Sommersgate House

by Kristen Ashley

“Did you like the watch?” He changed the subject immediately, his body pressing more insistently into hers as his hands moved from her jaws and became arms curved around her and his lips slid from her temple to her ear.

  She knew that he knew that she liked the watch. He was just being wicked by making her say it out loud.

  “It’s a lovely watch.” It was more than a lovely watch, it was a magnificent watch.

  “‘Lovely.’ That’s a word you use to describe a lot of things.” His voice was at her ear, causing tingles to slide across her skin.

  She knew exactly what he was referring to and she also knew she was being churlish, especially considering the thoughtfulness and generosity of the gift.

  He deserved better.

  “It’s beautiful,” she admitted. “I love it.”

  “How much do you love it?” he asked roughly, invitingly, his breath floated across the sensitive skin behind her ear and she squirmed against him, both pushing him away with her hands at his waist and bunching the fabric of his sweater between her fists to hold him where he was.

  “It’s perfect,” she whispered. “It’s me. I would choose it for myself. Sam did a good job with all the gifts today.”

  This caused his head to jerk up and he narrowed his eyes at her.

  “Sam did not choose that watch. I did.”

  “Oh.” This came out as a breath and then the thought of him entering a shop, choosing something so immensely splendid, so entirely perfect and purchasing it for her caused her to utter the word, “Wow.”

  “I suppose ‘wow’ is a damned, bloody sight better than ‘lovely’,” he growled.

  She blinked at him as she realised, belatedly, his mood had shifted.

  “Are you angry?” Her eyes had rounded and for some reason he let her go, stepping back a pace.

  “I’m not angry,” he said in a voice that belied his words.

  “You sound angry.”

  “I’m not angry,” he clipped.

  “Then what are you?”

  He looked for a second uncertain and Julia couldn’t believe her eyes.

  His eyes became focused and he glared at her. “I’m frustrated.”

  Julia stared at him for a second before returning, “Well, remind me never to do anything nice for you again. Frustrated was not what I was going for.”

  And before he could reply, she took her opportunity for escape (something, at that moment, she dearly needed) and quickly exited the room, not looking back.

  Chapter Twenty

  Ruby Finally Understands

  After leaving Douglas in the study, Julia was of a mind to make the men do the Christmas dishes, including and especially Douglas. She came to her senses and realised she’d escape him more easily by doing the dishes herself because he rarely stepped foot in the kitchen.

  The children talked to Patricia while Ronnie, Mrs. K and Julia scoured the pots and pans.

  Julia came to the phone last.

  “How’s it going?” Patricia asked.

  “So far so good,” Julia replied.

  “They sounded good. Happy. You did a good job Doll Baby.”

  Julia was silent. She wanted to tell her mother everything but couldn’t. Patricia would be there in twenty-four hours raising all kinds of ruckus if she knew even half of what was happening.

  “Jewel?” Patricia broke into her thoughts.

  “You having an okay Christmas?” Julia queried.

  “Your Aunt Doris made the most heavenly cake. It has twelve melted Milky Way bars in it.”

  “It’s not time for dinner there yet, how have you had any cake?”

  “I might have sneaked a piece,” Patricia admitted.

  Normally Julia would have laughed but she was in no mood to laugh.

  On a sigh, Julia said, “I miss Aunt Doris. Tell her I love her, will you?”

  Patricia was silent.

  “Mom?” It was Julia’s turn to break into her mother’s thoughts.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Her intuitive mother demanded.

  No, Julia was most definitely not going to tell her mother what was going on.

  “I’m fine, the kids are fine, everything’s fine,” Julia lied.

  “Is Douglas fine?”

  Julia felt a shiver go up her spine. Her mother’s insight was uncanny. It was almost as if she could read Julia’s thoughts.

  “Yes, I’m just, we’re both…” Julia paused and then continued. “Mom, it isn’t the happiest day, if you know what I mean, even though we’re all pretending it is.”

  Patricia, as usual, didn’t fall for Julia’s evasive manoeuvre.

