Newborn Under the Christmas Tree

by Sophie Pembroke

  Liam flashed her another smile, looking as relaxed and unbothered as could be, and Alice resisted the urge to throttle him. Just once, she’d like to see him riled up about something.

  Except that something would probably be throwing her out of the castle. So never mind.

  ‘I’ll see you at the shindig,’ Liam said. ‘Save me a drink.’

  ‘Will do.’ Alice gave him a weak smile and watched him go.

  Then she grabbed her clipboard and raced towards her box room to get ready.

  It was almost time for the schmoozing to begin.

  * * *

  Liam’s bow tie was strangling him. Oh, he knew that the networking and the dressing-up were all part of doing business these days, but usually he was talking about his work, his buildings. Not some ancient castle that still didn’t feel like his.

  He’d spent the last week trying to familiarise himself with the estate he’d unexpectedly inherited. He’d explored the grounds, the house, checked blueprints and restrictions, talked to lawyers and contractors, and kept tabs on the day-to-day activities of the castle. And finally, after days of note taking and brainstorming and thinking out loud, he thought he might have found a solution to what he’d taken to calling The Alice Problem.

  He couldn’t throw out women and children in need. But he couldn’t let them stay either. It was a conundrum.

  He smiled to himself. Luckily, he’d always liked puzzles.

  Now, he just needed to get Alice alone to persuade her to go along with it.

  But first he’d discharge all his duties at this fundraiser, show willing, and hopefully get her guard down. The woman had been tense as anything since the moment he’d arrived—he’d assumed it was to do with him initially, but now he was starting to think it might be her natural state of being. Perhaps a glass or two of champagne—and a few fat cheques from the partygoers—would help her loosen up.

  Snatching another glass of his own from the tray of a passing waiter, Liam smiled pleasantly at an older woman obviously wanting to talk to him, then managed to sidestep away before she reached him. He’d already spoken with enough people for one night, and that wasn’t even counting his toast.

  All he wanted to do now was get Alice alone and get the deal done—and then kick all these people out of his castle so he could get some peace and quiet.

  Making his way over to the secret auction table, he busied himself by pretending to study the offerings—which varied from afternoon tea with the Duke to a weekend on somebody’s yacht. Nothing he was at all interested in. Instead, he took the opportunity to scan the room, looking for Alice.

  She’d done a great job, he had to admit. The ballroom was transformed from the Thornwood he’d become familiar with over the last week—no knitwear and screaming children, for a start. Not that he had anything against the kids—they were a lot more fun than most of the stuffed shirts in attendance tonight.

  Looking around him, he could almost believe he was in a period drama. The chandeliers glittered, rivalling the sparkle from the diamonds and gemstones on display on the women in the room. The string quartet played the same pieces musicians had been playing at these events for centuries, and the usual small talk and chatter rose up to the high ceilings, along with the clinking of glasses. Maud’s canapés—so different to the hearty fare she’d been feeding him, and everyone else, for the past week—were gobbled down with delight by all the partygoers. Liam had to admit, they were delicious. But they weren’t a patch on the roast they’d had for dinner the night before.

  His stomach rumbled, and he doubled his search for Alice. He’d seen her earlier, draped in a golden dress that left her shoulders and arms bare, and clung to her slender curves before flaring out over her hips. He’d actually done a double take at the sight of her—that dress was a far cry from the jeans and jumpers he was more used to seeing her in.

  Really, she should be impossible to miss, looking like that. So where the hell was she?

  Ah! There—off to one side, deep in conversation with a couple who’d cornered him earlier and talked for twenty minutes about the local sewage system. Well, she’d worked very hard on tonight. The least he could do was rescue her from that.

  Then maybe they could go and find some real food—and talk.

  * * *

  Alice couldn’t quite decide whether to be thankful that Liam had saved her from the death by boredom that was conversation with Mr and Mrs Haywood, or annoyed that he’d dragged her away from the fundraiser she’d spent months organising.

