He was quite unacceptable to her parents as a future husband and Evelyn had been told so in no uncertain terms.
It had taken Donatus Lynton and Evelyn Combe five years to obtain permission to be husband and wife. It was only after Evelyn had turned down suitor after suitor and finally had refused the Duke of Loth that her father had washed his hands of her.
“Very well go to the Devil in your own way!” he had said bluntly.
The only concession the Earl had made when finally his daughter married the quiet scholarly Donatus, was to offer them the living at Little Combe, which brought them in a yearly income of three hundred pounds.
It was certainly not the life to which Lady Evelyn had been accustomed, but, being deeply in love with her unworldly husband, she had asked for nothing except t
