Once Upon a Christmas Kiss (13 page)

So it was with hope that he made the trek from the house toward Miller’s Hill beside Beesley, whom he had found to be a sensible enough fellow, even if he hadn’t already shown the wit to fall in love with one of the Nightingale sisters.

“Any luck convincing Cordelia to accept your proposal?” he asked as they hiked. “It appears as if she’s bending a little.”

Beesley grinned. “Aye, she’s bending. Though not quite there yet. Not until I find a way to spike that harpy Mrs. Green’s guns. There is something thoroughly unsettling about being thought of as the property of someone you despise. I’m sure I’ve never exchanged more than a few words with Miss Green, but her mother behaves as if the marriage settlements have already been signed.”

“It’s why so many matchmaking mamas are successful,” Lucien said, ducking to avoid a low branch. “They create so much havoc for the unfortunate object of their attention that he ultimately just gives up so that he can have some peace.”

“Well it’s not going to work this time,” Beesley said with a grimace. “There’s only one woman I’m going to marry, and it’s Miss Cordelia Nightingale.”

“That’s the way,” Lucien said, pounding the other man on the back as they neared the crest of the hill where they could see finely set tables laden with pots of tea and bowls of wassail. “I wish you every success.”

Before Beesley could respond, they were joined by Winnie and Cordelia.

“There is nothing like enjoying the outdoors with all the comforts afforded by wealth,” Winnie said wryly as she surveyed the hot drinks, blankets, and hot bricks that had been hauled up the hill so the cold would not affect the enjoyment of the revelers.

“I do not complain,” Cordy responded, giving her sister an affectionate swat on the arm. “Do you remember how cold it was when we tried to sled on the hill at Lord Elphmont’s?” she asked, mentioning the estate on which their father’s living had been.

Lucien’s gaze locked with Winnie’s, but she only said, “Quite well. It was painfully cold, and we had to carry the sleds up the hill ourselves.”

“But the sledding was fun,” Cordelia reminded her with a grin. “It felt like flying when we cast off. Even if there was no hot wassail waiting for us at the bottom!”

“There is no doubt that cousin and his lady do not do things by halves,” Lucien said with a raised brow. “I fear if they’d thought of it, they’d have found a way to bring a warming tent out here.”

“Which would melt the snow, defeating the purpose of being out in the cold,” Winnie said with a half-smile. Lucien was glad to see she’d not forgotten her appreciation for the absurd.

“Are you ready to fly, Miss Nightingale?” Beesley inquired, offering his arm to the elder sister. “For I’ve a mind to do so if you’re amenable.”

“Those two seem to have resolved things between them,” Lucien said to Winnie as they walked a little behind. “Do you think your sister will relent and marry Beesley?”

“I think she might,” Winnie replied, allowing him to take her arm. “And Mrs. Green was cowed enough by your scold to leave off gossiping about both of us now. So I thank you for your intervention on our behalf.”

“I can assure you that threatening Mrs. Green with utter social annihilation was as much fun as I’ve enjoyed in years.”

“Then you must lead a very dull existence, sir,” Winnie responded primly. She’d feared that seeing Lucien again would be awkward but that was not the case.

“I apologize for my vehemence with you last evening, Sir Lucien,” she continued. “I had no intention of telling you the sordid tale about my parents. And I should have avoided doing so if I’d only been able to keep a rein on my temper.”

“It is hardly necessary to apologize for telling your fiancé how one’s parents died,” he said mildly. “Indeed, you need never apologize for telling me the truth. I want there to be honesty between us, Winnie.”

His inherent decency was one of the things she liked most about Lucien, and when he was being sweet to her it was almost impossible think of giving him up at the end of the party. But nothing had changed since last night, she told herself firmly. “I appreciate that more than you can say,” she said aloud. “No matter what happens between us, know that you are the finest man I’ve ever known.”

“That sounds suspiciously like good-bye, my dear,” he said, not looking at her.

Winnie was saved from reply by their arrival at the top of the hill, where the rest of the party had already gathered around the sleds, arguing over who would go first.

Three tracks had been marked off by level of difficulty, with the one nearest where Winnie and Lucien stood being the easiest, while the farthest from them was the most difficult.

The both tensed upon hearing Miss Hawthorne’s protesting voice. “I do n-n-not th-think I c-can d-d-do it,” she said, trying to get away from Leaming as he led her toward the most difficult path.