  ‘I really shouldn’t stay away too long,’ she said as she followed Liam down the corridor away from the ballroom. ‘We need to announce the winners of the silent auction soon...’

  ‘Heather’s going to do it,’ Liam said, not even glancing back. ‘I spoke to her before we left.’

  ‘Really?’ She was about to ask what gave him the right to do that, before she realised that they were actually in his castle, and bit her tongue. ‘And what do we need to do that’s so much more important than my fundraiser?’

  Liam flashed her a smile over his shoulder as they reached the kitchen doors. ‘Find some real food.’

  Well. She supposed she could get behind that, Alice decided, her stomach rumbling. Two and a half canapés did not make a dinner.

  ‘Plus, I have some plans I want to run by you,’ Liam added, and Alice’s appetite faded. For a moment, anyway.

  Since the New Kitchen had been taken over by canapés and serving staff, they edged cautiously around the outside, avoiding Maud’s glare as she directed the hired waiters and loaded them up with trays.

  ‘Where do you think she’s hidden last night’s leftovers?’ Liam asked, his mouth close to Alice’s ear to be heard over the din. Alice tried not to shiver at the sensation of his breath on her skin.

  ‘Probably in the mini fridge next door, in the Old Kitchen.’

  ‘Then let’s go.’ Grabbing her hand, Liam led her towards the second door that led through to the old-fashioned second kitchen space.

  Alice pushed open the door between them and felt, as she always did, as if she’d stepped back in time. The scrubbed wooden table with low benches on either side, the open fire with cooking pots hanging beside it, the maids’ aprons and caps behind the door...everything harked back to an earlier age. A previous incarnation of Thornwood Castle.

  She crossed to the smaller, out of place fridge that Maud kept in there, and wondered if she was about to hear what the latest incarnation would be.

  Liam grabbed a couple of the old stoneware plates from the large dresser that covered one wall and placed them on either side of the table. Alice pulled out dishes of leftovers and laid them out in the centre, before rooting around to find cutlery for them both.

  Liam folded himself on to one of the long benches that sat on either side of the kitchen table. Alice followed suit, sweeping her golden dress under her as she sat facing him. She handed him a set of cutlery, gripping her own so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

  ‘You don’t need to look so tense,’ Liam said, his Australian accent and mild tone making his words sound even more laid-back.

  ‘Don’t I?’ Alice asked. ‘I mean, you’re about to tell me your plans for the future of this place, right?’ She hoped so, anyway. Otherwise she’d read him totally wrong, and things were about to get worse, not better.

  Oh, hell, what if he was just about to fire her on the spot, not discuss his plans? She hoped he’d let her finish her dinner first—even cold, Maud’s roasts always tasted amazing.

  Liam chuckled, as if he’d read her mind. ‘Eat. We’ll talk when we’re both done. I never like to negotiate on an empty stomach.’

  Negotiate. That sounded more positive than ‘instantly fired.’ But it did still sound as if she might be fighting an uphill battle. Alice was certain that Liam had
considerably more negotiating practice than she did.

  She’d never liked conflict, a legacy from her peacemaker mother, she’d always thought. Mum had been an expert at smoothing over any situation, defusing every fight, and Alice had picked the habit up from her. It had served her well with her friends in her teenage years, and her housemates at university and in her early twenties.

  But in her marriage the skill had evolved into appeasement. Into making herself smaller so there was less to fight about. She’d given up on things she’d believed in, just to avoid an argument. Stopped having her own opinions, her own thoughts. Even stopped fighting her own corner.

  Until the day the fights stopped being angry words and slammed doors, and became something more.

  The minute she’d woken up in that hospital, her whole life changed for ever, she’d promised herself she’d never give in and play nice, just to avoid a fight, ever again.

