A Christmas Match: A Regency Romance (Landon House Book 4)

by Rose Pearson

  “Gentlemen, the port?” Ramsbury cried, as the ladies rose from the table. “Or shall we take it with us to the drawing room?”

  “To the drawing room, surely!” Lady Ramsbury cried, as Ramsbury laughed. “We must sing together! I am sure that one of the ladies present will be able to play a good many Christmas songs for us to enjoy!”

  “And the yule log is in the fire too,” Ramsbury agreed, pushing himself out of his chair with an effort. “Very well, my dear, you have convinced me. Shall we make our way to the drawing room, Your Grace?”

  Benedict rose from his chair and made his way to the door, lingering behind some of the others so that he might be last to make his way from the room. His eyes met Lady Charity’s and, as Lady Hayward stepped from the room, he reached out and caught Lady Charity’s hand, pulling her close to him rather than permitting her to go through the door.

  “I have spoken to your father.”

  Lady Charity smiled up at him, clearly quite willing to remain with him for a few moments.

  “I have heard,” she replied, her hazel eyes softening as she held his gaze. “My father has been very open with me about his consideration of you.”

  Benedict frowned.

  “Oh?”

  “He thinks you most suitable,” she answered, laughing quietly. “You did not expect anything else, surely?”

  Relief tore through him.

  “Then – then you will accept my courtship?” he asked, as Lady Charity nodded. “You must know, surely, that my intention is matrimony, Lady Charity. I will be honest with you in that.”

  Her smile spread all the wider and, much to his astonishment, she wrapped her arms about his neck, closing the distance between them. His hands settled on her waist, his breath hitching at her nearness.

  “My intentions are much the same, Lord Hosmer,” she told him, teasingly. “I am only glad that my father has been so quick to agree.”

  “As am I,” he replied, looking down into her face and seeing such a beauty there that he could not take his gaze from her. “Charity, my heart holds a great love for you. A love that I do not believe will ever fade. Each Christmas, I shall remember all that you have done, all that you have given me, and I shall find afresh that happiness which fills me at this very moment.”

  Lady Charity let out a long, contented sigh.

  “I too have found a greater happiness than I could ever have imagined,” she told him, her gaze still holding fast to his. “I love you also, Lord Hosmer… Benedict, if I may call you so? I believe I always shall.”

  Benedict glanced up and then shook his head, letting out a heavy sigh as he did so.

  “If only there were a kissing bough above our heads, Charity,” he murmured. “Then I might be inclined towards kissing you.”

  She laughed up at him, her hands tightening just a fraction.

  “But it is Christmas Day, Benedict,” she answered, as his head began to lower. “And I believe that on days such as this, you are permitted to steal a kiss, should the lady be willing?”

  A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  “And are you willing, Charity?” he asked, as he continued to slowly lower his head.

  “I am,” she whispered, before finally meeting his lips with her own.

  I hope you enjoyed Lady Charity and Lord Hosmer’s story!He now has some precious memories of the Christmas season to replace the terrible ones!

  Here’s another Christmas story just for you! Love and Christmas Wishes: Three Regency Romance Novellas

  Check out the first couple chapters just ahead!

  A Sneak Peek of Love and Christmas Wishes

  Chapter One

  “What if I see him again? What shall I do?” Sarah Powell groaned as she hid her face in her hands.

  “Sarah, you must steel yourself for the unpleasant truth that you must face Mr. Grainger again. It cannot be helped. If you are to accompany us to his father’s house of Hatherley Hall, then you will see him. What other choice do you have? Are you to remain here at the vicarage, alone, as the staff goes about their duties?” replied a young woman with a slightly dismissive air. “This matter was settled in the summer. Why are you worrying about it now?”

  “Jane, can you not see that our dear cousin is mortified?” said a second woman as she rushed to Sarah’s side. With her characteristic grace, Katie Brookes sat on the bed beside Sarah, wrapping her arm around her shoulders.

