The Last Casterglass (Keeping Up With the Penryns Book 4) by Kate Hewitt

Author:Kate Hewitt [Hewitt, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781958686270
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Published: 2022-08-17T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“This feels like something out of Downton Abbey,” Oliver muttered to Seph as they stood in a row with everyone else on the driveway, waiting for Sam and Rose to bring their twin daughters, Michaela and Bea, back to Casterglass. It was a grey, drizzly sort of day, and Seph shivered in the autumnal breeze. It was almost December, the darkest part of the year, and although Althea was already getting into festive mode, in preparation for her wedding the week before Christmas, Seph was feeling rather unChristmassy.

Last night she’d learned, while sitting around the kitchen table with everyone after supper, that Althea and John were going on honeymoon for Christmas to somewhere tropical, and bringing Alice, Poppy, Ben and Toby. Olivia and Will were spending Christmas with his parents, who were flying over from Spain to meet her—and of course Will’s children Jake and Lally would be going with them—and Rose and Sam were taking the twins to London for the holidays, to meet Rose’s mother, which apparently was a big deal because Rose hadn’t seen her mother in years. Then, to top it all off, her parents announced they would be closing the castle for Christmas and going on a cruise.

“You’re welcome to come with us, of course, darling,” Violet had told her over supper, “but it’s for the over-sixties and you’re not keen on travel, are you?”

How would her mother know if she was keen on travel, as she’d never done any? It seemed clear that her parents wanted to go on the cruise alone, and so Seph had assured them she’d be fine staying at Casterglass alone—and really, it wasn’t such a big deal, she told herself. It wasn’t as if they’d had big family Christmases every year. Admittedly, they’d had one last year, when Althea had come home, but before that Christmases had been pretty hit or miss, and mostly miss at that. Sometimes her parents had remembered about things like presents or a tree, but mostly they’d all just done their own things, as usual. Which was what she would do this year, she supposed. She told herself there was no reason to feel out of sorts about it, and yet she did, perhaps because she’d had expectations, without fully acknowledging them to herself, that now that everyone was back at Casterglass, things would be different.

She was trying to be different, but maybe some things would always stay the same.

Seph did her best to push the melancholy thoughts out of her mind as Sam’s car came slowly up the drive, and she plastered a welcoming smile onto her face.

“Hell-o!”

“Welcome, welcome!”

Everyone clustered around Sam and Rose as they took two car seats out of the car, to a chorus of cooing. Seph stepped closer to take a look at one of the babies, shock jolting through her at the sight of the tiny, wizened creature asleep in her seat.

“Gosh, they’re small,” she said, her tone awed and a little alarmed, and Oliver let out a commiserating whistle.

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