The Secret Christmas by Mallory Kane

Author:Mallory Kane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781952560729
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2020-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Nicholas walked into his uncle’s room the next day whistling “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” The look on Terence Frost’s face stopped him in his tracks and killed his good mood.

“You look like you won the lottery,” Terence said with a snort. “Maybe you think you have.”

“What are you talking about?” Nicholas helped himself to coffee and a cranberry scone and sat.

Terence didn’t answer, just picked up what had to be his second, or maybe third, scone and bit into it and went back to watching the news.

Nicholas relaxed a bit and dug into the bowl of fruit Madsen had served him, then started on a scone. He savored his coffee as he absently listened to the pundit on TV drone on about petroleum prices, the Tokyo Exchange, and something called the SSE Composite. His thoughts wandered to Angela and how disappointed she’d seemed when he’d told her he didn’t need her to help him with any more research. Had she thought he was dismissing her? Had she really been sad that she wouldn’t be spending every afternoon with him? Did that mean what he hoped it meant—that she was attracted to him?

“Nicholas!”

He jumped. “Yes, sir?” he said automatically.

“At least try to pay attention, boy. I know you’re bored by all this, but you could be polite.”

“I apologize. I was just—”

“I know what you were doing,” Terence said, his voice rising. “Do you think I don’t know what goes on down there in that town? Do you think I don’t know what you’re up to?”

Nicholas frowned. What was he talking about? “I don’t understand. What do you think I’m doing?”

Terence backed his wheelchair away from the table and turned it to face Nicholas’s chair. “I don’t think. I know. You’ve been hanging around at the library with the Corker girl. You’ve been printing things and studying them.” Terence pointed a finger at him. “Don’t think you’re fooling me.”

“Still not sure what you think I’m doing,” Nicholas said evenly. This had to be Uncle Terence’s spies at work. He tried to remember who had been in the library to see them there, but the place wasn’t exactly a hot spot.

“Why don’t you tell me what could possibly be so interesting in the public library?”

The frustration that had been simmering inside him ever since he’d gotten to his uncle’s mansion and found out what the man wanted him to do boiled over. “Okay then, Uncle Terence. Here’s some of what I’ve been up to. I’ve been researching information about you and Aunt Virginia.”

To his satisfaction, Terence looked shocked and pained. He went on.

“I’ve found articles about the two of you in the Christmas Valley Chronicle—and photos. You were happy. You enjoyed Christmas. And I thought you enjoyed having me here. I can’t reconcile my memories of Christmas back then with what you are doing to the town now. So I hoped by researching and understanding your past, I might be able to understand you, which is why I’ve been looking up your history.

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