Regency Christmas (Holiday Collection) by Jillian Eaton

Author:Jillian Eaton [Eaton, Jillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-02T18:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

“Sadie, have you seen Mr. Emerson?” Morning sunlight reflected off Beatrice’s freshly braided hair as she descended the grand staircase, one hand poised gracefully on the railing, the other resting on the curve of her hip.

Being forced to eat several meals throughout the day had finally begun to make a visible improvement in her slender frame. While she was still thin, her face had lost its hollow edges and both her hips and thighs had begun to fill out. There was a healthy glow about her. A sparkle in her eyes. A bounce when she walked. This morning she had woken feeling like a new person, and when Sadie glanced up at her and did a double take Beatrice couldn’t help but grin.

“Do you like it?” she asked, doing a quick spin as she stepped down off the stairs. Her skirt, a bright, cheerful confection of rose colored muslin trimmed in white lace, swirled out around her. “I found it in the rear of my closet. It must have belonged to the previous owner’s wife for the lace is quite old, but it is lovely, do you not think?”

“It is beautiful.” Looking rather stunned, Sadie set the cloth she’d been using to dust aside and walked a slow circle around Beatrice. “You’re beautiful, Lady Bea.” Her lips pursed before she asked bluntly, “What happened?”

Smoothing out the skirt with an absent sweep of her palm, Beatrice evaded Sadie’s stare and murmured, “Happened? Whatever do you mean?”

“You look different. You even sound different. All happy like,” the maid decided, tapping her chin. “I cannot quite lay my finger on it… ANNA! ANNA, GET IN HERE!”

Wincing from the sheer volume of Sadie’s voice, Beatrice waved her hands. The last thing she wanted was to be forced to explain why she’d had a sudden change of heart. Somehow she doubted a talking fox would be easily understood, especially given she still wasn’t convinced the animal had even been real. A flight of fancy, perhaps, or a dream, or something else that defied explanation altogether. Either way she thought it best to keep the fox to herself, for the one thing she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was that he’d appeared for her and her alone. To help her, to save her, and to push her in the right direction. A direction that led straight to Jack Emerson.

To Beatrice’s surprise she had slept fitfully through the entire night, and woken in the morning with one clear goal in mind: to tell Jack how she really felt. Not what she thought she was supposed to feel or what she wanted to feel, but what was truly in her heart, with nothing held back. She wanted to be as honest with him as he’d been with her, and in her honesty finally admit the truth: she’d fallen in love with him.

It was not the safe, predictable, comfortable sort of love she’d felt for Jeffrey. No. What she felt for Jack was something wilder… something untamed.

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