A Magical Regency Christmas

by Elizabeth Rolls

  * * *

  Almost an hour had passed when Sarah returned.

  Brown and Clarke were sprawled face down on the guard’s table. He watched her fetch the keys from their hook on the wall and unlock the door of his cell.

  ‘You should have told me,’ she said as she fitted the smaller keys into the locks of his shackles.

  ‘That I was a deserter?’

  ‘I know you are not a deserter, Daniel.’

  The shackles loosed and fell away.

  ‘You read the letter,’ he said.

  ‘Of course I read the letter!’ She glanced up at him and everything that was between them welled up and overflowed.

  ‘Sarah, lass... God help me!’ It would have taken so many words to tell her and Daniel knew he was not an eloquent man. Instead, he pulled her into his arms and with his kiss showed her the truth of what was in his heart.

  The time was not enough, but he made the best use of it. And when he eased back to look into her eyes he smiled before flicking his eyes to the basket that sat by her feet.

  ‘You were not lying when you said Great-Grandmother Bowden’s mulled wine was a potent brew.’

  ‘I added a little extra special ingredient to help it along—laudanum.’

  He laughed. ‘Shame you haven’t enough to drug the whole ship.’

  ‘I managed most of the officers.’ She lifted the basket and opened its cover to reveal two duelling pistols, complete with bullets and rods. ‘They were Robert’s. After a little incident between myself and a gentleman in New York I thought it wise to bring them with me. A lady cannot be too sure of what manner of scoundrel she might come across on the high seas these days.’

  ‘Sarah Ellison, what would I do without you?’ What would he do without her in truth? She was the most amazing woman.

  ‘Not mutiny a frigate of His Majesty’s navy, that is for sure.’

  He slid his hand over her hip, pulled her close and kissed her lips quick and hard. ‘You know I love you, don’t you?’ He loved her, and everything else that he was about to do was easy because of that.

  ‘I know,’ she said softly, then stronger, ‘You best get to it, Captain Alexander. I have a niece to keep safe.’

  * * *

  The night had almost passed when Sarah finally made her way up to the main deck of HMS Viper.

  The first thing she noticed was the chill. The second was the beauty of the clear night sky. The moon hung fatter than the sickle on Daniel’s thumb and, all above, covering the lush velvet darkness was the twinkling of stars. She breathed in the cool night air and moved her gaze lower.

  He was standing up on the quarterdeck, his lone figure silhouetted against the moonlight. The tension that had been tight in Sarah all night eased.

  ‘Sarah?’ He turned at her approach and against his hip was fastened a naval captain’s sheathed sword with the two pistols tucked within its belt.

  ‘Where is Higgs?’

  ‘Shackled on the orlop deck with the few that were party to his treachery. With a little bit of persuasion Higgs squealed like a pig, confessing his all before his crew and Davies’s too.’ She saw the way his fingers touched to the hilt of the sword at those words, saw the bruises and scrapes against his knuckles and did not ask the manner of persuading. Daniel was a formidable warrior. ‘They are decent men. Viper is under my control. I did not want to wake you.’

  ‘As if I could sleep.’

  He gave a chuckle and held out his hand to her.

  She took it and moved to stand by his side at the bulwark, just as she had done so many times before.

  They stood in silence, looking out over the beauty of the night seascape, with the wind on their cheeks, and the damp salty scent of the ocean in their noses. The luminous moon bathed them in its ethereal light and turned the sea to rippling molten silver. All was silent save for the creak of timber and the rhythmic wash of the waves. The men on the morning watch high above on their lofty perch made no sound.

  ‘I need to tell you the truth, Sarah.’ He had wanted to for so long.

  ‘You do not need to tell me anything. Words can lie. Actions show the truth of a man’s heart and I already know the truth of yours, Daniel Alexander.’

  He smiled. ‘I want to tell you, Sarah. Nothing of lies.’

  She gave a nod.

