Dr. Black viewed them with an unaccustomed misty expression in his faded gray eyes behind their round spectacles. In the last five years, she’d seen more of him than she had in all the time she’d worked at Thorncroft. She’d become very fond of him, although she’d never quite overcome her awareness that once he’d paid her wages.
“Kitty, I’m so glad you wrote to me all those years ago and suggested I find Joss a wife. Putting my godson and Margaret together was a stroke of genius.”
“Thomas, you know that was a secret between us,” Kitty said in horror, as a fraught silence crashed down around them.
Maggie frowned at her former employer. “But you didn’t put us together.”
“Yes, I did.” Dr. Black, who had been enjoying the Christmas punch, blinked at her owlishly. “Wrote to Joss saying I wanted the place modernized, so he’d come up to stay. When any nitwit can see Thorncroft is perfect as it is. Then wrote to you to say to expect him.”
Joss’s arms had dropped from her waist, and some quality in his stance made her shoot him a curious glance. “Joss?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
He was frowning into the distance. She stared at him baffled, before she recalled a conversation from their early days as man and wife. He’d smugly declared that he’d found his own bride, and just the right bride for him, without benefit of his mamma’s enthusiastic matchmaking.
Oh, no. Did he imagine Maggie had set out to trap him with the conniving of his marriage-minded mother? Surely he must know his wife had never deceived him. Surely he must remember how unprepared she’d been for his arrival, that night of the snowstorm.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Whatever it is you’re thinking, stop it right now.” She turned to Dr. Black. “I’m sorry, sir. I received no such letter.”
Dr. Black, seemingly unaware of the strained atmosphere, beamed at them both. “Maybe I didn’t get around to writing to you, Margaret. I know I wrote to the boy. Not sure I wrote to Kitty either, now I come to think of it. But I definitely leaped to answer her plea to find my godson a suitable bride.”
“And you did that, Thomas,” Kitty said, casting her son a doubtful look. His reticence was becoming noticeable. “But it was purely good fortune that Joss and Maggie fell in love.”
“So our meeting wasn’t a lucky accident after all,” Maggie said, trying to sound lighthearted.
No wonder Joss’s family had expressed no surprise when he found his future wife in an out of the way corner of Yorkshire and brought her home for a quick wedding. They must have already been bracing for her arrival.
“It was a lucky accident,” Kitty said with a hint of desperation, when Joss still didn’t speak.
“With a lot of help from me,” Dr. Black said, earning him another glare from Kitty.
“You’re a very unlikely cupid, Thomas,” Kitty said acidly.
Maggie was still staring at Joss, not understanding his odd reaction. “Do you mind so much, Joss?”
Joss blinked, and Maggie watched the life and warmth flow back into his face. The green eyes he focused on her were once more radiant with love.
“You know,” he said in a thoughtful voice, “once upon a time, I might have. But now I really don’t.”
“I know you hate to feel manipulated,” she said steadily. “But I wasn’t part of any plot.”
“I wasn’t plotting,” Kitty said, offended.
“Yes, you were,” Joss said, although affection deprived his tone of rancor.
“Perhaps a little,” Kitty sheepishly admitted.
Dr. Black at last picked up the less than positive response to his self-congratulations. “Have I put my foot in it?”
Joss reached out to catch Maggie’s hand and brought it to his lips. “Forgive my distraction, my darling. I had to rearrange my memories of our courtship, so they fit the new picture.”
Maggie regarded him with a frown, not wanting this nonsense to spoil what had been such a lovely day. “You mightn’t have liked me when you met me. It’s not as if you had no choice in what happened.”
He squeezed her hand. “Of course I had no choice.”
“Josiah Hale!” his mother protested, even as he continued.
“Maggie, you are the woman I was fated to love. From the moment I first saw you, I couldn’t resist you.” Leaving her gratified—and relieved—after his ardent declaration, he turned to Dr. Black. “Uncle Thomas, thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you’re the author of my present happiness, I owe you more than I can ever repay.”
Dr. Black’s cheerful humor revived, and he bestowed another glowing smile on Maggie and Joss. A smile perhaps a few degrees brighter, thanks to the brandy enlivening the punch.
“Knew it was the perfect solution.” He turned back to Kitty. “Let me know if you want my help with any other unmarried sprigs littering your life, my dear Kitty. I’ll find them all a pretty girl to wed, just like Maggie. Although they’ll have to be pretty indeed to hold a candle to you in your heyday, by George.”
“Time for us to go, my love,” Joss said in an undertone. As he tugged Maggie away toward the staircase, she watched her self-possessed mother-in-law blush and kiss Dr. Black’s cheek.
“Joss, you’re not really angry with Dr. Black for setting up our meeting, are you?”
“Angry?” Joss’s relaxed laugh soothed her last niggling worry. “If I hadn’t already named my son after him, I’d be ready to do it again. We can christen all our future children Thomas. Even the girls.”
She gave a choked gulp of amusement and leaned in, close enough to murmur for his ears alone, “Let’s come up with something different for the new baby. It would be so inconvenient to call for one child and get the whole lot turning up to answer.”
Joss stopped so abruptly at the base of the stairs, she stumbled into him. “The new baby?”
She smiled to see the wonder illuminating his expression. “Next summer, I think.”
“Oh, my glorious beloved, I couldn’t adore you more.” He seized her up for a passionate kiss that this time paid no heed to observers.
And Maggie kissed her husband back with every ounce of love in her overflowing heart.
About the Author
Australian Anna Campbell has written 10 multi award-winning historical romances for Grand Central Publishing and Avon HarperCollins. As an independently published author, she’s released 18 bestselling novellas and Lord Garson’s Bride, a full-length Dashing Widows novel. Anna has won numerous awards for her Regency-set stories including RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice, the Booksellers Best, the Golden Quill (three times), the Heart of Excellence (twice), the Write Touch, the Aspen Gold (twice) and the Australian Romance Readers Association’s favorite historical romance (five times).
You can find all Anna’s books here.
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