  “What’s this about a diamond watch?” Patricia asked.

  Julia closed her eyes.

  Lizzie.

  “It’s probably nothing to him.” It was definitely not nothing to him and it certainly wasn’t nothing to her. “He’s rich as Rockefeller, Mom. Richer, even. He was very generous, with all of us,” Julia explained and hoped it sounded plausible.

  Her mother made a “humph” sound that in Julia’s vast experience was more a motherly “I-know-you’re-not-telling-me-something” humph than “I’m-angry-about-something” humph.

  When the phone call was done, in an attempt to keep the light-hearted spirit of the day going, Julia organised a game. Lizzie spread the Monopoly board on the carpet in front of the fire in the library in between the three couches that flanked and faced it. They were making teams and the minute Douglas sauntered in, Lizzie shouted, “Auntie Jewel and Uncle Douglas have to be a team!”

  Julia’s mind wasn’t working fast enough to find a way to back out that didn’t appear ungracious, so, before she could utter a word, she was saddled with Douglas as her partner.

  He, to all appearances, was happy as a clam with these arrangements.

  Julia was on the floor, stretched out on her side, her back to the fire, up on her elbow, her head resting in her hand. To her shock (and perhaps everyone else in the room’s, except Nick, who smiled slyly), Douglas stretched out behind her.

  With all expectant eyes on her, it would have been impolite to change her position and Julia allowed herself a quiet annoyed noise only to hear Douglas chuckle behind her. This made her feel angry enough to emit a louder annoyed noise which, to the assembled crowd’s bigger shock, made Douglas burst out laughing.

  She decided from that point forward to keep her noises to herself and spent the entire game enduring Douglas moving the pieces and rolling the dice by reaching over her to get to the board (each time, his chest pressing into her back).

  After awhile she couldn’t stop herself from enjoying the game (as much as she tried). Douglas was competitive and relentless and he preyed mercilessly upon weaker teams which included everyone else playing. Furtively, when she thought Douglas wasn’t paying attention, Julia would steal from their bank and slip notes into her opposing teammates’ piles. When she snuck £100 into Ruby and Ronnie’s fast-dwindling stack, he leaned close to her ear and whispered softly, “Stop doing that.”

  She fought the thrill that ran across her skin and twisted her neck to look at him in feigned, wide-eyed innocence, “What?”

  He loomed over her, his face so close she took that moment to memorise the shape of the scar on his lip.

  “Don’t think you can distract me,” he warned but she could tell he was teasing (teasing!).

  Her eyes moved to his and they were dark as midnight.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” she assured him and forced herself to concentrate on the game and not provoke him, mainly because she feared the consequences, not from him but from her own damned body (and heart, if she was perfectly honest with herself).

  Unable to help the other players, she and Douglas trounced the rest. She could have been the unhappiest winner in history which made Douglas’s now ever present grin all the more pronounced.

  Unwilling to start another game or any activity which Lizzie could manipulate into a matchmaker’s dream, they mov
ed on to nightcaps. Soon Douglas was carrying a sleeping Ruby, who was so exhausted she didn’t wake, to her room. Julia followed and Douglas left her to struggle her sleeping niece’s body into a nightgown.

  Taking this as their cue, when Julia arrived back downstairs, the others moved to leave and Julia gave them all a tight hug good-bye.

  “The best Christmas Sommersgate has had in as long as I’ve known it, lass,” Mr. Kilpatrick said gruffly and Julia awarded him a bright smile that made pink tinge his cheeks.

  When it was just family, Julia and Douglas rounded up Lizzie and Willie for bed, walking them into the hall for goodnight kisses.

  Once Willie finished his fast-as-lightning kiss on Julia’s cheek, he said quietly, “It was a good day, Auntie Jewel.”

  Instantly, Julia’s throat closed. He sounded so like his father that she struggled to keep her face straight and the emotion from showing.

  Just like Gavin would do, Willie noticed how hard she’d worked on the day and he commented on it.