“Perhaps, Miss Hawthorne,” Lucien said stepping forward to physically remove the girl from the other man’s arm, “you will be more comfortable on the first slope. Look at Lord Hurst and Lady Fowlkes as they coast down it. It is rather like floating down on a snowflake.”

Relieved at seeing the girl removed from Leaming’s grip, Winnie saw that he was glaring resentfully at Lucien.

“You will be all right?” her betrothed asked in a low voice as he stopped beside her, Miss Hawthorne on his arm. It was clear from Miss Hawthorne’s tight grip that she would not be easy until Leaming’s attention was focused elsewhere. And as Winnie could tell the girl would feel safer sledding with Lucien, she nodded to him. “Of course. You must be the one to partner with Miss Hawthorne.” Turning to the girl, Winnie added, “I suspect he is quite good, my dear. Enjoy yourself while you can. I can find another partner for now.”

With a brief nod, Lucien led Miss Hawthorne away to the easiest track.

“Spoilsport,” Leaming said, glaring over to where Lucien handed Miss Hawthorne into the sled. “She would have enjoyed herself, Miss Winifred, I can assure you. And she’s got an enormous dowry. How could I resist?”

“Do you never stop thinking of yourself, Lord Leaming?” Winnie asked, disgusted. “One would think you would grow tired of constantly lashing out. It must be a very unpleasant way to live.”

“Why should I be nice to others when they are so unkind to me?” he asked with a sulk. “Take you, for instance. I’ll bet you’re going to refuse to take that most difficult slope with me. So why bother asking?”

To her dismay, Leaming grasped her arm in a tight grip and pulled her over to where a footman was holding the sled he and Miss Hawthorne had just been forced to abandon. “Let me go, Leaming,” she said in her most commanding voice. “Let go of my arm!”

But Leaming laughed, pressing her down onto the brightly painted sled. “You aren’t going to whine and cry, are you Winnie?” He looked conspiratorially at the footman, who seemed unsure of how to respond. “My fiancée is frightened, but I’ll take good care of her. Won’t I, Winnie?” And to Winnie’s dismay, the footman seemed to believe him.

“Let me go, Lord Leaming,” she said loudly as the footman walked away. But everyone else was focused on either their own excursions or that of the guests making their way down the other two tracks. The third, it would appear, was too difficult for the others to risk, so they were alone.

“Oh come now, Miss Winnie, must your refrain with me always be ‘no’? I vow I’m beginning to think that’s the only word you know.” He pushed her down into a sitting position and climbed on behind her. “Though I rather suspect old Sir Lucien doesn’t hear it from you when
he’s
trying to get a leg over.”

Ignoring his insinuation, Winnie said through clenched teeth, “I am quite serious, my lord. Unhand me.”

But he acted as if she hadn’t spoken at all and, wrapping his arms around her bosom and pulling her into the apex of his thighs, where Winnie could feel his hardness pressing into her, he called back to the footman, who’d reappeared, “Go!”

As they cast off, Winnie felt the brisk winter wind rushing past her cheeks, and her stomach leapt up into her ribcage as they went airborne for a moment, which made her gasp.

“There now, you like that, don’t you, Miss Winifred?” Leaming asked with disturbing intimacy as they rushed down the hill, the sled barely touching the ground.

To Winnie’s relief Leaming appeared to be good at steering, so at least they wouldn’t go off the track and break their necks against a tree. But the brandy on his breath worried her, so she held her breath and prayed.

She gave an involuntary gasp when she saw a large stone ahead of them on the carefully raked path. It was half covered with snow—the wind must have blown some off—and she very much feared that unless Leaming saw it, too, they were going to collide with it.

“Lord Leaming!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “Look out!”

But whether his senses were dulled from brandy or he simply hadn’t understood her over the wind, Leaming didn’t steer them away from it in time and, with a sickening crack, the front of the sled collided with the rock propelling Winnie and Leaming through the air several feet until they landed, one on top of the other, against a tree.

For a moment, Winnie felt nothing but an inability to catch her breath. She was sprawled at an awkward angle with her face buried in the snow, and Leaming’s heavy weight pressing into her back.

“Winnie! My god, Winnie!” she heard her sister shout as if from far away, followed by Lucien’s closer cry.