  Sarah peered at her oldest cousin, Jane Brookes, the eldest of two sisters. Jane was standing in front of her in the middle of a modest bedroom that was opulently furnished in shades of ivory and green, whilst her younger sister, Katie, was sitting beside Sarah on the bed. The bedclothes, the chairs, and the curtains were embroidered in the same ivy and flower patterns that matched the shade of green damask covering the walls. The effect was somewhat like a garden, which only added to Sarah’s discomfort as she recalled the summertime.

  With crossed arms, Jane Brookes appeared stern. Her plain and unremarkable face was set in a frown as she looked at her sister Katie and her cousin, Sarah.

  “Sarah, I understand that you are embarrassed. I am not trying to be unfeeling, but this is hardly the time to make your complaints known. We are leaving for our Christmas visit to Hatherley in an hour. Our trunks have been packed and loaded, and the carriages will be brought around to the front of the house at any moment.”

  “Maybe I should remain here at the vicarage where I will be no trouble to anyone,” Sarah sighed.

  Katie, the beauty of the sisters, looked at her cousin Sarah with big blue eyes filled with kindness as she said, “Please, do not worry, Sarah. How dreadful to think of you all alone here when we are away at the ball. It would be terrible, and I would not enjoy myself in the least. You must come with us, you must! I know that Hatherley Hall is only a few miles away, but we are residing with the family for a few days, and I simply cannot be without you. Say that you will attend?”

  “I want to go, I do. Believe me, I do not want to be here all by myself. After what happened between Mr. Grainger and I, I cannot bear to see him again. How foolish I was to think he wanted to marry me,” Sarah said quietly, “How can I face him when I have been so ridiculous?”

  With her hands on her hips, Jane let out a heavy sigh, “That incident was not your fault. I have spoken with Mr. Grainger about it. He agrees that he never intended for your acquaintance to become romantic. He has apologized for his lapse of judgment.”

  “Jane, I cannot disagree with you regarding his conduct. He has apologized. I have forgiven him, but it does not change how badly I misjudged his feelings. How will I ever find the courage to look him in the eye?”

  “You will face him, and you will see that you and he can, at the very least, become friends. It was all a terrible blunder. I know those words do not lessen the hardship you may feel, but you must confess that he has behaved as a gentleman,” Jane explained.

  “So he has, I cannot fault him for his behavior in the slightest. I wish he had told me that he had no interest in marrying me at the start. I know I seem to be very silly indeed, but I truly thought he held me in the same high regard as I held him.”

  Jane sat on the other side of Sarah, “Do not think of my statements as being evidence that I am uncaring towards your feelings, I am not. Mr. Grainger is one of my dearest friends. I have known him and his sister for many years. I do not believe he ever meant to embarrass you. When you see him again, when he treats you as amicably as he does me or Katie, you will soon discover that he does not think less of you.”

  “Did I misunderstand him?” Sarah asked Jane.

  “No,” Jane answered, “You did not misunderstand him. It is not your fault that his father is the Baron Carmody.”

  “Sarah, be cheerful. You may not have any money of your own, but you are accomplished,” Katie suggested in her melodic bright voice. “Your countenance is pleasing as any woman in Cheltham. Mr. Grainger may have slipped out of your grasp, but you will find a gen
tleman who may not mind that you only possess a modest dowry.”

  “Is that supposed to cheer her?” Jane asked as she patted Sarah on the hand.

  “Yes, it is. Besides, I will let you borrow my second favorite gown for the ball. With your light hair and your eyes such a striking shade of green, you will look so delightful that Mr. Grainger will regret not asking you to marry him!”

  Katie’s attempts at kindness stung Sarah even though she knew her cousin did not mean to inflict any insult or offense. It was true that she did not have the money for any new gowns or even a pair of new kid gloves. Looking down at her plain cream-colored afternoon dress reminded her of her status as a companion to her two wealthy cousins, although Katie was the one who was always given more than her sister. In their beautiful, colorful gowns, they appeared as exotic as tropical birds compared to Sarah. Jane was wearing a long sleeve carriage dress in a crimson hue, while her sister Katie, the acknowledged pale beauty, was wearing an exquisite frock of light blue. Of course, Katie’s gown was a good deal finer than her sister’s, given that their mother favored one daughter over the other.

