The Perfect Christmas: With Bonus Material Added by Anders Annabelle

Author:Anders, Annabelle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Annabelle Anders
Published: 2019-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

He ought to have locked the door.

He ought never to have closed it.

Henry had barely found his release, bare-assed and quite satisfied, when the damn fiancé came barging in.

And by God, Henry had had the audacity to be annoyed with the man for barging in unannounced. The truth of the matter was that he’d been more angry with himself than anyone else.

Henry had not wanted to face the aftermath of what he’d done. The reality had been that he’d had nothing to offer her. He had no excuse for what he’d done, nor any explanation that could have satisfied her in any way. He’d not waited to speak with her. He’d not even left a note.

The fiancé had hurled all kinds of names at them both and then slammed out of the room. Eliza had been in tears, horrified by what she’d done. The memory was something he’d forgotten until now. But she’d kissed him on the lips before she’d dressed and gone after the other man.

She had kissed him… Why had he convinced himself that she’d gone to repair matters with the fiancé? To make him feel less horrible to abandon her? Henry replayed some of their conversations in his mind.

She had kissed him.

She had not been horrified to lose the fiancé. She had believed that he, that Henry, was going to offer for her. She’d believed Henry would protect her.

Rather than wait for her return, he’d paid his bill and departed in a hurry, determined to complete his journey home as he ought to have done initially. He’d vowed to love his wife, in sickness and in health. He’d vowed to forsake all others…

He’d left and done his best to pretend he’d not ruined the young woman who had trusted him. Or broken her heart.

No wonder Eliza hated him.

And yet, here she sat, in pleasant conversation with his daughter.

Was it possible he’d not ruined her life completely? Was it possible she was not dissembling when she’d asserted that she found her life satisfying?

Confounded, Henry only partly listened as Miss Cline managed to extract information about his daughter that Charlotte never would have shared had he been the person doing the asking.

And then his sweet daughter was laughing at some anecdote Miss Cline regaled about one of the boys in her brother’s parish who’d gotten himself stuck in a large oak tree.

Henry’s lungs filled and he felt… Was this contentment? The sensation was most unfamiliar. For the past decade, he’d gone through life carrying out his duties and responsibilities in what had felt like some sort of purgatory. For the past year, he’d finally been allowed to openly mourn his wife.

But that feeling… He inhaled deeply, hoping to capture it again. So foreign and yet he could not help but remember it from before…

“Oh, Father, is that it?” Charlotte asked with more enthusiasm than she’d shown him since she’d passed the age of twelve.

He glanced out the window and then nodded.

“If Crawford is here, it’s possible he’s brought his sisters, one of whom I’d guess is quite close to your age,” Miss Cline offered.

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