Raising her head, she tried to get out from under Leaming, but before she could make much progress, his weight disappeared on its own. And then she was carefully turned over, which made her cry out as she felt a sharp pain in her foot.

“Easy,” he heard Lucien’s voice say as he knelt beside her. “I’ve got to check your limbs to see if anything is broken. It might hurt.”

Blinking up at him, she nodded, still breathless. Carefully, she felt his hand shift to her feet, and just the lightest touch as he felt her right ankle made her cry out. “Okay, either a sprain or a break there,” he said soothingly.

As he checked her other foot and ran his hands up her legs over the outside of her skirt, Cordelia dropped down beside them. Heedless of possible injury, she hugged Winnie to her. “I thought you were killed,” she said on a sob. “Oh, Winnie, I was so frightened.”

“It’s all right,” Winnie told her, weakly. “I’m all right. I’m well.”

“Except for a turned ankle,” Lucien interjected as Cordelia helped Winnie sit up. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

“What happened to Leaming?” Winnie asked, realizing that she hadn’t heard him since she came to her senses.

“He’s been taken to the other side of the clearing for fear that I would kill him with my bare hands,” Lucien said coldly. “It won’t stop me from putting a bullet at him on some later date, however.”

Winnie winced at his vehemence. “He did force me to ride with him,” she said trying to keep her voice calm, “but the accident wasn’t his fault. There was a small boulder on the path.”

Lucien glanced back up to where the sled had stopped. “I thought he’d steered you off the path,” he said frowning. As she watched, he climbed up the hill a ways to where to sled sat askew.

“I’ve never seen someone run as fast as he did,” Cordelia said to Winnie as they watched Lucien go. “He thought you were dead. I could hear him praying as he went past me.”

Winnie’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at Lucien’s strong back as he made his way up the hill. “Cordy,” she whispered, “I think I love him.”

Her sister gasped. “You do?” She hugged Winnie to her. “I’m so glad, dearest,” she said, relief evident in her voice. “I was so afraid that I would be the only one to find a man to treasure me.”

Leaning back to look into Cordelia’s eyes, Winnie saw the truth there. “You’ve accepted his proposal,” she said with a broad smile. “Oh, Cordy, I’m so happy for you!”

The sisters sat for a moment, arms around one another as they laughed and cried a little. “Now, if you tell me you’ll accept Sir Lucien’s,” Cordelia told her, “then my happiness will be complete.”

But at that, Winnie pulled away. “It’s not that easy, Cordelia,” she said sadly. “I cannot risk reliving our parent’s marriage.”

“Winnie,” her sister chided. “You and Sir Lucien are nothing like Mama and Papa. How can you think it?”

“You were afraid of the same thing with Mr. Beesley,” Winnie protested.

Cordelia gasped. “How did you know?”

“I’m your sister. I know these things.”

“Then you should also know, I was incredibly foolish to let someone like Mrs. Green or the fear of behaving like our parents—who, by the way, were far more immature than we ever imagined—stop me from marrying the man I loved. So I’ve decided to accept Mr. Beesley’s proposal and, better still, to be blissfully happy.”

Winnie was shocked. “What changed?” she asked, needing to know if there was some rationalization or reasoning that would make it possible for her to forget her fears as easily as her sister had. “What made you change your mind?”

“You,” Cordelia said bluntly. “I saw how you were resisting Sir Lucien, and I thought of all the reasons why you should marry him as soon as possible. And I realized that the same things holding me back were virtually identical to your objections, which I considered weak at best.”

“No they aren’t,” Winnie protested, frowning. “My reasons are perfectly valid. And rational. Nothing like yours.”

Cordelia looked up to where Lucien was making his way back down the hill and said, “Keep telling yourself that and you will miss out on the greatest happiness you’ll ever know.”

It was impossible for Winnie to respond because Lucien reached them just then. “It definitely looks as if the boulder was placed there deliberately. There’s no way of knowing whether it was placed there just for your trip down or if it was there all afternoon. Since no one else who took that route ran into it, however, I’d guess it was put there for you two. Whether they meant to harm you or Leaming is the question. But your previous mishaps seem to me to indicate that you were the intended target. At least that’s what I’m going to assume.”

“It does seem a little too coincidental,” Winnie said. “But how can they have known Leaming would press me to go down with him?”