  He looked directly into her eyes, and began to talk. Of his father, who was the Earl of Glen Affric, his mother and his brother, Viscount Cannich. About his career at sea. And then he told her of his fellow frigate captain Albert Higgs and how Daniel had found that he was taking payments to give clear passage to ships transporting slaves from Africa to the West Indies. And not only that, but that Higgs had protected the slavers from other frigates. Admiralty had suspected corruption and had tasked Daniel to discover who was involved. He had been sworn to absolute secrecy even from his crew.

  ‘It is the worst of trades and Higgs has been bought off with vast sums of money. Little wonder how far he went to prevent discovery.’

  ‘It was Higgs that left you to drown.’

  ‘We have a contact in New York who had in his possession a letter naming the English officer we were after. I was in New York for the letter, but when I got to the meeting place, Jeffries was dead and a gang of ruffians waiting for me.’

  Sarah’s fingers tightened around his.

  ‘I did not know that it was Higgs, not until they removed the hood from my head.’ He remembered that moment. ‘He was my friend.’ And Higgs had betrayed a lifetime of trust.

  ‘Is that why he did not bind you when he threw you into the water—for the sake of your friendship?’

  Daniel gave a cynical laugh. ‘He did not wish there to be any evidence of foul play in the remote chance my body was discovered. The corpse would have been an unknown man dead through an accident.’

  ‘And that is why he removed your uniform—so that you would not be identified.’

  ‘He wanted my disappearance to be taken for desertion. Before he dumped me overboard he delighted in telling me the seeds he had sown for that ultimate dishonour.’

  ‘But I still do not understand why you did not reveal your true identity to those on the Angel. They were not of the Royal Navy.’

  ‘The slave trade is like a club with members through all manner of shipping, legitimate merchant vessels included. I could trust no one.’

  She nodded her understanding.

  ‘I am sorry for the façade I had to play before Higgs. Had he realised what was between us, that I might have confided in you...’ He shook his head. ‘Higgs would have stopped at nothing, Sarah, not women, not even bairns. I couldn’t risk that.’

  ‘I worked it out...eventually.’

  ‘And I’m sorry, too, that I lied to you, Sarah. I know how you feel about men that lie.’

  She took his face between her hands, looking deep into his eyes. ‘You did what you had to do, Daniel. As you said aboard the Angel, sometimes lies are told for the best of reasons. Who, more than I, knows that? All those years pretending I did not know of Robert’s infidelities before his death and pretending that I had loved him afterwards. And never more so than here aboard the Angel. Lying with my mourning weeds, lying with my mouth, because I was so afraid of what I felt for you.’

  ‘There is nothing more of lies between us, lass, nor will there ever be.’

  * * *

  The winter dawn was breaking as HMS Viper approached Plymouth.

  The sky glowed a glorious pink as the rising sun emerged from its slumber. Only the deep-blue west remained of the fleeing night even though, still high in the sky, hung the same clear crescent moon, defying the dawn.

  Sarah ignored the chill that goose-fleshed her skin, and watched the west cling to the vestige of the night, as she clung to the last of this in
credible journey. It had been nothing that she had imagined, but so much more in every way. Christmas really was a time of miracles.

  Plucking Daniel from the waters of the North Atlantic had been the first.

  The Angel surviving the storm, the second.

  The third was Imelda’s recovery.

  The fourth miracle was the miracle of love for a woman who had spent a lifetime without it.

  She had found a man who was true, a man whose heart was merged with her own.

  Daniel moved to stand behind her, wrapping his arm around her waist, snuggling her close before lowering his mouth to her ear. ‘You know I must take Higgs before the Admiralty in London and clear my name before anything else, Sarah?’

  ‘I know,’ she said and let herself relax against the warm strength of his body.

  He kissed the top of her head and rested his chin there, and together they watched Plymouth come ever closer in the magnificence of the winter sunrise.

