Kidnapped at Christmas by Samantha Holt

Author:Samantha Holt [Holt, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The old shop had been so busy Millie should have scarcely had time to think about Gabriel, Lord…something or other, all day. She would have asked him to repeat his title but she kept getting distracted.

Mostly by The Kiss.

The Kiss to end all kisses. She hadn’t reached the age of six-and-twenty without a few kisses but none of those fumbling and sometimes sloppy, soft attempts had felt anything like that.

She was fairly certain she and Gabriel had done something world changing, as though it had shifted the ground beneath them. As much as they had both tried to ignore the kiss, she couldn’t forget it.

Now, she was not even certain she could step foot in the new shop, even though she desperately needed to finish putting away those fabrics Gabriel had unpacked for her. She put a hand to the back of her neck and massaged the tight knot there while smiling and bidding good day to the latest customer, a sheath of calico wrapped in paper under one arm.

She’d hoped to leave early but the steady stream of customers wouldn’t allow her to abandon young Betsy, who struggled with noting the purchases, and whose speech was a little slow. Her assistant was a hard worker, though, and that more than made up for the sneering looks she’d get from less pleasant customers or the time it took to write in the ledger. Millie didn’t want customers who were rude anyway. In her experience, they were never happy, and would only make her job more difficult.

She finished tying another parcel ready for collection and began work on cutting the lengths of diaphanous silver muslin that she would drop over to Lucy’s on the way to the new shop. She had to go, no matter what memories of Gabriel were there now. Too much had been invested in opening before Christmas and all her customers were looking forward to the opening. One way or another, she would push that kiss aside and do what she had always done—work hard to achieve her goals.

No lord was going to prevent that.

“Millie?” Betsy, her red cheeks bringing out the soft freckles dancing across her face, waved a hand in front of her face. “Millie?”

Blinking, Millie smiled swiftly. “Yes?”

“There’s a lady asking to see you.” Betsy jerked a thumb toward the doorway where a lovely, dark-haired young woman stood, her white gloved hands clutched around the handle of an umbrella.

“Can you assist her, Betsy? I must get this done for Mr. Humphries. He intends to collect today.” She gestured to the length of fabric she was halfway through cutting.

“She asked for you.”

With a nod, Millie set down the scissors and eased past two excitable young women looking at her selection of ribbons to greet the customer. Dark eyes matched her glossy dark hair, framed by lashes that made her eyes seem astonishingly wide against petite features.

“Are you Millicent Strong?” the woman asked, her voice deeper than anticipated but tinged with a slight tremor.

“I am.” She offered a reassuring smile.

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.