  “You’re a good man, William Fairfax” she told him, mock gravely putting her hand on his shoulder, trying to lighten the mood.

  “I know,” he replied with a cheeky grin, which was also pure Gavin and made Julia’s heart lurch.

  Her eyes caught Douglas’s to see he was watching them, his expression soft and thoughtful and she was just about to say something, do anything to dispel the moment when they heard a piercing, blood-curdling scream.

  Not a ghostly woman’s scream.

  A child’s scream.

  Julia’s blood turned to ice but before she could move to the stairs, Douglas was there taking them three at a time, leaving Julia, Lizzie and Willie well behind.

  By the time she skidded to a halt at Ruby’s opened door with Lizzie and Willie at her heels, Douglas was standing in the middle of the room with Ruby in his arms, the child’s limbs wrapped around him tightly.

  Ruby was crying uncontrollably and through her sobs, Julia heard her say, “I was a good girl, Santa came and everything. I thought if I was a good girl, Mummy and Daddy would come home for Christmas. They said that Mummy and Daddy went far away where I can’t see them but I’ve been shouting…” she hiccupped pitifully, “shouting all the time so they could…” more hiccups, “hear me but they didn’t come back. I thought for certain on Christmas they’d come back and know exactly where to find me because I’ve been shouting and shouting and shouting!”

  Douglas turned and looked over Ruby’s shoulder at Julia. The tears Julia wouldn’t allow herself to shed earlier pricked the backs of her eyes and then they were there, falling silently down her face.

  Julia stood where she was and reached out blindly to grab Lizzie and Willie’s hands. Douglas would have to do this alone; she needed to see to the other two. They moved into her body, pressing themselves to her, she dropped their hands and wrapped an arm around each as she heard Lizzie’s soft weeping.

  Douglas’s hand moved slowly on Ruby’s back until her uncontrollable wailing turned to mere sobs and hiccups and then he said in a soft, gentle voice filled with pulsating tenderness, “They can hear you Ruby, they can even see you, they just can’t come back,” he hesitated a heart-stopping second before saying, “ever.”

  At that announcement, Ruby’s breath hitched and so did Lizzie’s.

  Douglas turned so his back was to Julia and the children in order that Ruby could see them. He was still cradling her in his arms. “They trusted you to us, sweetheart, we’re your family now.”

  It was then, Julia’s breath hitched painfully too, the ache in her chest that she had been enduring for months broke open, searing her soul.

  She could take it no longer and rushed forward, pulling the children with her. Once she arrived at Douglas’s side, she carefully reached for Ruby. Without comment, Douglas moved the girl into Julia’s arms and Ruby slid her body around Julia with such fierceness that it made Julia’s broken heart shatter into a million more pieces.

  “Shh, Ruby-girl,” she hushed her, absorbing the girl’s wracking sobs into her body and holding her firmly as she hiccupped wetly into Julia’s neck. “We’ve got you,” she promised.

  After several long, tense minutes, Ruby finally controlled her emotion and the little girl asked quietly, “Auntie Jewel?”

  “Yes, baby?”

  “Do you think the man and his lady can see Mummy and Daddy?”

  Julia couldn’t help herself, her throat emitted a noise of pure grief.

  With great effort, she composed herself. “No, Ruby-girl, your Mummy and Daddy are in a much nicer place than Sommersgate.”

  Ruby’s head came up and Julia looked into her tear-streaked eyes.

  “There’s someplace nicer than Sommersgate?” she asked as if she couldn’t imagine it.

  Julia nodded and gave her a tremulous smile. “Much, much nicer, honey. And they’re there.”

  Ruby studied her aunt for a moment soberly before she laid her cheek on Julia’s shoulder and when Julia finally looked at Douglas, Lizzie was holding on to him like she’d never let him go. Her face was pressed into his side and his arms were wrapped tightly around her. Julia watched in fascination as he bent low to kiss Lizzie on the top of her head.

  Willie was standing to the side but he moved forward.

