Christmas Miracles by Mary Balogh

Author:Mary Balogh [Balogh, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Class Ebook Editions Ltd.
Published: 2015-10-27T05:00:00+00:00

Guarded by Angels

Mary Balogh

By midafternoon on the day before Christmas Eve all the family and guests of the Duke and Duchess of Dunsford had arrived at Hammond Park, their country seat, except for the two most anxiously awaited. Not that anyone would admit to feeling anxiety, or even great curiosity. Even the duke himself did not refer to either of them by name when he remarked with hearty good humor at tea in the drawing room, rubbing his hands together as if washing them, a characteristic gesture with him, that the gathering would be complete by dinnertime.

“And Christmas will begin,” the duchess said, clasping her hands to her bosom and beaming at her guests. Nothing pleased the duchess more than having a houseful of guests, and she always made quite sure that it happened at Christmas. The family came and a large number of friends besides. The nursery was always crammed with children, who tended to spill over into other areas of the house once the serious business of celebrating began on Christmas Eve.

“The weather is clear and mild,” the duke added, turning almost everyone’s attention to the window as if his pronouncement needed to be confirmed. “There will be no trouble at all on the roads.”

Almost all of them had been traveling on those roads either yesterday or today and indeed there had been no trouble. It had been a treat to find the weather so much in their favor, though there were those among them—as well as most of the children abovestairs—who looked hopefully and in vain for signs of snow.

The two people still to come were Elliott Nichols, Viscount Garrett, the duke and duchess’s grandson and heir, and June Nichols, Viscountess Garrett, the duchess’s great-niece, or step-great-niece, if there was such a relationship. She was the daughter of the man the duchess’s niece had married. And she was Elliott’s estranged wife. They had been married for five and a half years—and separated for five and a quarter years.

Since they were both independently members of the duke’s family, they both belonged at family gatherings. But it had become understood that they would not attend together. And so it became customary to invite them alternately.

Until this year.

This year the duchess had reached and passed her seventieth birthday and the duke, to the alarm of his family, had suffered a series of chest pains during the summer. He seemed well over them now, and his physician had assured him that he might live another twenty years if he was sensible. But they had been reminded, the two of them, of their mortality. And they had been reminded of the unhappiness of their beloved grandson and his wife. And of the fact that they might not live to see the birth of their heir. There might never be an heir of that line.

And so this year the duchess had suggested playing Cupid. It was June’s turn to come. Why not invite Elliott too, she had suggested at dinner one evening in late November.

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