Merry Misrule by Ellie St. Clair

Author:Ellie St. Clair [St. Clair, Ellie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Prairie Lily Press
Published: 2020-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Elijah had spent a great deal of the past few years outdoors.

But battlefields and camps didn’t count, he decided as he took a great inhalation of the winter air.

Nothing compared to home, to the grounds of Briercrest, to the scents of pine and snow and fresh crispness.

All made better by the rosy-cheeked woman beside him.

He had finally wrenched himself away from her after their kiss in her bedroom. How he was going to make it through the rest of this Christmastide without taking her to the end of satisfaction, he had no idea. Never had a woman tempted him so, and he wanted nothing more than to convince her that she should be forever promised to him.

The thought should scare him. He had never been one to be particularly concerned with finding a woman and marrying. He had an older brother, who had a son of his own, and before Christopher, if anything had happened to Elijah, there had always been Alex.

But then Joanna had returned to his life, and the thought of marriage was no longer so troubling.

He didn’t want to scare her, however, and so he decided he would take things slow. As far as he could tell, she was only just beginning to no longer hate him. That was a good start.

She had donned a pelisse for this sledding adventure, and while he knew the women would likely mostly just watch the children and the men as they slid down the hill, he was looking forward to sharing the day with her.

His sister was here, thank goodness, although Thatcher was accompanying the lot of them as well, dragging the sled behind him. The two of them were practically flaunting their relationship, with their shared glances and inability to look at anyone else save one another. He was of a mind to go tell his sister exactly what he thought, except he knew that it would be met with hostility, and he vowed that today he would bring only fun in order to convince Joanna that she had made the right decision in going along with his plan.

He looked across the snow and winked at her, to which she blushed and turned her head away. He merely laughed and drew near.

“Joanna,” he said, nodding at her as though it was the first time they had spoken that day. “Would you fancy a ride?”

Her eyes widened. “A ride?”

“On the sled,” he said, nodding his head behind him. “I can pull you if you’d like.”

“Oh, no,” she said, shaking her head vigorously, “I can walk just fine.”

“All right,” he said with a shrug. “I would take it, though, if I were you.”

She bit her lip but continued to shake her head at him, although this time it was with laughter more than annoyance.

He enjoyed her company as they walked to the hill, the day pleasant and the snow warming into that melty feeling that makes it perfect to create a snowball — although today, he vowed he would not launch anything at Joanna, nor anyone else, in an effort to prove his maturity.

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