Lords, Snow and Mistletoe: A Regency Christmas Collection

by Bianca Blythe

  “What is it, Miss Amberly?” The driver was sufficiently trained not to openly gawk, but his gaze still darted to her ragged clothes and the pile of excavation materials.

  Never mind that. Red-headed women with freckles were never destined to possess elegance.

  “Is Lady Mulbourne inside?”

  The driver nodded, and Fiona rushed to the door. The question was foolish: only her cousin would have asked for her coach to be decked out in such finery for a five-mile jaunt.

  Madeline poked her head through the carriage window, and Fiona hastily brushed a few more specks of soil from her dress.

  “Happy Christmas,” Madeline chirped.

  “Er . . . yes.”

  “You have a remarkable ability to never change.”

  Fiona shifted her feet, and her boots crunched over dried leaves.

  “So unconstrained by the pulls of even the most basic fashion rules.” Madeline’s eyes flickered over her, roaming over every button and pleat with the eagerness of a general scrutinizing a map of enemy territory. “And still in half-mourning, I see.”

  Fiona stiffened and pulled her hands back. No need for her cousin to comment on the frayed hem of her sleeve as well as her gray dress.

  “Would you like a ride? I’m on my way to see Grandmother.”

  Fiona didn’t want a ride. She wanted to work more on the site. Winter was approaching, and if the farmers were right about their grumblings regarding the shade of the sky, the place would be covered in snow soon.

  But ever since Fiona had blurted out to Grandmother that she was engaged to the most brilliant man in the world, it was vital that she not allow Grandmother to be left alone with Madeline.

  The captain was everything a man should be: handsome and brave, smart and funny, and since the Napoleonic Wars had ended, finally living in England.

  At least he would be if he existed.

  Fiona groaned. Yes, Christmas was firmly relegated to the short list of things she despised. The holiday surpassed dress fittings, empty dance cards, and mushrooms in horribleness. Only Napoleon, carriage accidents, and somber-faced doctors ranked higher on her list of hated things.

  How on earth had the emperor had the indecency to give up the war before Fiona had had the foresight to invent a death worthy of her dear, valiant, charming fiancé?

  Fiona glanced at the site. “Let me just rearrange some things.”

  Madeline nodded, and Fiona hastily covered the pit, casting a lingering look on the Roman finds. The shards of pottery and coins buried within the clay were so near, and she ached to remain and unearth more, to feel the giddiness and delight that rushed through her with every discovery she made with her trowel.

  Instead she hurried back to the carriage. A familiar dread tightened her stomach as she climbed the metal steps, but she steeled her jaw and rubbed her hand against her hair, dislodging a lock from her chignon.

  “How pleasant to see you,” Madeline said in a too-sweet voice, and a prickly warmth dashed up the back of Fiona’s neck. “I was hoping you might be able to attend my Christmas Ball this year, given that you have never attended before.”

  Fiona smiled tightly at her one-time friend as she struggled to re-pin the lock of hair. She settled onto the bench and flickered her gaze downward. Telling herself not to dwell on the smudges of dirt scattered on her dress failed to lessen her embarrassment.

  Disappointing people was a skill she had acquired in childhood, simply due to the apparent misfortune of her hair color. She’d long ago accustomed herself to her striking inability to fulfil the ton’s expectations. Her unfashionably curved figure had frustrated her dressmakers during her shortened season and made her conspicuous against the sleek, willowy figures of the other debutantes.

  “I suppose it must be terribly trying for you to attend a ball, given that you have so little practice in looking pleasant.” Madeline smoothed the golden ringlets that framed her face. Every flourish, formed in the proper manner, with curling tongs rather than nature’s haphazardness, was immaculate. “Unless perhaps you can grace us with your presence after all?”

  “I’m afraid it’s impossible,” Fiona said. “Regretfully.”

  “Oh.” Her cousin’s lips stretched into a straight line.

  “It is unfortunate you had to travel all this way. I would have thought the postal system would have managed to deliver my regrets,” Fiona continued.

  Madeline pressed her lips together and swung her gaze to the window and the view of heavy dark clouds that floated over the jagged Dales.

