together. Having traveled to various places on the globe, researching background for her stories, there are many countries that she would like to revisit. Her most recent trip abroad was to Portugal, where she stayed in a lovely hotel close to her all-time favorite golf course. Jessica had no idea of being a writer, until one day Peter suggested she write a book.
So she did. She has now written over eighty novels.CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
THEY were in the kitchen of the large, rambling old house when, sensing her niece’s eyes on her—her half-niece, to be exact—Leyne looked up from the school uniform shirt she was ironing.
‘What?’ she asked, looking into Pip’s direct gaze.
Pip stared at her for a few more seconds and then, reddening slightly, said in a rush, ‘Leyne—do you know who my father is?’
The question was so totally unexpected that Leyne felt winded by it and was not sure that her jaw did not drop a fraction. Pip had never shown any curiosity about her father before, and now of all times, with her mother out of the country, was not the best time for her to start asking questions on that subject.
‘Er—no, love, I don’t,’ Leyne replied honestly.
‘Mmm. ’ Pip accepted her answer and went on to ask a question in connection with the history project she was working on and needed for school in the morning.
Leyne hoped that the question of who Pip’s father was had been an idle, throw-away kind of question. But as she lay in her bed that night she could not get out of her mind that direct look of her half-sister’s eleven-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