  * * *

  ‘The Times makes mention of the naval frigate you travelled upon,’ Sarah’s brother, Thomas, commented as they sat before the fire in the drawing room of Bowden House. ‘Apparently its captain, one Albert Higgs, has been arrested and charged with accepting bribes, dereliction of duty and the attempted murder of a fellow officer. My word, quite the villain!’

  ‘Indeed.’ Sarah sipped at her glass of warmed mulled wine.

  ‘I always knew Captain Alexander was not the one who was the villain.’ Imelda climbed upon her papa’s knee.

  ‘And how did you know that?’ Thomas enquired.

  ‘Because he saved us.’ Imelda gave a grin. ‘And he liked Aunt Sarah very much.’

  ‘Did he now?’ Thomas shot Sarah a glance. ‘Your Aunt Sarah made no mention of that bit of the story.’

  Sarah felt a traitorous heat blossom in her cheeks. ‘Imelda exaggerates.’

  ‘No, I don’t. He told me it was so. And then there was the time in my cabin, when I was unwell and he cuddled you.’

  ‘You had a fever, Imelda, and were imagining things.’

  ‘It seemed real.’

  ‘It always does.’

  Her brother said nothing, but there was a speculative look in his eye when his gaze met Sarah’s.

  ‘Come now, it is time we readied ourselves for the midnight service, or have you forgotten it is Christmas Eve?’ She smiled to lighten the slight tension that had erupted and wished that Daniel would come soon.

  And, as if to save her, Imelda’s two little sisters came running into the room, all excited at staying up late for the special Christmas church service.

  * * *

  Sarah celebrated Christmas with her brother, his wife and their three children. There was no letter from Daniel, and no mention of Captain Alexander in any of the Admiralty columns of the newspapers even though Sarah scoured each one.

  The days passed and Sarah looked for him on each one with mounting anxiety. How long did it take to deliver Higgs to London and report the truth of what had happened? Surely not this long, even allowing for the weather? At first she worried that something had gone wrong before Admiralty but she knew that, were that the case, it would have been reported in one of the newspapers. And then the doubts began to whisper, like devils, in her ear.

  There had been no mention of marriage. He had never actually said he would come and find her. Those had been assumptions.

  I love you, lass.

  He had meant it, then, she was sure. But now, when they were apart, and back in the real world with all its pressures and truths? Maybe there was another woman waiting for him at home in Scotland. Maybe his father did not approve of his son marrying a widow or thought she was not good enough for an earl’s son, even though hers was one of the oldest and richest families in England. Maybe... There were so many possibilities. And the truth was she knew so little of his life, just as he knew so little of hers. Foolish as a green girl, she had thought love would be enough.

  She tried to put him from her mind, but everywhere she looked were reminders. It snowed and she thought of their Christmas challenge aboard the Angel. On Boxing Day the family exchanged gifts and, amidst all the squeals and excitement of her nieces, Daniel was in her thoughts. He was there in the red-breasted robin darting through the hedges as she accompanied her brother and his family on a visit to old friends. And every time they sang the Christmas hymns in the church. And there was a bigger reminder than all of those. One of which she was not entirely sure yet, but just the prospect of which made her pray all the more that he would come for her. Because she knew what she was going to have to do if he did not...and it did not involve scouring the country for a man who did not want her.

  But as the days passed and still she heard nothing from Daniel, the old insecurities came back to haunt her.

  Sarah stopped looking for his letter. She ceased listening for the thud of his horse’s hooves, or the creak of his carriage wheels through the snow. Daniel might love her, but what was love to men? He might love her, but he wasn’t coming for her. What had been between them had ended with their journey. If she found him, if she told him, he would marry her. Out of duty. Out of necessity. Not because he wanted to. And, because she loved him, that knowledge would kill her. Better a man she hated than that.

  He was a naval sea captain who had chosen a life without her.

  And because of her recent discovery, she was a woman who was going to have to return to New York and marry a man she did not want to marry.

  * * *

  It was the last day of the year when her brother took her out riding alone.

