Christmas Promises: The Christmas Eve BrideA Marriage Proposal for ChristmasA Bride for Christmas

by Lynne Graham

  ‘Would you mind leaving the bathroom so that I can get dressed?’ she told him agitatedly.

  He gave another shrug. ‘Be my guest.’

  ‘Go away!’ Cally demanded, eyes sparkling like the emeralds they so resembled.

  ‘Oh, but—’

  ‘Josh? Josh, where are you?’ called a pleasant female voice. ‘I can’t seem to— Oh!’ A woman had come to stand in the doorway too now, still beautiful, despite obviously being aged somewhere in her late forties or early fifties. ‘Hello.’ She smiled warmly across at Cally. ‘You must be Carol. Since Noel told us about you I’ve so been looking forward to meeting you!’

  Cally was starting to feel as if this bathroom were in the middle of King’s Cross railway station, the amount of people that just seemed to walk into it!

  But she had also registered that the young man’s name was Josh, which she remembered was also the name of Noel’s younger brother. Now that she thought about it he did have a distinctive American accent—she had been too disturbed initially to notice! But if he was Josh, that probably meant the beautiful woman standing beside him was his and Noel’s mother...!

  That much Cally had managed to work out despite feeling more uncomfortable than she ever had in her life before. What she didn’t understand was why Noel had bothered to tell his mother about the woman who was decorating his home for him. Or why his mother called her Carol, when no one had called her by her full name in years.

  Although none of that really mattered just now. What did matter was getting out of this bath and back into her clothes, so that she did at least have some personal dignity left.

  ‘Er—I’m afraid you’ve caught me at a complete disadvantage, so if the two of you wouldn’t mind...?’ she said.

  ‘Oh, how silly of us,’ Noel’s mother realized self-disgustedly.

  ‘Come along, Josh.’ She grabbed hold of his arm as he would have continued to linger. ‘Let’s give Carol some privacy while she finishes her bath.’

  Josh gave one last lingering glance in Cally’s direction before reluctantly complying.

  ‘I’ll go down and make us all some tea, shall I?’ his mother offered brightly.

  ‘Thank you.’ Cally nodded, just wanting the two of them to leave, breathing a sigh of relief when Noel’s mother finally moved away, closing the door behind her.

  Could it have been any worse? she groaned inwardly as she sank back down into the rapidly cooling bubbles. Yes, came the immediate answer; it could have been Noel who came home and found her in the bath instead of just his whole family!

  Just his whole family...! Well, no, she had been spared his sister and stepfather coming to gawk at her in the bath, too!

  The humour of the situation finally began to kick in, and a wry smile curved her lips. What a thing to have happened. Noel certainly hadn’t mentioned, before he’d left in such a hurry this morning, that his family were going to arrive earlier than expected.

  Which posed the question: where was Noel? He had been gone most of the day, and—

  ‘Enjoying yourself?’ he queried sarcastically.

  Cally made a startled move to sit up, and then sank back down into the bubbles as she remembered what had happened the last time she’d done that, frowning across at Noel as he was the one now standing framed in the open doorway.

  ‘Do none of your family ever knock before entering a bathroom?’ She sighed.

  He shrugged. ‘Only when we expect someone else to be in there.’ He straightened, moving further into the room, closing the bathroom door behind him. ‘And none of us expected you to be in here,’ he added dryly.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Cally eyed him suspiciously as he strolled over to sit on the side of the bath. ‘Your family are downstairs—’

  ‘I’m well aware of that.’

  Her cheeks were burning with the embarrassment of having him so close to her when she was absolutely naked! ‘Would you please go away?’ she groaned awkwardly, feeling her hair starting to fall down from where she had loosely secured it on top of her head away from the dampness of the bubbles.

  Noel looked down at her with deliberately guileless blue eyes. ‘Is something bothering you, Cally?’ he mocked even as he reached out a hand and scooped some of the bubbles up into his palm.

  ‘Stop that!’ Cally gasped, frantically splashing more bubbles up the bath towards her.

