by Jude Knight
His wife followed Zee’s train of thought without difficulty. “It’d be great to at least clear the ground and make a start on the foundations before winter,” she said.
“Dave says it could take months to get through approvals. We’ll have our pohutukawa to ourselves for a while yet.” The trees she loved; the trees that had witnessed their courtship.
When his wife went inside to put the desert dishes into the dishwasher and fetch them both a glass of her lemonade, Zee moved as swiftly as was compatible with silence, using a gesture to order Oliver to stay put in the shadow of the table. He rounded the corner of the house and let himself into his study through the bifold doors that opened onto the new veranda.
In the study waited the Valentine’s Day tokens he’d hidden there earlier. A dozen red roses, a box with the logo of the finest manufacturing jeweller in Barnsley, and a card he’d made himself, painting the cover picture and writing the sentiment inside. “To Nikki. Yesterday, Today, Forever.”
Nikki was coming out through the French doors from the kitchen as he returned to the table. She laughed, holding up her own sheaf of red roses. “Two minds with but a single thought,” she quoted, and put her floral offering down at his place at the table. He did the same with the bunch for her, freeing one hand to take the wrapped box she gave him.
In companionable silence, they each opened their present. She had merely to ease the lid off hers, which she quickly did, giving a low crow of delight when the pendant within was revealed: a pohutukawa in full bloom, a gold tree against an iridescent paua-shell background, with enamelled red flowers.
“How beautiful, Zee. Here. Help me put it on.” She held the pendant out by its gold chain, and half her back, lifting her hair away from her neck.
He put his half-unwrapped present down and fastened the clasp for her, staying close for a kiss before resuming his seat. “We are wealthy, you know,” he reminded her. “I could cover you with diamonds and it wouldn’t make much of a dent.”
Nikki had helped him come to terms with accepting his share of the O’Neal money, but was more frugal than him about spending on frivolities. “I love this,” she insisted now. “You designed it yourself, I know you did. And the pohutukawa is our tree.”
She coloured suddenly. “You helped me make my present, too. The real present, that is. The one you haven’t unwrapped yet is just to give you a hint.”
Curious, he ripped the last of the wrapping, and frowned at the box. A silver rattle? A moment’s thought had him looking up at Nikki, his mouth open. “A baby? You’re having a baby?”
He caught her in his arms and swung her around, then stepped back and patted her arms. “Are you alright? Should you sit down? When are we due?”
“End of September, early October. He or she will be with us in time for pohutukawa flowering, Zee. And I’m fine. I feel wonderful. I haven’t even been nauseous.”
“Don’t knock being nauseous, my love,” said the man whose seasickness had beached him in Paradise. “It worked for me.”
* * *
THE END
Stories by Jude Knight
Regency books
The Golden Redepennings series
True love is rare and elusive, but they won’t settle for less
Candle’s Christmas Chair (A novella in The Golden Redepennings series)
They are separated by social standing and malicious lies. He has until Christmas to convince her to give their love another chance.
Gingerbread Bride (A novella in The Golden Redepennings series)
Mary runs from an unwanted marriage and finds adventure, danger and her girlhood hero, coming once more to her rescue.
Farewell to Kindness (Book 1 in The Golden Redepennings series)
Love is not always convenient. Anne and Rede have different goals, but when their enemies join forces, so must they.
A Raging Madness (Book 2 in The Golden Redepennings series)
Their marriage is a fiction. Their enemies are all too real. Uncovering the truth will need all the trust Ella and Alex can find.
The Realm of Silence (Book 3 in The Golden Redepennings series)
Rescue her daughter, destroy her dragons, defeat his demons, return to his lonely life. How hard can it be?
Unkept Promises (Book 4 in The Golden Redepennings series — published July 2019)
Mia hopes to negotiate a comfortable marriage. Jules wants his wife to return to England, where she belongs. Love confounds them both.
Other Regency stories
A Baron for Becky
She was a fallen woman. How could the men who loved her help set her back on her feet?
Revealed in Mist
As spy and enquiry agent, Prue and David worked to uncover secrets, while hiding a few of their own.
A Suitable Husband
A chef from the slums, however talented, is no fit mate for the cousin of a duke, however distant. But Cedrica can dream.
Lord Calne’s Christmas Ruby
One wealthy merchant's heiress with an aversion to fortune hunters. One an impoverished earl with a twisted hand. Combine and stir with one villainous rector.
House of Thorns
His rose thief bride comes with a scandal that threatens to tear them apart.
Paradise Regained (novella in the Bluestocking Belles collection Follow Your Star Home)
Burned in their youth, neither Tad nor Lottie expected to feel the fires of love. Until the inferno of a volcanic eruption sears away the lies of the past and frees them to forge a new future.
The Beast Next Door (novella in the Bluestocking Belles collection Valentines from Bath)
Burned in their youth, neither Tad nor Lottie expected to feel the fires of love. Until the inferno of a volcanic eruption sears away the lies of the past and frees them to forge a new future.
Lunch-length reads: story collections
Hand-Turned Tales and Lost in the Tale
A double handful of short stories and novellas, free from most eretailers. Try the range of Jude’s imagination one bite at a time, in a lunch-length read.
If Mistletoe Could Tell Tales
A repackaging of six published Christmas stories: four novellas and two novelettes. Because nothing enhances the magic of Christmas like the magic of love.
Victorian books
Never Kiss a Toad (with Mariana Gabrielle)
Caught together in her father’s bed, Sally and Toad are wrenched apart, to endure years of separation. But neither distance nor malice can destroy true love.
God Help Ye, Merry Gentleman (with Mariana Gabrielle)
A Christmas collection: two purpose-written short pieces in the world of Never Kiss a Toad, showing Sally’s and Toad’s childhood and youth. Plus some other published pieces from blogs, newsletters, and books set in the same world.
Forged in Fire (novella in the Bluestocking Belles collection Never Too Late)
Burned in their youth, neither Tad nor Lottie expected to feel the fires of love. Until the inferno of a volcanic eruption sears away the lies of the past and frees them to forge a new future.
Post-apocalyptic fiction
A Midwinter’s Tale (novella in the Speakeasy Scribes collection Resist and Rejoice)
Verity Marchand is an orphan of time, her family tavern under the ice that grips Boston. When Verity’s dreams lead her into a nightmare, she’ll need a miracle—or the family cat—to save her.
Contemporary
A Family Christmas (novella in the Authors of Main Street collection Christmas Babies on Main Street)
Kirilee is on the run, in disguise, out of touch, and eating for two. Trevor is heading home for Christmas, after three years undercover, investigating a global criminal organisation. In the heart of a storm, two people from different worlds question what divides and what unites them.
Abbie’s Wish (novella in the Authors of Main Street collection Christmas Wishes on Main Street)
Abbie’s Christmas wish draws three men to her mothe
r. One of them is a monster.
Beached (novella in the Authors of Main Street collection Summer Romance on Main Street)
The truth will wash away her coastal paradise
About Jude Knight
Jude Knight has always loved telling stories, mostly for the benefit of children in need of entertainment. Her strong determined heroines, heroes who appreciate them, and villains you'll love to loathe first made their way into the covers of a book in 2014. A dozen or more books later, the wind fills her sails and many more plots jostle for daylight.
Website and blog: http://judeknightauthor.com/
Book blurbs and links: http://judeknightauthor.com/books/
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