Christmas At Falstone Castle by Sarah M. Eden

Author:Sarah M. Eden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Covenant Communications, Inc.
Published: 2023-09-10T20:16:40+00:00

Chapter Nine

Breakfast had become Harriet’s favorite meal of the day. Morning after morning, while the castle slept, she sat beside Roswell, finalizing their plans to help her carve out a place for herself among her family, reminiscing about their younger years and discovering people they both knew and events they both remembered, talking about things they enjoyed or hoped to do in the years to come. She found in him a friend and companion, but of a different variety than the group of friends she had spent so much of the last decades with. Her heart was growing partial to him.

“Her Grace mentioned during whist last night that she wished her family could spend Christmas at Falstone Castle.” Roswell smiled over his teacup. “Won’t she be surprised when they all arrive this evening?”

Harriet sighed, utterly pleased with the outcome of their efforts. “I am still amazed we managed to arrange for families from three different counties to arrive here on the same day. What a wonderful Christmas gift it will be.”

“Our duchess will be ecstatic,” Roswell said.

“She has brought Adam such joy. Before she came into his life, he was unhappy and angry at the world.” The pain she’d felt at watching him so lost in his own enmity still echoed in her heart when she thought on those days before Persephone. “If she wants to have her family with her at Christmas, she should get precisely that.”

“May I ask you something? I will understand if you decide I am being unforgivably intrusive.”

“I have come to know you well enough to not be worried about what you might ask.”

He brushed the toast crumbs from his fingertips, then pushed his teacup aside. “How did your son’s face become so scarred?”

That was a question she had been asked on a number of occasions, though she had seldom answered it. But she knew without a doubt Roswell would not say anything to cause Adam pain or to indicate they had discussed so personal a topic. She could broach it with him.

“Adam was born without his outer ear. Instead of the cuplike shape that is usually there, his was only a small stub of flesh.”

Roswell watched her intently as she spoke. She liked knowing he was genuinely interested in what she had to say.

“His father and I worried his hearing would be diminished by it. And, of course, there was concern he might be mistreated for the oddity of his appearance. We consulted a number of surgeons, all of whom insisted the missing ear was likely just under the skin, that it had, for reasons unknown, become caught there, not emerging as it was meant to.”

Roswell nodded, brow pulled in concern.

“One surgeon after another attempted to ‘liberate’ his ear. By the time we realized there was nothing to be found, his tiny, beloved little face was badly scarred. As he grew, the scars stretched and widened. We should never have let the surgeons operate.” Her heart dropped at the memory of all that suffering. “He endured so much pain, and I missed so much of his childhood.

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