Harlequin Historical October 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Virginia Heath

Author:Virginia Heath
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

The next morning Lillian and the children dawdled over their breakfast. The night before, the children had begged Lillian for a later bedtime and she suspected they were still at work on their gifts. They’d been slow to wake up and dress, but then so had she. She’d sewn by lamplight until her eyes burned with the strain, but she now had a small set of modern-day clothing for the hundred-year-old doll.

Hannah appeared at the door. ‘Lord Grantwell wishes you all to appear in the hall as soon as you may.’ She corrected herself. ‘He commands you to appear.’

‘In the hall?’ They were commanded to appear?

Lillian’s anxiety flared. As did the children’s.

Anna looked frightened.

William cried, ‘Did we do something wrong?’

It was exactly the question on Lillian’s lips.

‘Very well, Hannah.’ She stood. ‘We must wash first.’ And tidy the children’s hair and clothes. ‘We will be there within a quarter-hour.’

Hannah’s lips pursed, but she nodded and hurriedly turned away.

‘Come, children,’ Lillian tried to sound calm. ‘We must be presentable.’

They washed faces and hands, and Lillian tied Anna’s hair with a ribbon while William tried to comb his into some semblance of neatness.

‘Is he angry with us?’ Anna asked.

‘Not with you and William,’ Lillian assured them. But she was not so certain about herself.

Anna held her hand as they walked down the stairs much less joyously than they had done the morning before.

When they walked through the threshold between the anteroom and the hall Grant was there, along with Thompson. Hannah and the two housemaids held baskets of evergreens, filling the room with the scent of outdoors. On a side table were balls of string, a basket of ribbons, and vases of various sizes.

Grant turned with a smile on his face. ‘There are our three slugabeds!’

He was dressed much as the day before, as if he were one of the labourers and not the viscount, nor the handsome soldier who had first caught her eye. Still, her heart leapt at the sight of him.

Only because she anticipated his anger, she told herself.

The children were less able to read his mood and hid behind her skirts.

‘What is this, Gr—m’lord?’ she asked.

‘What you wished for,’ he responded with a sweep of his arm. ‘You requested evergreens for decoration and today is the day to decorate. We are at the ready.’

‘But I meant only the children’s rooms. I did not presume—’

He cut her off. ‘Come, now. It will be Christmas in all the rooms, will it not?’

William peeped out from behind Lillian. ‘Do you mean we must put evergreens in all the rooms?’

He’d told them Grantwell House had eighty rooms, though they’d seen maybe a quarter of them.

Grant walked over to him and clapped a friendly hand to the boy’s shoulder. ‘Not all of them. What do you think?’ He drew the boy to his side. ‘This hall, certainly. The drawing room. Your rooms, of course—’

Anna skipped over to him. ‘May we decorate the stone people’s room too?’

‘The statue gallery?’ Grant laughed. ‘Of course—if you wish it.

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