Baby Included. Mary Lyons

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘THE darkest hour is that before the dawn...’

      As he recalled the old proverb, a grim smile flickered across the hard, tanned features of the man leaning casually against a pillar on the wide, shady veranda of his luxurious casita.

      Well... at least it’s a comforting thought, Ace told himself wryly. After the string of disasters which had recently been inflicted on his family he could certainly do with a bright ‘new dawn’.

      Fast approaching the watershed of his fortieth birthday, it seemed to Ace as if every single part of his life was now in the process of a dramatic change. Even as he stood here—sipping a long cold drink and gazing out at the dazzling snow-white beach of this exclusively private Philippine island resort—he knew there could be no escape from the many problems which awaited his return to Britain.

      The younger son of a younger son, Ace had never—not even in his wildest dreams—imagined that he would one day find himself inheriting both his uncle Hector’s title of Lord Ratcliffe and the large estate in the south of England. Which was why, as a very junior member of his family, he’d been able to choose his own path in life, first studying law at university, before going on to forge a successful career in the City of London.

      Unfortunately, the past few years had proved to be disastrous, with one dreadful tragedy being quickly followed by another.

      His own father’s death, following a long, brave and valiant fight against cancer, had not being entirely unexpected. However, the horrific car accident, mainly due to thick fog on the motorway, which had claimed the lives of his uncle Hector’s son, wife and young family, had led to a profound and devastating series of events as far as Ace was concerned.

      His uncle, Lord Ratcliffe, had never really recovered from the shock of losing his only son and heir. His death soon afterwards, following a massive stroke, had meant that Ace’s much loved older brother, Mark, had inherited the title. But tragically he, too, had been killed in a completely unforeseen accident while skiing in Switzerland, just under a month ago. And now Ace found himself the sole survivor of a family which had been virtually wiped out within the short space of two years.

      Well...that wasn’t strictly true, he reminded himself quickly. There was his own daughter, Emily.

      He dearly loved the fourteen-year-old girl—at present living with his ex-wife, and going through a rather ‘difficult’ stage of adolescence. Ace, with grim memories of his own misspent youth, was determined to be a helpful, understanding and supportive father. Maybe the recent family tragedies would help to bring them both closer together?

      However, while anxious to improve his future relationship with Emily, he was now going to have to take some immediate and far-reaching decisions about his inheritance. Having lived and worked in London for most of his life, his current existence was a million light years away from ten thousand acres and the huge Palladian mansion currently referred to in the tourist guides as ‘a classic example of a stately home’.

      The people who write those books should try spending a night in the vast, crumbling old pile, Ace thought grimly. Because it had certainly never occurred to his uncle Hector—a tight-fisted, miserly old skinflint if ever there was one!—that he had both a duty and a responsibility to care for the large house on behalf of future generations of his family.

      So, the net result was that Ratcliffe Hall was now a huge white elephant. Not only did it have a badly leaking roof—which let in more of the elements than it kept out—but also a mass of crumbling stonework and rotten timbers. Ace knew that it would need a fortune just to install some decent, modern plumbing—let alone try to do something about repairs to the basic structure.

      Moreover, it wasn’t just a case of bracing one’s shoulders and facing up to personal tragedy. With each successive death he’d also found himself having to deal with the additional heavy burden of massive taxation.

      As the senior partner of a large firm of lawyers, specialising in corporate tax and finance, he might well have the professional expertise to cope with the problem. But, following the tragic loss of his brother, Mark—only a few months after his inheriting the land and title from their uncle Hector—Ace had known that he would have little time to mourn. Not only had his brother left his affairs in a mess, but all too soon Ace knew that he was going to be faced with demands by the Inland Revenue, requiring payment of yet another large amount of death duties.

      Although he, like everyone else in the land, hated having to pay taxes, Ace was certainly wealthy enough in his own right not to have a problem