“Wren and I have decided that we really ought to invite Viscount Dirkson to dine with us,” Alexander said. Their conversation had followed predictable lines for several minutes-inquiries after the health of Matilda and her mother, news of their young children and those of Elizabeth, Alexander’s sister, and Colin, Lord Hodges, her husband, with all of whom they had enjoyed a picnic in Richmond Park the day before. They were an amiable, attractive young couple, and Matilda was extremely fond of them. Alexander, Earl of Riverdale and head of the Westcott family, and Wren, his wife, were always welcome. She was sitting behind the tea tray in the drawing room, pouring for her mother and their visitors, whose unexpected arrival had cheered her at first. She had not thought it possible, but she had been wrong. Lady Matilda Westcott’s day had just taken a turn for the worse. Is it too late for these long-ago lovers to love again? Can there be a future for them after a thirty-six year separation? But of course it is not, and of course there can. Now, respectable once more as a man in his mid-fifties, Charles encounters once more the woman he had once loved-Lady Matilda Westcott. But as a young man, Charles suffered a heartbreaking rejection by the woman he passionately loved, and he reacted in the worst way possible-by becoming the very type of man her parents had accused him of being. For years he had a reputation as a rake and a hellion and was shunned by the highest sticklers of society. But now that former love of hers is back in her life.Ĭharles Sawyer, Viscount Dirkson, is a widower with adult children as well as grandchildren, all of whom he loves dearly, though his marriage was a loveless one. No one remembers their budding romance or the heartbreak she suffered, except Matilda-and her mother. As a young woman she fell passionately in love with a man of questionable reputation but renounced him at the urging of her parents. Matilda is a fond sister and aunt to the other members of the Westcott family, but she seems as far from being a romantic heroine as it is possible to be.
Only her mother is left, but Matilda fusses over her constantly, protecting her from drafts and any other real or imagined threats to her health-despite her mother’s impatient protests.
The eldest daughter of the late Earl of Riverdale, she is the one who stayed at home with her parents to care for them in their old age. Lady Matilda Westcott is fifty-six years old and a spinster.
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