  The light from the carriage windows slid over her cousin’s pale blond hair, framing it like a halo, and cast a glow over the glossy silk ruffles of her dress. Somehow her cousin had managed to travel five miles and appear impeccable, and Fiona could scarcely travel a few feet without finding herself in difficulty.

  Holly and mistletoe dangled from the ceiling of the coach, bright bursts against the staid black walls. Such greenery had been but a mild curiosity to Fiona before the accident, but now it signified everything dreadful.

  If Christmas did not exist, her cousin would not be across from her, and Fiona most certainly would not have abandoned perhaps her last chance to visit the archaeological site in order to sit in a closed and jostling coach, striving for an excuse to skip the woman’s ball.

  “Now do tell me,” Madeline said, “Whatever were you doing standing in a pit in the earth?”

  “I—”

  “It’s the sort of thing that gives Yorkshire women a bad reputation,” Madeline continued, and her nose crinkled. “You really must reconsider your habits. It will be trying enough for you to find a husband without behaving like the local madwoman.”

  Fiona squared her shoulders. “How kind of you to worry. Really, it’s wholly unnecessary. And I’m not in the least need of a husband.”

  If only Grandmother would believe that.

  “You’re always in the habit of saying the most curious things,” Madeline remarked. “Most fascinating.”

  Fiona gave her a wobbly smile and considered divulging her secret. She pondered the pottery, the Roman coins and helmets, the vases and mosaics she’d found on the border of the apple orchard.

  She longed to share everything. There were so many brilliant objects. It couldn’t be sheer coincidence. There had to be a Roman palace buried there.

  Cloudbridge Castle lay on the route toward Hadrian’s Wall, and it was not entirely absurd to think that the Romans may have built a palace on the way. Perhaps the Romans had had a tendency to wander around in togas, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t enjoyed fine homes as well. The materials she had found were too ornate for a simple station for soldiers of insignificant rank.

  But her cousin wouldn’t understand. The last person Fiona had told had been Uncle Seymour. She’d wanted his permission to excavate the apple orchard, and he’d exploded at the prospect of chopping any of the trees to discover if some broken cups and plates might be underneath. Though Uncle Seymour visited infrequently, the estate belonged to him, and once Grandmother died, he would move in.

  Fiona drew in a breath. Some things were better not dwelled on. And perhaps Madeline was right. Perhaps she should attend the ball.

  “Will the baron be there?” Fiona tilted her head, thinking of the materials she’d found underneath the apple orchard.

  Madeline’s husband’s advice in assessing the objects would be invaluable. The baron was a renowned art critic, and his work on the Elgin Marbles was genius. She was sure his favorable assessment had spurred the new British Museum to acquire them. Unfortunately, he seemed to favor London far more than Yorkshire.

  “My husband?” Madeline’s voice faltered.

  “I would like to speak to him about some findings...”

  “Oh.” Madeline’s long black eyelashes swooped down over her eyes. “Perhaps I might be of some use—”

  Fiona shook her head. The less people she told about the apple orchard the better. The ones she had told alread
y thought her mad for believing there was a Roman palace buried underneath there. Her cousin was not the type to lend herself to confidences.

  Right now it was more important that Madeline did not learn of Fiona’s supposed engagement; her cousin was the largest gossip in Yorkshire. Fiona had no inclination to be a laughingstock, and any hope of the credulity and support the baron might give her theory on the Roman palace would be destroyed if he were to discover she’d invented a fiancé.

  Though she’d long abandoned any aspirations to marry, she couldn’t bear the thought that all her work, all the carefully collected and recorded artefacts, would lose all significance because their finder was deemed a foolish girl. No one would donate funds so that the rest of the palace might be dug from the ground, and any mosaics, any sculptures, any pottery would remain firmly in the earth to be forgotten.

  Fiona’s conviction that a Roman palace lay under the apple orchard would be deemed ridiculous, and anyone she told would be reminded in giggling tones that Fiona also had insisted she was betrothed to a wonderful man, when the man had turned out to be entirely imaginary.

