The Duke's Bartered Mistress (Surprise! Dukes Book 2) by Caroline Lee

Author:Caroline Lee [Lee, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-28T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The garden shears were much larger than the pair she’d used to cut Demon’s hair, but they still couldn’t handle the thickest of the ivy shoots.

“You are going to have to tackle these two,” Georgia called down from the top of the ladder. “Either I am not strong enough, or these shears lack the required edge.”

Demon, who was standing below steadying her, growled, “Ye should’ve just let me do them all. Ye’re going to fall, ye daft woman!”

Clucking dismissively, she shifted her weight to the left. “I will not fall, Demon, not with you holding on to my ankles so tightly.”

In response, the blasted man slid his hold up to her calves.

She hid her smile and kept lopping.

Even here, standing in the frigid cold, wearing her warmest stockings, Demon’s touch under her heavy skirt and coat could make her shiver with excitement.

“I’m only down here so I can look up yer skirt, ye ken.”

She snipped one of the overgrown branches. “No, you are down there because I have seen your idea of pruning, and thus I have to be the one up here.”

His grunt sounded almost amused. “How many times do I have to apologize for what I was doing to that rose?”

Snip snip. “How many times? Well, considering I have yet to hear you apologize, I will answer…at least once, Demon.”

“It’s my bloody rose,” he grumbled.

Georgia shifted farther to groom the far-left reaches. “Yes, but you had no idea what you were doing.”

“I was cutting it back, just like ye’re doing.” He abruptly changed the subject. “It’s going to start snowing any minute. Are ye almost done?”

His hands moved up toward the backs of her knees, causing them to buckle. Luckily, she braced them against the ladder rungs and pretended nothing was wrong.

“I think we have sufficiently cleaned up this ivy. It really had run rampant, Demon.” She leaned away from the wall to study her handiwork. “It is not the right time of year to do any of this, but since—” I will not be here much longer… She swallowed the thought, not wanting to make herself sad, and changed the subject. “You really ought to hire a gardener or groundskeeper, Demon.”

For after I’m gone.

Christmas was only days away, and the new year only a week later. Each dawn—each visit from Demon—brought her closer to the time she’d say her goodbyes.

She didn’t want to leave.

“Angus is fine enough,” Demon grumbled. “He’ll clean up all these cuttings, aye? Now come down. The clouds didnae look this bad when ye started this nonsense.”

She carefully dropped the shears into the pile of ivy below her on the snow and shifted her right foot down a rung. “I would like some of the ivy clippings, if you do not mind. I will add them to the pine boughs, along with the holly I trimmed earlier in the week.”

“Of course ye will. More Christmas decorations.”

In response, she took a deep breath and broke into song. “The holly and the ivy, when they

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