The Christmas Promise (The Fallen Angels NOVELLA series Book 2) by Julianna Hughes

Author:Julianna Hughes [Hughes, Julianna]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2018-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Fairy tales never told you what happened after midnight once the prince had asked you to marry him. For Mary, the morning after Peter asked her to be his wife was nothing short of a nightmare come true. The evil queen in Mary's fairy tale gone wrong was Lady Hurtle. Which wasn’t to say that things hadn’t run into trouble right after Peter’s proposal, because they had.

And Mary was solely responsible for last night not being the ending to a perfect story. She had asked-no begged-Peter for time to think about his proposal. And that had kept her up all night, weighing all the reasons she shouldn’t marry him-and there were dozens of them, with just one for why she should—she was in love with him. But by the time she had opened her door in the morning to give him her answer at the old ruins, Mary still didn’t know how she was going to answer him.

What she found proved that hers was not going to be a fairy tale ending. Lady Hurtle had stationed two burly footmen outside her door with orders to not allow her out. They were polite but insistent that she was to not leave her room until summoned by her employer.

No other explanation was given for her imprisonment. But then Mary hadn't needed one. Lady Hurtle and the Duchess of Rollens were friends. And no matter how circumspect Peter had been with what she now knew was his surreptitious courting of her, people were bound to have seen them together. So Mary knew who had ultimately ordered her confinement—the Duchess of Rollens.

Half an hour later, a knock sounded on her door that reverberated through her like a clap of thunder. She steeled her resolve and walked to the door, knowing what awaited. When she opened it, she was met by a stern-faced woman Mary knew was the duchess's lady's maid, a woman nearly as austere and unfriendly as her employer.

"Your presence is requested in the small drawing room," the woman said, then took a step back and waited.

After Mary stepped out of the room, one of the footmen closed the door behind her and took up a position on one side of her while the other footman stood at attention on the other.

"Follow me," the maid barked, and took off down the long servant's corridor.

Mary must have hesitated too long as one the footmen shoved her forward. She stumbled and then righted herself as he sneered, "Move, harlot."

She no longer had any doubts about why she had been imprisoned or was being summoned in such a way. Propelled forward on shaky legs, Mary followed the maid with the two men keeping pace on either side as if she were some kind of criminal being led to the gallows. She knew that was how she was meant to feel.

In less time than she comprehended, they were standing outside one of the many drawing rooms in the castle. The maid waited until Mary and her escort reached her, then she turned and knocked smartly on the door.

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.