Six Geese a Laying: A Regency Historical Romance Holiday Tale (The Twelve Days of Christmas Book 7) 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: 2022-11-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

“—tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy…”

Maria sang along with her family, all the Fitzroys gathered around the pianoforte—except for Fred, who was asleep upstairs, and Tommy. He appeared to be on an expedition to clamber over the sofa, but Olivia was keeping an eye on him, so Maria did nothing to prevent him.

“—tidings of comfort and joy!”

Gentle applause rang out at the end of the carol, and Maria’s Papa put a congratulatory hand on Isabella’s shoulder.

“Very good, my dear, very good. I only counted six wrong notes.”

He ducked away from the teasing slap of his daughter’s hand, and Maria laughed with the rest of the family. This was what Christmas had always been with the Fitzroys, whether they invited the Bath or London branches of the family, or whether they invited friends and neighbors as they did a few years ago, when Olivia and Luke had discovered their feelings for each other.

Music, laughter, food. So much food. Maria glanced at the tray of mince pies. She had already indulged in two, the sticky sweetness of the pastry cloying to the palate.

Maria sighed happily. This Christmas was shaping up to be everything that she wanted—and a few things she had not realized, before this week, that she had wanted as well.

“I know you. Better than you could know, Maria. I bet…I bet I can make you tell me.”

She shivered, hoping none of her family had noticed the sudden heat flaring in her cheeks.

It was starting to become a recurring problem, whenever she allowed her mind to wander back to Walter. To the way he touched her, the way he kissed her. The things he could do with his fingers…

Maria had not even known it was possible to do such things, feel such things. Knowing now what she did, it was painful to stand here with her family around the pianoforte, singing Christmas carols after dinner.

Not when she knew precisely where she wanted to be…

The image of the cottage just outside the vicarage where Walter would, right now, be spending the evening alone popped into Maria’s mind, and she did not push it away.

The temptation to just leave her family to their singing to find Walter first occurred to her when Isabella had suggested they sing together, and it had only been growing ever since.

It was a scandalous idea, one Maria would never have considered before today. But the idea of being with Walter was a heady one, one that twisted her heart and made her sure it was far more exciting than this dull evening.

“Which shall we sing next?” asked Olivia, rifling through the stacks of paper. “Isabella, did you write this one out by hand?”

“Well, I could not find the sheet music, and I thought it far better to be written out poorly by me than not have it at all,” said Isabella reasonably. “Careful, Tommy!”

The entire family looked around. Tommy had managed to tip himself upside down, legs on the sofa and head on the floor, giggling away to himself at the predicament he had found himself in.

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