Four Calling Birds (The Twelve Days of Christmas Book 9) by Emily E K Murdoch

Author:Emily E K Murdoch [Murdoch, Emily E K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2022-12-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The moment Lucy opened her eyes the next morning, all the chaos, panic, fear rushed back into her mind and her heart. She was in love with Percy Ardingley.

Worse, she was in love with him and had not even realized it until last night. She was in love with him, and he was not in love with her.

The connection they shared, the beauty of the moments they shared…it was all over. They could never return to how they were, not now she had realized just how desperately she needed him.

Lucy stared up at her bedchamber ceiling, the same small crack in the left-hand corner just the same as ever.

And one day Percy Ardingley would meet someone, a lady completely different to her, and fall in love with her. He would marry her and leave Lucy all alone.

Lucy’s jaw clenched. Alone. Yes, for she could never countenance marrying someone else. Not now she knew what it was to have such a connection as she had with Percy.

Even if it was not reciprocated.

“Wake up!”

A loud banging on her door echoed around the room, and even in the depths of her confusion, Lucy could not help but smile at Sophia’s loud exhortation.

“I am awake!” she called without moving.

Well, why should she? Her bed was lovely and warm, and this Christmas Day was absolutely freezing, judging by the cloud of breath that appeared as she called back to her sister.

“Lucy Fitzroy, get out of bed this minute!”

Lucy sighed. That was the trouble with family traditions at Christmas; they absolutely had to be carried out, even if she had no wish to partake in them this year.

A discomforting jolt disturbed her stomach as she pulled her legs over the side of the bed, wincing at the freezing cold air.

This would be the last Christmas she shared with Esther.

Well, not quite, Lucy told herself as she pulled on her underclothes, shivering slightly at their chilly temperature. It was not as though Esther and her duke would never spend Christmas with the Fitzroy family London.

Wasn’t it?

Only as Lucy pulled up her favorite Christmas gown, the one with the elegant print of holly which she saved for Advent, had the horrible thought occurred to her.

After all, it was not as though she knew any dukes…but from the little she knew of Caroline and her earl, they had to spend at least two in every three Christmases at his estate, the mansion Lucy had visited a few times and had been in complete awe of.

Would that be the same for Esther—or perhaps more? Would she in fact be forced to spend every Christmas at the Duke of Kendal’s residence?

Sadness tinged with a little confusion mingled with happiness for her sister as Lucy finished doing up the buttons on the side of her gown. It was all changing, and not like when Jemima had married or even Arabella. They had married gentlemen, yes, but not with titles that would pull her away from her sisters.

Would they ever have a

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