  So if Liam wanted to negotiate, she would damn well negotiate harder than any businessman he’d ever had to deal with. Because she was fighting for what mattered to her—the well-being of the women who called Thornwood Castle their place. The castle might be Liam’s home, but it was their refuge. Their safe haven.

  And that mattered more to Alice than anything else had since that hospital bed.

  That, she would fight for.

  Placing her cutlery in the finished position, Alice pushed her empty plate away from her and rested her hands in her lap as she waited for Liam to finish eating too, watching him shovel food into his mouth, the action totally incongruous with his dinner jacket and bow tie. Consciously, she straightened her back, lowered her shoulders and practised the calming breathing that one of the courses from earlier in the year had taught her. Liam, apparently unaware that he’d just gained his fiercest opponent yet, continued eating.

  Since he wasn’t paying her any attention anyway, Alice allowed herself a moment to study him. He was more attractive than she’d expected, she admitted to herself. His photo on his website showed his face half in shadow—a professional headshot in black and white, with a sombre expression and a tie knotted tightly around his neck. In person, seeing him every day, he wasn’t like that at all. He seemed relaxed, at home and untroubled by life—even in black tie.

  Alice frowned as she realised how unlikely that was.

  She didn’t know the whole of Liam’s story, but for him to be Rose’s only living relative, well, that kind of hinted that there wasn’t a lot of family in his life. In fact, she knew more than that—Rose had told her once that he’d been orphaned young. Add in the whole ‘his father never acknowledged him before he died’ thing, which everyone knew about, and, well... Untroubled by life and Liam Jenkins probably didn’t go together in a sentence often, did they?

  But she wouldn’t have guessed that from looking at him.

  Liam shoved his last forkful of Maud’s leftover roast into his mouth, moaned appreciatively as he chewed, and closed his eyes as he swallowed.

  ‘That is a hell of a lot better than those fiddly canapés.’

  Alice allowed herself a small smile. He liked the food—that much had been clear from the way he hadn’t missed a meal in the dining hall since he’d arrived. That in itself was a start—and not always a given with visitors from overseas. Maud had strong feelings about the sort of meals that should be served in a British castle. If a person wasn’t into roasted meats, goose fat roast potatoes and a whole lot of gravy, there wasn’t much for them in Maud’s kitchen. But Liam had been vocally appreciative of her meals, which had definitely earned Maud’s approval.

  ‘I’m glad you enjoyed it,’ Alice said.

  Liam put down his cutlery and opened his eyes, his dark blue gaze meeting hers across the table. ‘But now it’s time to talk.’

  ‘Apparently so.’ Alice folded her hands in front of her and steeled herself. ‘So, you’ve seen what we do here, I’ve talked about why it’s so important, you’ve spoken with everyone here tonight about it too. I know you’ve spent the week getting to know the place. So, now it’s your turn. What do you have planned for Thornwood?’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  LIAM TRIED TO shift mentally from taste bud bliss to business. For some reason, it was more difficult than usual—perhaps because of Alice’s nervous gaze on the other side of the table. She was clenching her hands together so tightly that the knuckles were white, and the tension in her shoulders made her look as if she was wearing some sort of torture device to keep her upright—like those ridiculous corsets they all wore in the period dramas.

  Liam frowned. Seriously, how many of those things had he watched that he remembered all the details? Apparently the universe had been preparing him to inherit Thornwood all along.

  Even if nobody else had.

  And, anyway, she wasn’t wearing anything of the sort. She was wearing that slippery golden dress that moved with every breath she took, emphasising the cowl neckline that led down to the gentle curve of her cleavage...

  Actually, maybe it was the dress that was distracting him. Or Alice in it.

  But this wasn’t the time for thoughts like that. It was time to lay it all out on the table, and see how Alice took the news.

  Reaching up, he loosened his bow tie and left it hanging around his neck, popping open the top couple of buttons of his shirt.

  ‘Okay, well, first off you have to understand that I’ve had no contact with Thornwood for years. I had no idea of the work you were doing here until I arrived last week, and all I know about it is what I’ve seen and what you’ve told me. Understood?’