  Not that there were as many as there had been when she’d started, the scented froth starting to disappear as the water cooled.

  She closed her eyes. ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me!’ she cried.

  ‘Actually—’ Noel grinned down at her wolfishly ‘—neither can I!’

  Cally opened her eyes again to glare up at him. ‘Opportunist!’ she accused disgustedly.

  He gave a shrug, scooping up another handful of bubbles. ‘Come on, Cally, you have to admit, this is a pretty unusual situation!’ he teased.

  And of her own making, if she were honest. It should have occurred to her that Noel, at least, could walk back in at any moment and find her in the bath. Let alone almost every other member of his family!

  She gave another embarrassed groan. ‘Whatever must your mother think of me?’

  ‘Actually,’ Noel repeated, his expression now suddenly unreadable, ‘I’m more disturbed by what my little brother thinks of you!’

  Cally blinked, wincing slightly as Noel’s mouth twisted humourlessly. ‘And what was that?’ she asked reluctantly.

  ‘Do you want the full version or will the potted one do?’

  ‘I believe the potted one will do!’ she confirmed with a pained look, even the rapidly cooling water not bothering her too much now.

  ‘Well, Josh thinks you’re the most beautiful mermaid he’s ever set eyes on!’

  ‘Oh.’ She grimaced.

  ‘My mother, on the other hand—’

  ‘Please!’ she cried awkwardly. ‘I feel badly enough about this as it is, without being told what your mother thinks of the hired help luxuriating in your bath!’

  Noel gave her a considering look. ‘It’s worse than that, I’m afraid,’ he told her softly.

  Cally gave a shake of her head. ‘It couldn’t be!’ She had no idea yet how she was going to get dressed, go downstairs, and face all of Noel’s family after what had happened. Because she did have to face them, had to try and explain herself. Even if that explanation did sound a little lame!

  ‘Oh, yes, it could.’

  Cally gave him a suspicious look. ‘What have you done?’

  ‘Me?’ His eyes widened incredulously. ‘Cally, I’m not the one who was found cavorting about in the Jaccuzi—’

  ‘I was not “cavorting”,’ she defended herself. ‘I was just lying here minding my own business—’

  ‘Paying court to half my family,’ Noel interjected.

  ‘Only because they walked into the bathroom unannounced!’

  ‘I accept that, Cally.’ He sighed. ‘But, nevertheless, it’s put us both in a very awkward position.’

  Cally’s heart sank, wondering whether his family wanted more than an apology from her for making free with their son’s bathroom—like making a complaint against Celebrations!

  It didn’t matter that in the five years she and Pam had been running their company from home they hadn’t received a single complaint; they had stepped out into the big time now, and something like this was enough to cause their pristine reputation considerable damage before they had even really begun.

  ‘I’ll explain—’

  ‘It’s too late for that, I’m afraid.’ Noel stood up abruptly, starting to pace the bathroom, a dark frown furrowing his brow.

  ‘Look, I’m sure that if I explain, and apologize, it isn’t going to be as bad as you’re making out it is,’ Cally pleade
d, watching him worriedly as he paced up and down the small confines of the room. ‘Your mother looked very nice,’ she added hopefully.

  In actual fact, his mother had looked very much like Noel himself; thick dark hair down to her shoulders, with warm blue eyes, her face a softer, prettier version of Noel’s strong features.

  ‘Oh, she is,’ Noel confirmed. ‘Very nice. She’s also looking forward to being a grandmother some time in the near future.’

  ‘Really?’ Cally smiled. ‘That will be nice.’

  ‘You think?’ Noel paused beside the bath, mocking humour lighting his eyes. ‘Cally, I think you’ll agree that, at this particular moment, you’re very much a captive audience?’

  She shifted self-consciously, wishing he wouldn’t stand so close to her—especially when she was sure the previously frothy water was almost transparent by now! ‘I’ll agree that I’m not about to leap up and jump out of the bath while you’re still in the room,’ she conceded slowly, not sure where his remark was going.

  He nodded. ‘A captive audience.’

  ‘Possibly,’ she accepted warily.