  “Thank you, Katie,” Sarah replied as she took a deep breath, “I do appreciate your kindness, both of you. I am sorry to be so much trouble. I cannot think what came over me. I have not thought of Mr. Grainger very much these past few months but when the prospect of seeing him again came near, I was overwhelmed by embarrassment.”

  “Think nothing of it. I am certain that what you feel is due entirely to lack of rest. You have been occupied by the preparations for the holiday, have you not?” Jane said with a smile, obviously trying to put the thought of Mr. Grainger from Sarah’s mind

  Sarah nodded, “I have been preoccupied as of late. Katie’s new gowns had to be fitted and ready to be packed. Then there was the matter of the new pelisses, spencers and matching afternoon dresses.”

  Katie nodded, although Sarah noticed that she looked rather awkward over the fact that her sister had not been given as many new gowns as she. “You are not as anxious about Mr. Grainger as you thought,” Katie said, turning her attention back to Sarah. “Smile and forget that you were ever concerned about seeing him again. I shall not remember it, and neither shall Jane,” she suggested.

  “Perhaps you are right, Katie,” Sarah offered, although she did not believe it. She knew very well that she wished she would never see him again, not after she made the mistake of presuming he felt more for her than he declared. If she could only return to the summer when she last visited Hatherley Hall, she would never act so ridiculously.

  “You are simply fatigued from the added responsibilities mother has heaped upon your shoulders. It really seems unfair when we have the maid to see to our wardrobes. Why mother demands that you oversee the ordering of new clothes for the holiday is a mystery and wholly unnecessary,” clucked Jane.

  “I do not mind. Your family has been generous to take me in and give me a position. If I must do an additional task to earn my keep, I am prepared to do all that your mother would ask of me,” Sarah replied, as she tried to smile.

  A sudden rapping at the door announced the entrance of Mrs. Brookes, Jane and Katie’s mother. She was as unremarkable in her appearance as Jane, but her face had thinned over the years. Lines crept around her eyes and her mouth, leaving her expression practically a permanent frown, most likely the result of scowling at servants and her family. As she bustled into the room, she turned her attention to Sarah, her expression as dour as ever as she demanded, “Sarah, are the trunks packed and loaded? Have you made every effort to ensure that we have included all of the gloves we will need? What of the jewelry?”

  Sarah was quick to jump to her feet. In her despair, she had forgotten her duties as a companion. As she thought of an answer, her cousin Jane replied in her stead, “Mother, we have everything we require, packed and on the carriages. It is not as though we are going for a prolonged stay! There is no need to question Sarah about it, it is already done.”

  Mrs. Brookes glared at her eldest daughter, “I will bother her as much I choose, who are you to answer for her after all I have done for her? Sarah, why are you here in Katie’s room? If the trunks are loaded, you should be downstairs seeing that the cook and the maid understand their duties while we are away.”

  Sarah bristled at her Aunt’s reminder that it was her generosity which sustained her and kept her living under the roof of the Brookes house in Cheltham. Despite the urge to reply that she would do well without anyone’s charity, she recalled that she did rely on their kindness. Resigned to her status as poor cousin and companion, she answered, “Yes, Aunt, I will see to it this instant.”

  “I hope so, slovenly behavior will not be accepted. I doubt that this laziness was addressed at your last position,” Mrs. Brookes remarked.

  As Sarah left the bedroom, she overheard her cousin Jane defend her as Mrs. Brookes dismissed her objections to fawn over her youngest daughter. The door closed behind her. She was alone in the hallway of the vicarage, as she was alone in life. She was a woman who had no prospects other than to be a companion or a governess. With her head hung low, she made her way down the narrow corridor of the vicarage, descending the stairs to the kitchen.

