The Gift of Christmas by Jane Killick

Author:Jane Killick [Lute, edited by Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: anthology
Publisher: Windtree Press
Published: 2014-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

You can learn more about Anna and her books at:

annabrentwood.com

Don’t Forget the Mistletoe

Christy Carlyle

“You’re not going to marry Eliza Hobbs, are you?”

The question took Benedict Poole utterly by surprise, so much so that he nearly tripped over his own feet. One moment he had been indulging in the pleasure of playful banter with the prettiest girl in the room and the in the next she had shocked him to his boots.

Always expect the unexpected from Amelia Westerley. It was a precept he’d held since making her acquaintance at the age of ten. She’d been only seven on that cool autumn day when her mother had called on his mother. Newcomers to the village, his family had been eager to find their place in the close community of Clovebury.

He’d been acutely aware that Amy was younger and hadn’t expected much from their forced acquaintance, yet she turned out to be the cleverest and most unexpected girl he had ever met. Still was. And she always managed to surprise him.

He regained his balance quickly but couldn’t keep the discomfiture from his voice when he responded to the young woman at his elbow.

“Amy, whatever makes you say such a thing?”

He loathed gossip on principle, but the notion that he was the subject of rumors made him shudder. Not that he was opposed to marriage altogether. The petite interrogator standing next to him knew that all too well.

“You spent a good deal of time with her at the Newland’s dinner party and I heard that you accompanied her to the ball tonight.”

The facts as stated were true, but collectively they came to nothing. He had known no one else at the Newland’s dinner party. Eliza Hobbs had offered familiar if lackluster conversation, and her family owned no carriage. As a neighbor, it would have been beyond rude not to offer to deliver her to the Westerley’s Christmas ball in his own carriage.

Was that a flush of pink he saw on Amy’s cheek? He noted that she was suddenly very interested in studying the cut of the crystal glass in her hand.

“I offered her the use of my carriage. I delivered her to the ball. Not the same thing at all.”

He had as much interest in Eliza Hobbs as he did in any of the other eligible young ladies in his circle. Which was very little, if the truth be told. Oh, he did his duty – danced when necessary and offered the use of his carriage when needed – but none of them endangered his heart. His heart was secure. Uselessly, pointlessly devoted to the one woman who had no interest in it at all.

“You aren’t going to marry her then?”

Amelia Westerley was nothing if not tenacious. It was one of her qualities that he most admired. But her newfound interest in his marital status was a shock. More than a shock, it was a great irony. He had only ever asked for one woman’s hand in marriage, and Amy had refused.

“Are you so

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