Once Upon A Dream by Grace Burrowes Mary Balogh

whom she might feel an affection even if not the passion of her young love, her chance to marry and have children of her own. She
    had been proud of her devotion to a memory. Yet now her fight against loneliness was almost constant. Her fortieth birthday was creeping up with very
    little to show for all the years. And now she had fallen in love again—with a man who was probably about to marry a young lady quite unworthy of him.
    "It was a gift," Wulfric said. "And I neither regret giving it nor blame you, Eleanor. Sometimes our dreams lead us in the wrong direction and it would be
    foolish to continue pursuing them out of sheer stubbornness or the fear of disappointing others. There are other dreams waiting to be dreamed—the
    right dreams, the ones that will lead to contentment."
    She turned her head to look at him in some surprise. She had never heard him talk thus before.
    He met her gaze. "I am a happy man, Eleanor," he said. "I want your happiness too, not your fear of disappointing me. You surely cannot doubt that your
    mother and sisters too want nothing but your happiness."
    She drew a slow breath. "I have a potential buyer," she said. "If I sell, I will repay your
loan,
Wulfric, though I will not insult you by
    offering any interest on it."
    "And what will you do then?" he asked. "Will the new owner wish to keep you on staff as a teacher?"
    She had been keeping her mind away from that question. She was not sure of the answer. She was not even sure she would be able to recapture the pleasure
    she had felt as a simple teacher at the school.
    "I do not know," she said.
    "Your mother and Christine would be ecstatic to have you live here," he said. "It would please me too."
    "Thank you," she said. "Wulfric, I am so
sorry
. I feel so…defeated."
    "Only you can wrestle with that demon," he said. They had been making their way back gradually to where everyone else was thronged. "Christine is wrestling
    with a couple of her own. She was neatly maneuvered into inviting Lady Connaught and her daughter here, but she swears she would have resisted to the death
    had she not believed Staunton was courting the daughter. Is it as clear to your eye as it is to Christine's and mine that he is trying desperately not to
    do so but is perhaps too much the gentleman to be firm with them? The mother is appalling, is she not? One can only hope that the man the daughter
    eventually marries will be capable of tearing his wife—and himself—from her pernicious influence. However, while they are at my home they must
    be treated as welcome and valued guests. Will the wilderness walk be too much for them, do you think?"
    Was
it as clear to her eye? Perhaps her eye had been clouded by her anxiety for the future of the Earl of Staunton's children. Oh, and by her own inappropriate
    feelings for him. One might as well be honest at least within the confines of one's own mind.
Was
he trying to avoid Miss Everly?
    "Not if you escort them there," she said. "They will see it as an acknowledgement of their superiority over all your other guests."
    "Quite so," he agreed, and a few minutes later he was leading them away, one lady on each arm, and Eleanor was moving off in some confusion when she
    realized she had been left alone with the Earl of Staunton, slightly removed from everyone else.
    "Miss Thompson," he said, stopping her. And oh, she knew as she looked back at him that she was doing exactly what Wulfric had just suggested she do. She
    was dreaming another dream. Very foolishly. Very unwisely. Unfortunately, however, dreams seemed to be beyond the control of the rational mind.
    Soon she was strolling away from the crowd yet again, toward the lake this time and on the arm of the Earl of Staunton.

 
    Chapter 6
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    "My children have taken a liking to you," he said as he turned their steps in the direction of the lake. "I hope they have not been making a nuisance of
    themselves." And he fervently hoped Georgette had not told her, as she had