Held Close to My Heart

By Ellie Thomas

Since their mid-teens, Luke has been deeply in love with his childhood friend and neighbour Jem, who spends most of the year at the decadent court of King Charles II in London. In the intervening years at home on Twelvetrees Farm in Oxfordshire, Luke has been occupied by helping his disabled father run their small estate, taking on the burden of work to support his family. Meanwhile, Jem has enjoyed all the worldly pleasures available to him at court.

When they are both twenty-one, Jem returns to Westlecot Manor to spend the summer, and Luke’s feelings for him reach boiling point. Luke can no longer cling to the belief he is important to Jem. He is overwhelmed by jealousy at the prospect of Jem's dalliances with any visitors to the manor house, while aware Jem is bewildered by his outbursts of disapproval.

Will Luke allow his jealousy to get the better of him? Might he dare to speak his deepest feelings? Or would that destroy their lifelong bond forever?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Jun 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685501426

Book preview

Held Close to My Heart

By Ellie Thomas

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2022 Ellie Thomas

ISBN 9781685501426

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Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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To Baz, whose consistent question over the years of who’s that man in that film? clarified by, you know, the Scottish one, inspired some of the key dialogue between Luke and Jem.

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Held Close to My Heart

By Ellie Thomas

Chapter 1

Twelvetrees Farm, Oxfordshire, June 1676

Luke

Wrapped in his embrace, those long months apart dissolved in moments. Overwhelming tenderness filled my very soul. I could have stayed there forever, luxuriating in him being at the center of my world.

Moving away slightly, holding me at arm’s length, he looked at me with gladness and said, Luke, it is so good to see you again. And then, with a final squeeze, he let me go, and greeted my mother with equal enthusiasm. Released from the sheltering warmth of his body, I shivered, suddenly alone, bereft, and laughable. Why do I fool myself every time?

Jeremy Carteret, known to us all as Jem, my closest friend in the world, the love of my life, moved away from my mother before embracing my father in the same exuberant way. It’s enough, I told myself sternly. To retain some of his affection is sufficient. It has to be.

Jem clasped my father by the elbow on his sound side, the one that didn’t rely on his walking stick for support, and they walked slowly together into the ancient farmhouse, as though Jem belonged there, which informally speaking, he did. As a small child, while his father, a widowed baronet, was in exile during the rule of Oliver Cromwell, the Protector of England, Jem had stayed with us at our farm near the country town of Banbury.

I’d known Jem for as long as I could remember, so having him as a constant presence made no difference to me. As we grew from infants, we rambled over the gardens and fields, with bold, fearless Jem the leader on our expeditions, and then, when we were of age for school, we took our lessons together.

In the classroom, it was my