Christmas with His Cinderella by Jessica Gilmore

Author:Jessica Gilmore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-09-12T20:47:01+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

XANDER WALKED INTO the Orangery to see Elfie surrounded by envelopes, laptop open, unusual frown lines creasing her forehead. ‘What’s all this?’

He wanted to pull her close, kiss her, but they were keeping their fling secret and this space was all too public. It was getting harder not to touch her, to tell everyone, She is mine, but Elfie didn’t want their relationship to affect the other members of staff, especially when it was going to be so short-lived.

Too short-lived. January was less than a fortnight away. If Elfie hadn’t planned to be going away then what would happen? Would they see where this went? Part of him could see it, properly dating, getting to know each other away from this festive bubble. But the rest of him, the sensible part of him, knew that Elfie was a free spirit, that the life of duty he led would eventually feel like a prison. Maybe it was better to have an end date after all.

She looked up, barely mustering a smile. ‘These are all the letters and emails from people purporting to be Walter’s owner.’

‘What?’

She nodded. ‘Over three hundred. There were several features about him over the last few days and so some enterprising con artists have decided that this is the way to make money. Some have asked for money in return for not claiming him, others have sob stories about why they had to give him up and have suggested that a sum of money ranging from several thousand to fifty thousand pounds would enable them to be reunited and keep him.’

‘Fifty thousand pounds? His pedigree must be a lot more special than we realised.’

‘It’s more that they know you’re a baron and that you own all this. I guess that ups the stakes.’

Picking up one of the letters, Xander scanned the long paragraphs full of woe. ‘But what if one of them is genuine?’

‘They’re not; none have mentioned the squirrel toy left with him and that detail wasn’t mentioned to any of the journalists. But I feel like I should check each one, just in case.’ She laid a hand on Walter’s head. ‘For your sake anyway.’

Xander slid into a chair next to her. ‘Pass me a pile of these. I’ll help.’

‘I thought you were busy?’

‘I am, but this is important.’ Although the thought of actually finding Walter’s owner and possibly giving the dog back was far less welcome than it would have been a few weeks ago. He was getting used to his presence, to his sighs and snores, the way he bounded to the door at the word ‘walk’ to the way he sometimes pressed close to Xander for comfort. It had turned out that Walter was surprisingly good company and walking him was now Xander’s favourite time of day. He’d even met several people with the same routine and would stand and make small talk while the dogs played. He had no idea of their names or anything about them other than the name and breed of their dog.

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