  ‘Did you notice earlier that my mother called you Carol?’ he asked.

  ‘Well, yes, I did notice that.’ She frowned. ‘But as it actually is my name, I just thought—’ She broke off suddenly, staring up at Noel now. ‘But you didn’t know that, did you?’ she realized.

  He gave a wry smile. ‘Not until just now, no.’

  Several things began to click into place, things that had puzzled her earlier, but which could make perfect sense if—‘Noel, was you ex-fiancée named Carol, by any chance?’ She gasped as a terrible realization started to take shape in her mind.

  He gave her an admiring look. ‘You really are a very astute young lady, aren’t you?’

  Astuteness had nothing to do with it. It was all so obvious when she thought of the lack of surprise on Josh’s and his mother’s faces when they’d found her taking a bath, and the way the older woman had said how much she had been looking forward to meeting her. She hadn’t been referring to the woman decorating Noel’s home at all, but to his fiancée!

  Noel was right; this was so much worse than she had thought!

  CHAPTER SIX

  A KNOCK SOUNDED on the bathroom door. ‘I’m sorry to interrupt, you two,’ Josh called out cheerfully in a totally unrepentant voice, ‘but Carol’s sister is downstairs.’

  Pam!

  Could this situation get any worse if it tried? Cally groaned inwardly.

  Not much, came the resounding answer. So far she had been caught lazing in a client’s bath by his family, that family had mistakenly thought she was the fiancée of the eldest son, and in the middle of all that her practical no-nonsense older sister had to arrive.

  ‘With Carol’s adorable daughter Lissa,’ Josh added as if on cue.

  This time Cally shot up in the bath regardless of the fact that Noel was still in the room with her, reaching out to quickly pull one of the huge cream towels towards her as his gaze widened appreciatively on her nakedness.

  ‘You didn’t tell us about that one, big bro,’ Josh said gleefully. ‘Mama is downstairs absolutely drooling over Lissa right now,’ he added for good measure, the sound of his laughter floating back to them as he walked off down the hallway.

  ‘Going somewhere?’ Noel taunted as Cally still hesitated about actually getting out of the bath.

  ‘Well, of course I’m—Noel, you heard your brother; even as we speak, your family is probably welcoming Pam and Lissa into their midst!’

  ‘Probably.’ He nodded unconcernedly.

  She looked at him warningly. ‘Noel—’

  ‘Cally,’ he cut in firmly, straightening. ‘As you seem to have deduced, we have something of a dilemma—’

  ‘I don’t have a dilemma,’ she said heatedly, eyes flashing deeply green. ‘You do!’

  ‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘As I see it, you’re in this with me up to your beautiful neck. If you hadn’t been lazing in the Jacuzzi, of course, then probably this mistake in identity wouldn’t have occurred, but as it is...’ He gave a fatalistic shrug.

  ‘Will you stop going on about my being in the Jacuzzi?’ Cally sighed frustratedly. ‘You were the one who invited me to make use of the facility—’

  ‘That was yesterday,’ Noel reasoned. ‘I would never have repeated the offer today, knowing that my family were about to swoop on me en masse—’

  ‘You knew your family were arriving early?’ Cally frowned. ‘But if that’s so, why did you just disappear for the day like that?’

  ‘A misunderstanding about arrival times,’ Noel dismissed carelessly.

  Her gaze narrowed on his deliberately bland expression. ‘You mean you got the time wrong?’

  He gave a rueful grimace. ‘Not only that—I got the wrong airport, too! For some reason I wasn’t too attentive when my mother telephoned last night and told me the time and place of their arrival.’ He gave Cally a pointed look. ‘And so I’ve been waiting to meet the wrong aeroplane at Gatwick for the last five hours, and the family arrived at Heathrow three hours ago!’

  Cally stared at him; surely Noel wasn’t implying that she had anything to do with his inattentiveness to his mother last night...?

  Noel shrugged again. ‘It’s easy to see why they thought you were Carol.’

  It was perfectly obvious to Cally what had happened, and why—she just didn’t know how they were going to get out of it without looking like absolute idiots.