  “Auntie Jewel, I’ll take care of this now,” her ten year old nephew said, his hand on Ruby’s back indicating he wanted Julia to put the girl down.

  Julia looked into her brother Gavin’s eyes that just happened to be in an altogether different being’s face, and, without a word of protest, she bent down and put Ruby on the floor.

  Willie gathered Ruby to him and then gently moved to Lizzie, taking charge of her and leading them all to the bed where he sat them down, one, two, three.

  Douglas moved to Julia and Willie raised his eyes to them.

  “I’ll take care of this now,” he repeated.

  His meaning was clear, or at least it was to Douglas.

  Douglas leaned close to her.

  “Julia he wants us to go,” he murmured.

  “I can’t –” Julia started but Douglas wasn’t listening. He took her hand firmly and led her out. She resisted but she was no match for Douglas and now was no time to make a scene.

  When they were out the door, Douglas closed it. Julia turned on him and opened her mouth to speak but he put his finger to her lips, this tender action effectively silencing her.

  Then he pulled her vaguely resisting, stiff body into his arms.

  “The three of them need time alone,” he stated over the top of her head. “You have to respect Will enough to let him take care of it.”

  She knew he was right. She hated it, but she knew he was right.

  She nodded jerkily against his shoulder and pulled out of his arms. Then, resting her back on the wall next to the door, she slid down to sit on the floor close by just in case they called out to her.

  She didn’t look at Douglas, she didn’t want him to try to talk her out of her silent vigil which she would completely refuse to let go.

  He didn’t.

  He sat next to her, rested his back against the wall, one leg straight, one knee bent, he pulled her close to him with an arm around her and forced her head on his shoulder.

  Because she needed to, needed it more than anything in the world at that moment, she relaxed against him and her arms stole around his middle. In return, his other arm curled around her, holding her close.

  They didn’t speak. She (to her everlasting surprise) didn’t burst into a fresh round of tears. She just sat in Douglas’s arms for what could have been minutes or hours. Then, when her body was stiff and protesting, as if Douglas knew she could take no more, he lithely surged to his feet and bent over to take her hand and pull her up.

  Together, they silently opened the door and snuck into the room which was still lit by Ruby’s pink daisy nightlight.

  Lizzie and Ruby were lying together in Ruby’s bed, tucked up and sleeping.

&n
bsp; Willie was asleep in the chair opposite.

  “We have to make him more comfortable,” Julia whispered to Douglas, the boy’s position would mean a crick in his neck tomorrow.

  “Leave him,” Douglas ordered.

  She opened her mouth to disagree but saw Douglas shake his head. “He won’t thank us. Julia, darling, you have to let him to do this.”

  She knew he was right.

  And anyway, he’d called her “darling” in his deep, rich voice. She would have done anything he said at that point.

  She nodded.

  She did, however, grab a pink throw from the end of Ruby’s bed and very gently, so as not to disturb him, threw it over Willie’s body.

  When they’d closed the door again, Julia started to go to her rooms but Douglas caught her hand.

  She turned to him and started to speak. “Douglas, tonight, I have to –”

  “I know,” he interrupted her and lifted his finger to trace a path from her temple slowly down then along her jaw to her chin. He watched his finger as it went and then his eyes shifted to hers. “You did well today.” His voice was soft with meaning.

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, not trusting herself to blurt out that she loved him. She loved it that he called her “darling” and loved it that he called Ruby “sweetheart” and loved it that he held Lizzie tightly in his arms when she needed him.

  Most of all, tonight, she loved it that he knew what Willie needed to do.

  While she was thinking about how much she loved him, she watched him and his eyes changed, burning with a light she’d never noticed before.

  He then did something that completely took her breath away.

  He kissed her nose.

  And if she had gotten her breath back it would have again been stolen.

  Because he turned on his heel and he left, just as she needed him to do.

  She went immediately to her room, to her phone and called her mother to tell her about the events of the evening with the children.

  And she didn’t leave out Douglas’s part in it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Sweet Anticipation