The Ghosts of Christmas Past by Madelynne Ellis

Author:Madelynne Ellis [Ellis, Madelynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Incantarix Press
Published: 2015-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

NINE

Bella quickly fell into a contented sleep in Vaughan’s arms, but Vaughan sat awake peering into the darkness. He held the locket he’d fished from the moat clasped tight within his hand. He was not about to rush north and force another confrontation with Lucerne. Impulsiveness was unlikely to bring about the desired outcome. Rather, he needed to steer things carefully. Plan his strategy over the course of the coming months, so that when the right moment arrived he could be sure that he’d get what he wanted.

What he wanted was Lucerne.

It had always been Lucerne.

Luckily, he possessed a great deal of patience, which meant he could bide his time. Claiming Lucerne the first time around had been a lengthy affair, because the stakes had been too high to risk mistakes. Losing Lucerne had never been an acceptable option. Therefore, he’d had to coax him slowly, getting him to accept the notion of male love as something precious, not merely a crime. Things had eventually fallen into place in the autumn of 1797. The only thing Vaughan hadn’t account for was the arrival of Bella Rushdale into their lives.

He stroked a wisp of hair away from her face. She was smiling to herself as she dreamed. He hoped it wasn’t some overly rosy fantasy involving him. Their future was only ever going to be thorny. He couldn’t love her as she wanted, because his heart already belonged to another.

Vaughan’s attention strayed towards the fireplace and the dying flames, then over to the curious external door that led onto the ledge outside. Years back, on a night not dissimilar to this, he and Lucerne had paced this room. It was in the days when his grandmother had ruled Pennerley. His mother, the marchioness was rarely home. The countryside didn’t agree with her. It lacked people enough to pay her court, so she spent her days in London.

That particular year, Vaughan had been banished from her side for a cruel misdeed and sent to moulder in the countryside. He’d taken Lucerne with him, and enjoyed one of the best yuletides ever. They’d had a merry old lark hurling snowballs, finger painting lewd designs on the castle windows and generally getting into mischief.

For the crime of fashioning erect penises for all of cook’s gingerbread men, and arranging them performing libidinous acts, his grandmother had forbidden them from taking part in the traditional Twelfth Night celebrations. Whatsmore, she’d ensured her will was known to every man on the estate. He and Lucerne weren’t to go near the orchard, and if they did, they should be considered trespassers and bearers of bad luck and shot at.

Given the copious amounts of cider usually consumed at the festivities, even he’d decided against risking his skin. One of the fools would probably have blown his head off.

That wasn’t to say they accepted the exclusion and turned in for early nights. Oh no, they quickly affected an escape, scrambling along the stonework and over the curtain wall to do so.

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