  The sky was a cloudless blue and bright with pale sunshine that glittered on the snow that still dusted the fields all around. The air was fresh and smelled of earth and winter. Blackbirds scurried beneath bushes. She turned her eyes away from the robin that sat in the bare brown boughs serenading their progress along the country lane.

  ‘What happened between you and Captain Alexander, Sarah?’

  ‘Nothing happened.’ She kept her eyes straight ahead to hide the lie.

  The horses ambled on at their slow steady pace, but she could feel by the way her brother was looking at her that he was not fooled.

  ‘Perhaps I should find Captain Alexander and ask him the same question.’

  ‘Don’t you dare!’ Her eyes shot to his.

  His expression remained impassive. ‘You are no longer wearing your mourning weeds or wedding band.’

  ‘It means nothing.’

  ‘I am not a fool, Sarah. I see how unhappy you are beneath the smile.’

  ‘Don’t.’ She squeezed her eyes shut to prevent the tears that prickled there. ‘Please, Thomas.’

  ‘Did he seduce you?’

  She let the question hang in the air before looking squarely at her brother. ‘I seduced him.’

  She saw the shock that flared there. ‘Good God, Sarah!’

  ‘You have a scandalous sister.’ Possibly more scandalous than he realised. And in her heart she prayed that it was so.

  ‘I could contact him. I have friends in London who could—’

  ‘No.’ She swallowed back the emotion that threatened too near the surface. ‘I will be leaving for New York at the end of next week.’

  ‘I thought you said you did not wish to return to America.’

  ‘Change of plan.’

  ‘If you think it is for the best.’

  ‘Most definitely.’ She forced a smile and cracked a joke to hide the truth. ‘Do not worry, I will not seduce anyone on the return journey.’ The smile faded. She glanced down at the leather reins held loosely between her gloved fingers. ‘There is a gentleman in New York who has proposed marriage.’

  ‘You could stay here, with us.’

  ‘No, Thomas.’ She met his eyes. �
�For the sake of all our reputations, I do not think that I can.’

  They looked at one another for a moment.

  ‘Oh, Sarah,’ he said softly.

  The horses walked on in silence.

  * * *

  The children were long in bed. Sarah, Thomas, and his wife Anne, sat in the drawing room of Bowden House, each with a glass of warm mulled wine, watching the hands of the clock on the mantel approach midnight. Soon the old year would pass and a new one begin—one that would take Sarah back to New York and a lie. But it was as Daniel Alexander had said, sometimes lies had to be told for the best of reasons. To protect and defend—those that you loved...and those that were innocent.

  The clock struck twelve and from down in the village the church bells pealed, ringing out the old year and welcoming in the new.

  Sarah took a breath and did the same. Turned her back on a past she would never forget or regret and faced her future.

  ‘Happy New Year, Sis.’ Thomas made the toast and Sarah responded.

  ‘Happy New Year, Thomas...Anne.’ She chinked their glasses with her own. ‘May it be a good one for us all.’ But she saw the glance that Anne shot Thomas and knew that her brother had told his wife.

  The last chime was still echoing in the air when the knocker sounded against the front door.

  ‘Who on earth comes visiting in the first minute of the New Year?’ Thomas frowned.

  Sarah felt the blood rush from her head. Her fingers gripped so tight to the stem of the wine glass that her knuckles shone white.

  * * *

  Mr Thomas Bowden’s expression was glacial when the maid announced the name of his first caller of the New Year and Daniel stepped into the drawing room.

  Sarah’s eyes met Daniel’s and he saw the shock in them before she lowered them to hide it. She looked so pale that he thought she might swoon.

  He bowed to Bowden. ‘I am ridden from Scotland to first foot your sister.’ He saw Bowden’s hostile gaze drop to take in his mud-splattered boots and breeches and rise again to the faint beard that stubbled his jaw, before meeting his eyes. ‘If I might be permitted to address her?’