  Alice nodded.

  ‘Good. Then you’ll appreciate that when I first learned I’d be inheriting the castle I had my own ideas and plans for the place.’

  ‘Plans that didn’t involve helping local women, I’d guess,’ Alice said.

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘But now you’ve seen what we’re doing here, how much good we’re doing—’

  Liam winced, and she cut herself off without him having to do it for her, which he appreciated. Someone who could read the conversational cues was always easier to reason with.

  ‘My plans...they’re already underway,’ he admitted. ‘I have investors interested, contractors coming out to look at the place next week...’ He’d given himself a week to settle in before the first of the appointments his assistant had set up, but now that week was up.

  ‘So finding us here has put a real spanner in the works.’

  ‘You could say that.’

  Alice bit her lower lip, and Liam hoped against hope that she wasn’t about to start crying. He never knew what to do with crying women.

  Well, he did. But those women weren’t Alice Walters. They weren’t his great-aunt’s employee, or the woman he was about to turf out of her home. Liam was pretty sure his usual methods of cheering up women wouldn’t work so well on Alice right now. Or ever, possibly.

  ‘So. You’re going to make us leave.’ Alice’s expression grew mulish and Liam knew that, even if that was what he’d planned, it wouldn’t be as easy as the words suggested. He might own the castle, he might have all the money and the power in this situation, but Alice, doing what she believed in, was a force to be reckoned with.

  In that sense, she almost reminded him of his great-aunt Rose.

  ‘I didn’t say that,’ he pointed out.

  ‘But that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it?’ Alice snapped back. ‘The women and families we’re helping here aren’t as important as whatever money-making scheme you’ve got ready to go.’

  ‘Hey.’ Liam put some edge in his voice, a sharpness clear enough to make Alice settle back down in her seat, at least. ‘I understand your frustration—’

  ‘Frustration!’ Alice cried, and he gave her a look.

  ‘But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let
you yell and rant at me before you’ve actually heard my proposal.’

  ‘Let me? Ha. What on earth makes you think that a man like you lets me do anything?’ Alice pushed her chair away from the table and stood, hands planted firmly on the wood between them. Liam waited patiently for her to catch on. ‘Listen to me, mister. My life is entirely my own. Nothing you do, say or want can influence it without my say-so. This might be your castle, but that doesn’t mean that I’m part of the property, okay? You don’t let me do—’ She broke off suddenly, and Liam knew her ears were catching up with her mouth at last. ‘Your proposal?’

  ‘Yes, my proposal.’ Liam rolled his eyes. ‘Why don’t you take a seat and we can discuss it? Rationally. Without either of us trying to make the other do anything they don’t want to do. Okay?’

  Alice’s eyes were cautious, but she lowered herself back into her chair all the same. ‘I doubt we can manage that,’ she said, most of the anger gone now. ‘I mean, the very fact that you’re calling it a proposal, and that you talked about negotiations before, suggests that your plan means that my plans will have to change. And I don’t want that.’

  ‘What if I could give you a better plan?’

  ‘A better plan?’ Alice scoffed. ‘You’ve been here, what? A week? And you really think you know better than I do what we need here?’

  ‘I think I can offer you something that you wouldn’t have considered an option before.’ He’d given this a lot of thought, while he’d been exploring the estate. Alice really was doing good work at Thornwood. And, given his own history, he couldn’t just cast that aside. He just needed her to do it in a way that worked for him.

  ‘Which is?’ Alice asked, her tone sceptical.

  ‘A dedicated building, for you to run the services you’re already running here.’

  Alice narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What’s the catch?’

  ‘No catch,’ Liam said with a shrug. ‘I admire the work you’re doing here. I think hiring you might have been Rose’s last-ditch attempt to get into heaven, but that doesn’t mean it was a bad idea. So I want you to continue.’