Colin gawked and Lucy gasped.
“That’s not all,” Beatrice inserted. She chewed her bottom lip quite like her mother did when worried. “I made certain Aunt Lydia traveled with us and the cat, who was truly tranquil.”
“Ha! That’s why you laughed in your sleep when I mentioned it,” Lucy said with a knowing look at Ellen.
Beatrice continued. “Lord Hartsford’s grandmother rode with us as well.” She cringed, as if waiting for admonishment, but Lucy merely patted her shoulder with her free hand.
“It’s quite all right.”
“Bloody hell.” Shock moved through Colin. “So that’s what Grandmother was scheming. I knew that look in her eye boded no good.”
“The letters to Father Christmas?” Lucy asked in a quiet voice.
Both girls colored again. “We wrote them,” Beatrice confessed.
His daughter rushed on. “That meeting with my friend Emily at the last posting inn was pure providence. I couldn’t pass it up.” She grinned, and it brightened the corridor. “I left you with Lucy, and felt that if you couldn’t figure out what happened next, you deserved to be alone at Christmas, and for the rest of your life.” She shrugged, as if she expected the results all along. “I feigned sleep many times so you could talk with her. What else is there to do during a long coach journey?”
A sick feeling circled through Colin’s insides. “You heard us?” Good God, so many things were discussed...
She nodded. “Yes, but it’s forgotten now if everything’s come out right.”
Lucy interjected with a question of her own before Colin could respond. “And the two pretty gowns in my luggage? Were those your doing?” She bounced her gaze between the girls. “I certainly didn’t pack them.”
“Oh, no!” Beatrice shook her head and her curls bounced. “Aunt Lydia did that. She said you might have need.”
Lucy’s lips parted as she gawked. “Everyone in my life arranged to deceive and manipulate me?”
Her daughter smiled. “For your own good, Mama.”
“So that you’d remember what happiness felt like,” Simon added with a sage look and his hands clasped behind his back.
The amount of dissembling the three of them had done boggled Colin’s mind. “We will all need to sit down for a serious chat later.”
A murmur of agreement passed through his assembled collection of relatives in the room beyond.
“But not on Christmas Day,” Beatrice said with a sudden display of spirit. She tossed a sly glance at her mother. “You thought we were ignorant about our shoddy finances. Really, Mama, we are not imbeciles, nor are we little anymore.”
“That has been taken care of,” Lucy said with a look at him that had tiny fires licking through his blood. “I shall tell you about it later.”
“Well, that’s all to the good.” Beatrice put her hands on her hips. “I knew you’d try to pawn that watch, so I made certain the proprietor of the shop wouldn’t take it. He is quite a good-natured man, and so dashing!”
Together, both he and Lucy groaned. Colin didn’t have the heart to ask how she accomplished that feat. He hoped his own daughter hadn’t taught her about flirting.
“Oh, he didn’t need to refuse me,” Lucy interrupted, and again met his eyes with such heat in her gaze that he nearly scooped her up into his arms and spirited her away upstairs. “I couldn’t part with the watch, and as it turned out, I needed it for another purpose.”
Was there ever anyone as wonderful as his Lucy?
“This is rapidly becoming a sickening display.” Simon cleared his throat. “I said all along the whole program wouldn’t take because Mama would never stand for such tactics and she’d see through the viscount straight away because of his less than sterling reputation.” The boy eyed her askance. “It would seem love is blind.”
Good natured laughing circulated through their company, even as the heat of embarrassment crept up the back of Colin’s neck.
Feeling the urge to say something, anything, he blurted out, “I am a changed man, Simon. Trust me on that.” He glanced at the woman beside him. She gave him a small nod. “Lucy and I have rekindled our love. Those feelings never died; they’ve only been banked until needed until we both stopped being so stubborn.”
“Oh, Colin.” Lucy rolled her eyes. “How gauche and insensitive in front of the children.”
All three young people huffed in indignation. “We’re practically adults,” they exclaimed in unison.
“That you are.” How lovely it would be to assist with the raising of them into adulthood—his daughter and Jacob’s offspring. Colin grinned. He couldn’t help it. He’d been doing it an awful lot since Lucy came back into his life. “Apparently, we all are guilty of making Christmas wagers, for I would have never made the trip here without hoping to win my father’s.”
Ellen blew out a breath. “Please tell me you don’t intend to claim that still.”
“No.” Despite the bevy of young people around them, he drew Lucy to the parlor doorway where a ball of mistletoe hung. In the room beyond, his family waited, every one of them looking in expectation. Had they all been privy to the children’s machinations? It didn’t matter. Never had he been happier, and he didn’t give a fig who knew. Everyone in the whole of Derbyshire could have been in on the scheme and he wouldn’t care. Not now that he had her. “I, for one, don’t mind that my wager is forfeit. I’ve won a far greater prize.” Then he looked at her, stared into her upturned face and fell victim to her sparkling blue eyes. Now was the time. He couldn’t wait a second longer. Perhaps it was fitting he’d do this in front of his whole family. In a way it would tie him back to them and begin to repair relations. “Lucy Ashbrook, I asked you a question many years ago. If I ask it again, will there be a much different answer?”
