A WILD INHERITANCE

A WILD INHERITANCE

by Rosalie Ash

Copyright

Original version published 1991 by Mills & Boon Limited 

Original title: 'The Gypsy's Bride' 

Copyright ©1991 and 2014 Rosalie Ash 

All Rights Reserved.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. Nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All the characters and events in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the Author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the Author, and all are pure invention.

ISBN: 978-1-62620-551-2

Published by Rosalie Ash 2013

Chessy and Saul have grown up together in the same village, and played as childhood friends. Saul's gypsy heritage causes tensions in Chessy's family, and when their friendship becomes something deeper, Chessy's father makes his feelings known. Saul leaves the village to pursue his international polo career. Four years later, he returns to find Chessy running her own riding school, and caring for her little daughter. His attempts to rebuild their relationship meet with far more hostility than he expected...

Saul's eyes were slivers of ice. 'My birth may not have been covered by the legal Gorgio law of matrimony, although my mother and father married in a register office very soon afterwards. In any event, in the eyes of the Romanies I was born in wedlock, not outside it. Which is more than can be said for Lowenna!' 

Francesca glared at him. 'Keep Lowenna out of this!' 

'Why? It seems to me that Lowenna is pivotal to the whole sorry tale.' 

'Well, perception never was your strong point.' 

'Is that really how you see me?' Saul sounded thoughtful. 'I'll tell you how I see things, shall I? Your version of reality was always spiced up with your romantic gypsy fantasies. Not many men could measure up to those, could they? Although there was quite a fan club trying!' 

She shivered, suddenly frightened of the dark depths of bitterness which seemed to have been dredged up between them.

Chapter One

Saul Gallagher was here. Catching sight of the tall, broad-shouldered figure standing motionless on the other side of the church, next to his mother, Francesca caught her breath abruptly, her heart starting to thud so rapidly that for a few seconds she wondered if she was actually going to faint. 

Taking a brutal grip on her nerves, she clutched the wooden pew in front of her, mocking her own naivety. It was obvious that Saul would turn up at her father's funeral, wasn't it? He might have found his jet-setting, polo-playing life too absorbing and enthralling to bother to visit Bellbridge for the past four years, but she and Saul went back a long way, there was no escaping that bitter reality, and, since his mother Carol had rung with sympathy and support and arranged to drive down from Warwickshire and stay overnight, whatever had made her assume that she was safe from a similar duty-visit from Saul?