His Christmas Bride by J. J. Nite

Author:J. J. Nite [Nite, J.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Astraea Press, LLC
Published: 2014-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The next twenty-four hours felt like the longest of Hugh’s life. He had never had any trouble keeping himself busy, but with Anabelle’s life uncertain, it had been horrible.

He had successfully avoided Annabelle or maybe they had avoided each other. Hugh found it difficult to seek her out and act as though nothing had happened to change her station in life.

Stalking the foyer the next evening, waiting for his father to arrive, Bernard stood watching him.

“My lord, are you certain you wouldn’t be more comfortable in the sitting room. I will show your father in as soon as he arrives,” Bernard said.

“I’m fine, Bernard, just anxious to hear what he has to say.”

“Yes, my lord. If you insist on cluttering up the foyer, then I’m going to check on dinner. I believe Cook is going to keep it warm for you,” Bernard said, before inclining his head and walking back towards the kitchen.

“Blasted servant,” Hugh muttered, smiling.

The truth was, he wasn’t sure where he would be if Bernard wasn’t with him. He had gotten him out of more than one scrape as a lad and had run his household in his stead. He felt more like a part of his family than a servant, but Bernard wouldn’t be happy hearing that kind of thinking.

Hugh was startled out of his thoughts with a rapping on the door. Hurrying as fast as he could to the door, he didn’t bother to see who it was before throwing it open.

“Have you dismissed Bernard?” his father asked. “I know he’s a bit opinionated, but he’s still a good butler.”

“No. I haven’t dismissed anyone,” Hugh said, running his hand through his hair. “In fact, he implied I was driving him crazy cluttering up the foyer.”

“That sounds more like him. I remember how he used to drive me to distraction in his younger years,” George said.

“Father, I really don’t want to take a trip down memory lane right now. Did you speak with the duke?” Hugh asked.

“Let’s sit down, and I’ll tell you everything I’ve learned,” George said, before turning towards the sitting room.

Hugh tried to swallow his frustration and then followed his father to the sitting room. Clenching his teeth, he waited for him to get settled in a chair and then sat in the opposite and looked at him expectantly.

“First, the rumors of him being at death’s door are greatly exaggerated. While he is much aged from the last time I remember seeing him, he is far from sickly. In fact, he remarried a number of years ago. I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting his wife, but I’m sure…”

“Father! Please.” Hugh said.

“Yes, yes, yes. I told the duke of my suspicions and what I had learned from Annabelle and your housekeeper. He was quite upset upon hearing his daughter had died. He had a lot of questions I didn’t have answers to. When we began talking about Annabelle, he seemed to brighten a bit.

“The bottom line, Hugh, is that he wants to meet her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.