Collective gasps rang from the girls as well as some of the ladies in the parlor.
Lucy smiled. Her eyes welled with tears as she held onto his hands. Hers were shaking. “Yes, I believe I might.”
“Excellent.” His heart squeezed, or perhaps it finally thudded back to life, for he hadn’t truly lived in quite a while. “Marry me? I said all I needed to say last night. I’m a different man with a different life, and we’ve lost so much time.”
“But we are here now.” She held his gaze, smiling all the while. Never would he tire of making her always look thus. “Yes, at long last, I will be your wife.”
With a whoop of victory, Colin swept her into his arms regardless of the onlookers, and he kissed his bride-to-be beneath the mistletoe with much gusto until a firm tap on his shoulder interrupted them.
Simon stared at him with a raised eyebrow. “Love notwithstanding, old chap, shouldn’t you ask my permission to marry my mother?”
“I beg your pardon, Mr. Ashbrook,” Colin said as he scrambled for a seriousness he couldn’t feel at the moment. “Perhaps I should rectify—”
“I’m joshing you.” Simon’s somber expression cracked and he burst into pleased laughter, giving Colin’s arm a punch. “Please, marry her with alacrity, Lord Hartsford, and with my blessing. You both need a return of happiness in your lives. Perhaps she’ll stop moping.”
Let us pray we both will. Moisture misted Colin’s eyes as he nodded. He dropped a hand upon the young man’s shoulder. “God, you’re so like your father. I look forward to knowing you better and telling you about him.”
Simon colored and then ducked his head. “Now that that’s settled, shall we go in for tea? No doubt you both are sorely in need of warmth.”
“That we are, as well as a change of clothing. We shall join you presently,” he murmured and while the children slipped into the parlor and his family launched into wedding plans, he released a shuddering sigh. Having Lucy in his arms gave him all the warmth he ever wanted. He met her laughing gaze, and he smiled. “I promise to be the man you deserve now.”
“You always were, Colin,” she whispered and then wrapped a hand around his nape and pulled him to her,
her lips brushing his. Sweetly she kissed him, and they lingered beneath the mistletoe for long moments before she broke the embrace. “We both needed to appreciate each other fully first as we are as well as understanding why we’d made the decisions we did in the past. It has brought us closer together.”
“Yes, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results of our devious children’s actions.” Colin settled her more comfortably in his arms and kissed her again. Never would he tire of showing his affection now that he’d won her. When finished, he said, “Happy Christmas, Lucy.”
She beamed. “Happy Christmas, Colin. I hope we will celebrate many others right here where our love first began.”
“Hear, hear.” And then he kissed her once more.
How silly he’d been. When searching out the magic of Christmas and the happiness therein, he’d only needed to find Lucy, for she and the holiday went hand in hand. Never had he looked forward to Christmastide more.
The End
Regency-era stories by Sandra Sookoo
Scandal in Surrey series
Lady Parker’s Grand Affair
The Bride’s Gambit
Misfortune’s Lady
Miss Bennett’s Naughty Secret
Darrington family series (KU exclusive)
Marriage Minded Lord
To Bed or To Wed
The Bridal Contract
Thieves of the Ton series
Captivated by an Adventurous Lady
Engaged to a Scandalous Earl
Married on a Wicked Morning
Intrigued by an Ancient Pedigree
Beguiled on a Christmas Morning
Caught with a Stolen Diamond
Tortured by a Horrible Secret
Delighted on a Summer’s Evening
Trapped in the British Museum
Charmed at a Yuletide Ball (coming November 2019)
Lords of Happenstance series
What the Stubborn Viscount Desires
What a Wayward Lord Needs
What the Dashing Duke Deserves
Lords of the Night series
Devil Take the Duke
Bitten by the Earl
Adrift with the Viscount
Treasured by the Earl
Transformed by a Christmas Star (coming December 2019)
Author Bio
Sandra Sookoo is a USA Today bestselling author who firmly believes every person deserves acceptance and a happy ending. Most days you can find her creating scandal and mischief in the Regency-era, serendipity and happenstance in Victorian America or snarky, sweet humor in the contemporary world. Most recently she’s moved into infusing her books with mystery and intrigue. Reading is a lot like eating fine chocolates—you can’t just have one. Good thing books don’t have calories!
When she’s not wearing out computer keyboards, Sandra spends time with her real life Prince Charming in central Indiana where she’s been known to goof off and make moments count because the key to life is laughter. A Disney fan since the age of ten, when her soul gets bogged down and her imagination flags, a trip to Walt Disney World is in order. Nothing fuels her dreams more than the land of eternal happy endings, hope and love stories.
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