  Chapter Two

  Aside from the usual amount of jostling and shimmying along the snowy roads leading from Cheltham out into the countryside, the carriage ride from the vicarage to Hatherley was pleasant. The interior of the carriage was reasonably warm despite the cold of mid-December. In her hand-me-down pelisse lined with fur, her gloved hands in the matching second-hand fur muff, Sarah found the journey not altogether uncomfortable. She rode in the second carriage with Jane and the maid that would attend her cousins, as Katie rode with her parents at her mother’s insistence in the first carriage. There was no question in Sarah’s mind that Katie was her mother’s favorite of all three of her children, an observation that she did not share with Jane whom, she was sure, was all too aware of it.

  “I hope Henry arrives tonight. He said he was coming to Hatherley.” Jane murmured, half to herself, as she spoke of her brother, the eldest of the Brookes children and the only son.

  “That would be wonderful. How are his classes? Is he doing well?”

  “He has not written otherwise, so I can presume that he is first in his studies and examinations. If he was having trouble, I have no doubt he would have written to tell me about it.”

  “What will he do after he finishes university? Does he still wish to enter the clergy?” Sarah asked, even though she knew that was the plan for her cousin, Henry Brookes.

  “Will father give him any other choice?” Jane asked, with a tired air, “He is the son of a vicar, He will follow suit, as is expected, else I shall be greatly astonished.”

  “As will I. He seems suited for the role as vicar. He has your father’s compassion and charm.”

  “I have often thought that as well. If only our Mother was not disappointed in his interest in pursuing an honorable profession. She was hoping he would become a solicitor or find an heiress to marry for her money.”

  Sarah did not say anything in response to Jane’s comments about her mother. How well Sarah recalled her aunt’s invitation for her to come live at the vicarage as a companion. It was the single gesture of sisterly affection Mrs. Brookes showed Sarah’s mother and one that she never permitted Sarah to forget. Sarah pushed that unpleasant thought away as she replied, “Henry knows his own mind. If he wants to join the church, he will not be dissuaded.”

  “Perhaps he can find a position of curate after he finishes his studies. One day, Mr. Putnam might well work for my brother, as he does now for my father. How strange that would be!” Sarah thought of Mr. Putnam, the gentleman who was the vicar’s steward, having taken the place of his late father. He was a quiet studious man, steadfast and reliable. She wondered what he would do if the time came to seek another position, an uncertainty that she understood all too well.

  “Do you think he will want to work
with someone other than your father? I always imagined Henry would take your father’s place in Cheltham when your father retired.”

  “It is my father’s desire that he do so, but I have a feeling my brother has an adventurous side of him. He has often told me that he wishes to journey to the Indies, to pursue work as a missionary, but I doubt he will ever go as far as London.”

  “And he is to be at Hatherley Hall this evening?”

  “Yes,” Jane agreed. “He is residing there as a guest already, given that he is such good friends with George. But now, I think, we shall talk of another subject, one that I hesitate to mention,” Jane said as she peered at Sarah.

  Sarah slipped her hands out of the fur muff in an effort to distract herself as she felt the unwavering gaze of her cousin. Jane was not often direct in her speech, choosing to keep her thoughts to herself more often than not. However, on the occasion that Jane chose to speak, Sarah knew that she had thought long and hard about saying whatever it was that was on her mind. Sarah admired her cousin but did not have the luxury of Jane’s dowry or her place in society to speak as she wished.

  Seeing Jane’s small smile, Sarah could no longer withstand her cousin’s penetrating stare as she asked, “What is it? What do you wish to say? Is it about my silly behavior regarding Mr. Grainger? I apologize. I have never been so ashamed in all of my life.”

  Jane’s voice was gentle. “You are courageous to return to Hatherley to face him again, I should not be able to if it were me. No, my dear cousin, that is not the subject I wish to discuss. I wish to offer you an apology.”

  Sarah was dumbfounded, “What reason could you have for offering me an apology?”

  “I am not proud of Mother’s actions earlier. She is my mother and of course, I respect her, but I do not know why she insists on treating you so condescendingly at every turn. You have done nothing to deserve her treatment of you.”