A Most Scandalous Christmas by Boyce Kelly

Author:Boyce, Kelly
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kelly Boyce
Published: 2016-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“Come now, Callum, surely you can throw straighter than that!”

Patience laughed and ducked behind the barricade she had built up around a fallen tree as her ten-year-old cousin threw another snowball. It fell short, hitting the tree and sending a spray of flakes over her face.

“That’s jus’ a warnin’ shot, lassie! Next one will hit the mark for sure!” Callum may have spent the last year in England, but his native brogue was alive and well and the cadence of it always reminded Patience of home. Though her father was English through and through, the Sutherland side of her family was as Scottish as they came and fiercely proud of their heritage, no matter how long they had spent on English soil.

“Oh dear,” Patience laughed. “I’ve awakened the beast. I’ve heard a Scotsman never takes a challenge lightly.”

In response, another snowball hit the tree, this one closer than the last. “Take that, English!”

Patience let out a short squeal and ducked, laying flat against the snow covered ground so the cold seeped beneath her wool coat. Challenging Callum to a snowball fight had been exactly what she had needed to escape from her thoughts and from constantly being on guard against doing anything foolish that would embarrass her family. It was difficult to allow thoughts of Lord Walkerton to occupy her mind when she had to constantly bob and weave to avoid being hit by Callum’s hard-packed pellets of snow. How refreshing not to have to worry about propriety and etiquette and all that silliness. Here, with Callum, she could just be herself, away from judging eyes and free from the whispered gossip she so often incurred.

Patience maneuvered herself to a thicker spot of the tree to offer her better protection. She had been stockpiling her snowballs and now it was time to strike the little imp back with the full force of her arsenal.

She filled her arm with her perfectly shaped snowball then jumped up and began throwing them one after the other. “Take that you rascally Scot! I’ll never give up my—”

“Bloody hell!”

“Oh! Good heavens!”

The remaining snowballs fell from Patience’s arms as her hands flew to her mouth in shock. Callum’s head popped from his own self-made fortress of snow, shock written across his youthful face mixed with a mischievous hint of amusement.

“Well done, Patience, you’ve taken out your own countryman.”

And indeed, she had. Laughter bubbled up from deep within as Lord Walkerton slowly unbent from where he’d attempted to curl into himself and protect his head from the worst of her assault.

“Oh, dear. My humblest of apologies, my lord.”

Lord Walkerton brushed slowly at the spots where snow stuck to his well-cut wool outer coat, its color as dark as his hair. “Your apology would have a more authentic ring of sincerity to it, were you not laughing while you issued it,” he pointed out in that stern tone she heard far too often.

“Would it?” She tried to control herself, but heavens, he made an amusing spectacle spotted with the remnants of her ammunition.

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