  ‘Why don’t your family know of your broken engagement?’ She pounced on the possible escape.

  He looked pained. ‘I hadn’t got around to telling them yet—thought it was something I could just break to them gently over Christmas—’

  ‘Oh, like “Here’s your Christmas present, Mama, and by the way I’m not getting married any more”? Something like that, you mean?’ Cally prompted disbelievingly.

  ‘Well...maybe a little more subtle than that.’ He smiled slightly.

  She gave a disgusted shake of her head, very aware that she was still standing in the rapidly cooling bath water, and that goose-bumps were appearing on her flesh, despite the towel round her shoulders—she needed to get out of this bath right now!

  ‘Of course,’ Noel continued thoughtfully, ‘now I would also have to tell her that the woman she found in my bath had never been my fiancée at all, that she was actually just the lady who came in to decorate the house for me.’

  Cally drew in a deeply controlling breath. ‘Could you just go out of the room for a few minutes while I get dressed?’ she said evenly, exerting extreme control to stop herself from screaming hysterically, very aware of Pam and Lissa waiting for her down the stairs.

  ‘Well, I could,’ Noel answered conversationally. ‘But as we haven’t come anywhere near to reaching an agreement about this...misunderstanding, I think I had better just—’

  ‘I think you had better just get out of here!’ Her voice rose dangerously, her cheeks hot from anger now.

  ‘Okay, okay.’ He held up defensive hands. ‘There’s no need to get your—ah, but, of course, you aren’t wearing any of those, are you? So they aren’t likely to get into a twist, are they—?’

  ‘Get out!’ her voice went another couple of octaves higher, at the same time as she threw the wet sponge across the room at him.

  Noel moved sideways, easily avoiding having the sponge hit him. The waterlogged article hit the far wall with a splat before sliding slowly down onto the floor. ‘I suggest you wipe that up before you leave the room.’ He grinned, opening the door. ‘Otherwise the next person to use the room might slip and hurt themselves.’

  ‘At this moment, if it happened to be you, I don’t think I would care!’ Cally assured him forcefully.

  He tutted teasingly.
‘I think I’ll just pop down and talk with Pam and Lissa while you get dressed.’

  ‘Don’t you da—’ Too late. Noel had already left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

  Leaving Cally in a high state of agitation as she quickly hopped out of the bath and thankfully towelled herself dry, taking a brief moment to revel in finally setting warm.

  But only a brief moment; who knew what further harm Noel could have done by the time she got downstairs?

  ‘SHE’S ADORABLE.’ NOEL’S mother came to stand by Cally as she stood transfixed in the doorway watching Noel and Lissa romping about the floor.

  Lissa was a smaller version of herself. Cally had obviously always been biased when it came to her young daughter. Lissa’s hair was more of a strawberry-blond than the red of her own, but otherwise the freckles and tiny features were all Cally.

  She had prayed for that before Lissa was born, had inwardly dreaded having a mini version of Michael to look at every day. But once she’d held the totally defenceless Lissa in her arms for the first time, and looked down at the delicacy of her tiny face, she had known it wouldn’t matter who or what she looked like; Lissa was hers, and she loved her.

  But what held her so transfixed now was seeing Lissa playing so naturally with Noel, the two of them rolling over and over together on the carpeted floor while Josh, his sister Honey, and the man Cally guessed had to be Noel’s stepfather, looked on indulgently, Pam nowhere to be seen.

  Lissa obviously spent quite a bit of time at Pam’s, enjoyed being with her uncle Brian, and loved the company of her two male cousins, but this was the first time Cally had really seen her daughter relate to an adult male in quite this way.

  For a moment she felt an ache in her chest, brief uncertainty, as to whether she had done the right thing seven years ago in keeping Lissa’s father in ignorance of his daughter’s existence. She hadn’t doubted the decision at the time, had believed that it had been the right one for everyone concerned, but looking at Lissa now, squealing with delight as Noel tickled her, she couldn’t help wondering if it had been the right one for her daughter in the long term...