A Christmas Ball by Emily Bryan Jennifer Ashley Alissa Johnson

Author:Emily Bryan, Jennifer Ashley, Alissa Johnson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: fiction
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Mary woke in the morning with Valentin in her bed. She opened her eyes to find herself nose to nose with him, his blue irises wide with that otherness he had.

Without dismay, Valentin smiled. His face was creased from the pillows, his hair pleasantly rumpled. He was so handsome, warm, and desirable, that Mary tightened in sudden panic.

“Will it come true, do you think?” he asked softly.

“Will what come true? What are you talking about?”

Valentin lifted a curl from her face, his touch gentle but strong. “The legend of the Longest Night. Will the lady I spent it with be with me for the coming year?”

Mary sat up. “Not if someone finds you in bed with me. I’ll be utterly disgraced.”

“I locked the door. And what if they do discover us? Do you care so much what these English people think of you?”

“Some of the people are Nvengarian. Your people.”

“Who would not find it surprising that I want to be with you.” Valentin smiled the heart-melting smile that made anything he said sound reasonable. “If you are forced to flee the country, you can always come home with me.”

“This is no laughing matter.”

“No? Come home with me anyway, Mary. It is nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Perhaps not in your world, but it is in mine. I will be the entertainment of the ton—talked about, laughed at. The matron who fell for the young, handsome foreigner with the enticing eyes.”

A crease appeared between his brows. “Are you so ashamed, then? Of what we did? Of who I am?”

“No!” Mary’s anger rose—both at the easily shocked English and the altogether too-permissive Nvengarians. She was Scottish, neither one, but she felt pinched between the two worlds. She wondered if her brother, Egan, ever felt like this.

No, Egan did as he pleased and damned what everyone else thought. Egan had traveled the world, playing the mad Highlander, entertaining everyone he met. Mary had always wished for Egan’s gift of charm. Perhaps then she’d be able to fall into Valentin’s arms and let him take her away from her old life and everything she knew.

The trouble was, she didn’t hate her old life enough. Her marriage had been a failure, and she was lonely, but she had Dougal, and her family and friends, and her home at Castle Macdonald. There was nothing much better, in her opinion, than the laughter that filled Castle Macdonald to its rafters. Even Sir John and Julia were ties to her childhood, to a friend she’d talked and giggled with; the two of them had once run away to the Edinburgh shops without permission, feeling themselves wicked and daring.

Mary did not want to fling away the happy parts of her life for Valentin, but neither did she want to sacrifice being with Valentin for them. Valentin seemed to think that waltzing off to the eastern edge of Europe at a moment’s notice was nothing difficult. But Nvengaria was the end of civilization as far as Mary was concerned.

Valentin was watching her with his intense blue eyes, knowing he hadn’t won.

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