With This Christmas Ring by Manda Collins

Author:Manda Collins [Collins, Manda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2017-10-02T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Despite his resolve to find her as soon as he’d finished meeting with his grandmother, Alex found the breakfast room deserted when he arrived in search of Merry. She’d gone upstairs with the other ladies to change for the sleigh ride, he was told by the footman he found removing breakfast dishes.

In need of a change of clothes himself, Alex hurried to his own rooms, and some twenty minutes later, joined those members of the party who had agreed to visit the tenant cottages by sleigh with baskets of foods and toys for the children there.

The holiday visit had been a yearly excursion while his mother was still here—doubtless something she’d fought his grandmother over and won—and though it had stopped after she left, he’d decided in France when she’d described it to him that he’d like to reinstitute it and make it a Wrotham Keep tradition.

Merry, he saw, as she stood talking to Lady Katherine and Miss Delaford, was wearing a deep crimson hooded cape, its fur-lined hood hanging at her back, allowing the light from the lamps in the entryway to glint off her shining black tresses.

He was moving to join their group when he was arrested by his cousin Will, who was also dressed for the outdoors, in a greatcoat and red wool scarf. “Alex, I don’t think I’ve thanked you.”

“The best thanks you can give me will be to treat Lottie as she deserves,” he replied, clasping his cousin on the shoulder. “I’m proud of the progress you’ve made. And though I’m disappointed about the business with Charlotte, as I know you must be, a man is more than his worst behavior. You have a chance to redeem yourself. Don’t squander it.”

Rather than offer excuses or make promises, Will simply nodded.

The two men approached the small group of ladies together, and Alex was pleased to see Merry’s eyes light up at his approach.

“I’ve not been in a sled in years,” she confessed to him as he took her arm. The group began trickling outside to where the horse-drawn sleighs—three of them, to be exact—had been assembled in the drive, which only yesterday had been clear of snow.

Now, as far as the eye could see, the countryside was blanketed in white. As were the trees lining the drive. That view, coupled with the sight of everyone in their winter furs and scarves, set a niggle of memory free in his mind. Of him as a child being lifted into the sleigh so he could sit beside his mother.

“Nor have I,” he responded to Merry, as they led the rest of the group toward where footmen were waiting to assist them into the vehicles. “Not since my mother was here.”

When they reached the lead sleigh, he handed her in, ignoring the footman who noted his master’s intent and took a step back.

Hot bricks and carriage blankets that had been warmed before the fire were there, and while Merry pulled up her fur-lined hood and tucked her gloved hands into the matching crimson muff, Alex pulled a blanket over them both.

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.