Lauren Fairfield abhors her life. Transplanted to England
from Texas when her mother remarried a wonderful man,
Lauren has endured ridicule for her manners, drawl and lack
of knowledge about English aristocratic life. Lauren and
her sisters remove all traces of Texas with hard study and
the help of their stepfather. Lauren is the exemplary
English lady, reserved and polite. That façade cracks when
the new Earl of Sachse appears at her door.
Society is all agog at the arrival from Texas of Tom
Warren, the new Earl of Sachse. An Englishman by birth but
abandoned in America, Tom grew up fast and wild as he
survived the hard Wild West. At 16, he ran afoul of the law
but had the good fortune to meet a marshal who set him on
the right path. Now, Tom's life has taken another dramatic
turn. He's the lost Earl of Sachse and appears in London
ready to take up his new responsibilities. Before he can
begin, there's one young woman he resolves to find. She's
his first love, Lauren Fairfield, who left and never
responded to his letters.
Tom and Lauren's reunion is painful as they discover the
deception that's kept them apart. Lauren believes too much
time has passed and her place is to return to Texas, while
Tom makes a new life for himself in England. He refuses to
give up and dares her to change him into an English
gentleman. She reluctantly agrees, knowing the brazen
cowboy she once loved will then be transformed into a
sterile Englishman. It's up to Tom to break through her
reserve and set her aflame with his kisses and love.
PROMISE ME FOREVER is a poignant tale of a woman who must
choose between her love of a place and its memories or
accepting that change is inevitable and embrace the man she
loves. Ms. Heath closes her story with a tender summary of
Tom and Lauren's life together.
He didn't realize he was lost until destiny knocked on his
door and turned a cowboy at heart into an English lord.
She was searching for the love she'd lost. But will
helping him face his destiny take him farther away from
her or allow them to keep their promise of forever?
Excerpt
He heard her voice--surprised that he could identify it
after all these years. It had changed slightly, he
couldn't deny that. Grown softer, with a gentler timber
that could lure a man in before he realized he was well
and truly captivated.
That's how Thomas Warner felt. Captivated.
And he sure as hell didn't want to be.
There wasn't much in life that Tom dreaded, but he'd been
dreading this encounter from the moment that it had dawned
on him that sooner or later it would come to pass. He'd
put it off as long as he could, and now that it was here,
he was torn between wishing it had come along sooner and
wishing that it had never arrived.
While the butler--in a snit because Tom didn't have a
proper calling card--had gone to inform the Earl of
Ravenleigh that Tom had come to call, Tom had been
standing in the entry hallway, cooling his heels, waiting.
But he hadn't been doing it patiently. He wasn't used to
waiting on any man, was accustomed to giving the orders
and having them obeyed without question.
Then he'd heard the voices, talking almost too fast to
decipher . . . and then her voice. She'd lost a good bit
of the slow drawl that had once been music to his ears,
but he could still hear it when she spoke certain words,
like a memorable chord wafting off a fiddle. So he found
himself listening intently for the familiar.
He'd eased over to the doorway, leaned against the
doorjamb, and just . . . spied on them. A gathering of
women, so intent on their visiting that they weren't
noticing him. He remembered times in his life when he'd
yearned for a woman's presence with such longing that he'd
thought he'd die from the wanting. Not only her touch, but
her fragrance, her softness, the comfort she could offer.
He knew it was wrong to stand there, knew he should
announce his presence, but he wasn't sure what would
happen once Lauren saw him.
Did she even remember him?
When he'd never been able to forget her?
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