The Painted Castle by Kristy Cambron

Author:Kristy Cambron
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2019-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

December 24, 1944

Parham Hill Estate

Framlingham, England

Amelia sat on the library’s lone settee, staring through the glass door of the cabinet to the spine of the prized Peter Pan of Kensington Garden volume that had been a gift from Arthur their first Christmas together.

A fire danced in the hearth, radiating its golden glow into the vast room as rain clapped the roof in a steady downpour. She could hear it over the crackling and popping of fresh logs—a depressing drudge of water. It had the nerve to rain on Christmas Eve! Shaking the sides of the manor with wind and stinging ice pellets that would turn into knives against the windows. And where there jolly well should have been bright, fluffy snowflakes drifting about the sky, instead they had puddles of water, and mud, and a dour forecast to contend with on such a spirited day.

Had she been able to summon the nerve, Amelia might have imagined digging her best dress out of the back of the wardrobe—several years out of season. The soft merlot gabardine with golden shell buttons on the cuffs more than made up for its age. She would barrel-roll her hair, use the one prized tube of poppy-red lipstick she kept back for the most special of occasions, and slip on the last pair of stockings that might have existed in all of England, their silky smoothness a long-forgotten luxury against her skin.

For that, Amelia might have been brave enough to defy the weather with a joyous heart. But the sideboard was bare. Every morning she’d checked. No stack of books. No note. And no word meant . . . no Wyatt.

The tension between the past and her memories of Arthur—the pain of letting him go to a plane that was shot out of the sky—battled the something new that fluttered in her midsection whenever Wyatt walked into a room, or when she held a note of his penned words in her hand. It was why she so often found herself in her late husband’s library these days. Reliving memories. Doubting her own ability to heal. And wondering whether fate sought to punish her with thoughts of a man who was just as courageous, just as kind and steadfast as her Arthur had been, but very different at the same time.

Thinking of the way Wyatt had dared to smile at Darly’s upturned nose over his lowborn status and of the way he had taken to supporting Luca’s mischief around the manor, she feared Wyatt might have begun to awaken the heart she hadn’t expected to share with anyone again. And there was an almost insurmountable risk associated with attending a USO dance in a dress with poppy lips and the one last luxury she had in silk stockings . . .

“’Tis Christmas. He’d want you to be happy, milady.”

Darly’s voice cut into Amelia’s internal deliberation. He stood behind her, hovering in the doorway but with propriety too stiff to allow him the benefit of leaning against the jamb.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.