Homespun Regency Christmas (9781101078716) by Kelly Carla; Jensen Emma

Author:Kelly, Carla; Jensen, Emma
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA
Published: 2010-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

The sound of the bells died away, but everything was quiet in the sumptuous green-and-gold drawing room where Richard had fallen asleep in a fireside chair, an almost empty cognac glass resting precariously in his hand.

The only light came from the fire, and shadows moved softly over the hand-painted Chinese silk on the walls, and over the rich green velvet curtains drawn across the tall windows overlooking Park Lane and Hyde Park. The whole room was in the Chinese style, with life-size porcelain figures, pieces of jade, dragon- and chrysanthemum-embroidered chairs and sofas, and lotus-blossom carved on every wooden surface.

Richard didn’t hear the church bells, for the windows were shuttered. His evening coat had been idly discarded on a nearby sofa, and his lace-edged shirt and white satin waistcoat had been partially unbuttoned. His crumpled neckcloth hung loose, and the diamond pin had been left on the marble mantelpiece amid the sprays of seasonal holly, mistletoe, ivy, and myrtle arranged with such care by the maids.

He was dreaming about Diana, and the Christmas five years before when he’d last held her in his arms. She’d been wearing a lilac gown, with a low neckline and long diaphanous sleeves gathered in rich frills at her slender wrists. Her cloud of chestnut hair had been brushed loose, tumbling down about her shoulders in that wanton way he loved so much. They’d slipped away from her family to the seclusion of the minstrels’ gallery above the great hall of her parents’ Cheshire manor house, and masked mummers from the nearby village had been playing in the hall below. He and Diana had been engrossed only in themselves as they stood in each other’s arms in the holly-garlanded shadows. Her lips had tasted so sweet as her supple body yielded against his, and she’d felt so warm and alive through the soft stuff of her gown. His love had never been stronger or more sure than it had been in those magical minutes, and yet within a day or so he was to learn of her marriage to Robert Beaumont, a man of whose existence he knew nothing.

The fire shifted in the hearth, and the flames began to crackle loudly around a half-burned log. Richard awoke with a start, and the glass fell from his fingers, shattering on the polished fender. For a moment he was confused, the tentacles of the dream still coiling around him, but then it faded away, and he remembered.

He leaned his head back wearily. Why had Diana come back to torment him again? Why couldn’t she have stayed in Jamaica? He wished he’d been able to put her firmly in the past, but now that he’d seen her again, he knew that he’d never be able to turn his back finally upon his first great love.

Getting up, he crossed to one of the windows, drawing the curtains back and then folding the shutters aside to look out at snowy Park Lane and Hyde Park. A few tradesmen’s carts were

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