The Master of Normanhurst — Margaret Malcolm

Piers Garron took his unexpected inheritence of Normanhurst estate very seriously. He gave up his life in South Africa and returned to England, to take up the position of village squire which the old house had brought him. He would settle down, he decided, learn all about the estate, marry... choosing carefully, of course. Someone eminently suitable, poised and elegant. Someone, for instance, like Eve Shandon, who would in any case have been mistress of Normanhurst had his cousin Rex not been killed. Certainly someone quite unlike Eve's stepdaughter, untidy, defiant little Rilla, whose face seemed, nevertheless, to come so often into his thoughts. Unfortunately, once he'd met young, unconventional Rilla, Piers couldn't get his head and his heart to agree.