Lillian’s Christmas Escape by Kate Penny

Author:Kate, Penny
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

The morning began with shouting. Lillian sat up in bed, her hair wild about her face, to find Imogen at the window. Her sister said, “Someone’s here and they aren’t happy.”

“Shelly Winters,” Lillian said with a growl.

Smoothing her hair and rubbing her eyes, Lillian froze, remembering the moments from the night before. He’d known she was watching him and somehow, the mortification from it never came. They were married after all.

“Oh, who? The lady, the one who made the marshal marry you?” Imogen asked.

“The very same. Apparently, they have a daughter they’d hoped he would take, and he wrote the advertisement to avoid her. Not sure who won in the end…. Help me with my stays, will you? And my hair! Can you grab my combs, oh please.”

Imogen frowned. “Why do we give a wit what a woman… oh all right, don’t give me that look. I’ll help.”

Imogen rushed to her side aiding her into her dress. Lillian also braided Imogen’s when she was through.

A woman was still calling, “Marshal! Marshal!” On the front porch.

Then from within the house her shrill voice went all of the way up the staircase. “Let me see her. Let me see her right now. I am putting a stop to this immediately.”

Lillian poked her head out as soon as she was ready. She saw Benjamin there, along with a tall, frighteningly rigid woman with silver-streaked hair pointing at his chest.

With quiet steps, Lillian moved to the top of the stairs, reminding herself she needed to make it seem real. She watched the woman a moment, and the marshal’s clear distaste before she decided to come to his aid.

“Darling,” she said softly. “Who is it?”

He did a double take at her use of the word and then gave a brittle smile, “Shelly Winters has come to call. Isn’t that nice, love?”

In the west and south, the only choice for a woman hosting was to invite a guest in for tea and cake, and to stay however long they liked. But there was nothing like good ole fashioned east coast manners in a time like this. “Oh, was she expecting tea? We were just about to leave.”

Shelly turned to watch Lillian move down the stairs as slowly as possible, taking her time. Where Lillian was from, unexpected visitors would be sent packing by the help. She wasn’t about to let this woman barge in whenever she felt like it. Not now that she was the lady of the house. Not now that she knew the Winters were there to make trouble for Benjamin and she would do what she could to help and keep peace between them.

“So, this is the woman I’ve been hearing about,” Shelly said. “I’m surprised you’ve not brought her to the house, Benjamin, it’s only right to introduce us to her after you’ve avoided my Regina for months and have broken her heart.”

“If her heart was broken, Mrs. Winters, I think we know the expectation was not put there by myself. But I’m sorry to hear it.

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