  The coach pulled in before Cloudbridge Castle, and Fiona exhaled. Gray stones blended into the harsh gray sky above, as the castle thrust its jagged turrets, defenses from a former age, into the sky. In another age her ancestors would have warred against the neighboring aristocrats; now they were supposed to be friends, simply for their shared status.

  Her cousin exited the coach and glided toward the butler, padding her lace boots over the cobblestones. Fiona lifted her gray dress and proceeded. The coarse wool prickled her fingers, and she stumbled on a worn cobble.

  “Madeline.” Grandmother’s astonished voice rang out from the open door of the castle, and Fiona quickened her pace.

  Murmurings sounded. Fiona couldn’t decipher her cousin’s doubtlessly refined answer. Madeline’s delicate soprano voice never carried, a fact her cousin had exploited once she discovered she could make snide comments about everyone, assured that only her seat companion would be able to hear.

  Fiona entered to discover Grandmother leading Madeline toward the Great Hall. So much for any hope of speaking with Grandmother alone. Fiona followed them, and her dress swished against the antiques cramming the narrow hallway.

  “I was just telling Fiona that I was so hoping you might grace us with your presence at this year’s annual Christmas ball,” Madeline said.

  Grandmother laughed as they settled into the velvety armchairs that surrounded the table in the Great Hall. “My days of balls are behind me, though Fiona might attend.”

  “How splendid.” Madeline clapped her hands together.

  Fiona moved a finger to her collar, brushing against her mother’s favorite brooch. “Thank you for inviting me, but I fear I cannot accept the invitation.”

  “But dearest!” Grandmother exclaimed.

  Fiona stood up, coughing. “I fear I’m getting a cold. You must go, Madeline. I would not want to inflict anything so despicable on my dearest cousin.”

  Madeline’s thick eyelashes, far longer and more elegant than Fiona deemed necessary, fluttered downward as she blinked. “I’m sure I do not fear any cold that you might have.”

  “Then you are a brave woman, baroness.” Fiona strove to keep her face solemn.

  “But you truly should consider attending!” Her cousin leaned forward, and her eyes sparkled. Her voice took on an affable tone at odds with the smug manner she seemed to favor. “I’m sure we can find you an eligible bachelor with whom to dance. Cousin Cecil is attending.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Why, he shows as little interest for dancing as you do! Uncle Seymour and Aunt Lavinia say it is sure to be an ideal match. He has no title, but not everyone can be sufficiently fortunate to marry a man with one.” She beamed, perhaps contemplating her own accomplishment at acquiring a baron.

  Fiona strove to nod politely. Best not to mention that she suspected it was not within Cousin Cecil’s nature to find doing much of anything with a woman appealing.

  A maid appeared with tea.

  “You must find yourself a husband,” Madeline said. “It is the natural course of things, and your sister is no longer here to keep you company. And the ball will be marvelous. They always are.”

  “How delightful.” Grandmother picked up the teapot and poured tea into a cup. “And by then Fiona’s—”

  Fiona coughed. Not in the most elegant manner, but she was aiming for loudness, not delicacy.

  Madeline moved back a fraction, and Grandmother’s eyebrows jolted up.

  “My dearest, you are doing quite poorly. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you cough quite like that. It was as if—”

  “As if you were trying to emulate a carriage.” Madeline bit into a sweet.

  Grandmother fixed her gaze on the baroness. “I wouldn’t have termed it in quite that manner.”

  “Oh, yes!” Madeline said. “The kind with multiple horses, and driving on poorly maintained roads. Like in Scotland!”

  Fiona’s chest constricted. At this moment she could only hope her grandmother had thoroughly forgotten everything Fiona had ever told her about Captain Knightley. She heaped a generous amount of sugar into her teacup, snatched a silver spoon, and stirred the tea with vigor.

  “I might not be well enough for the Christmas ball.” Fiona touched her forehead and ventured another cough.

  “My dear!” Grandmother’s hand flickered to her chest, and Fiona cursed the lie. Grandmother worried far too much.

  “I mean,” Fiona stammered, “I am sure I will eventually recover, but—”

  “Splendid!” Madeline nodded. “The ball is not until Christmas Day, and you will have four days during which you might make your recovery.”

  “I am wary of risking the health of the other guests.”

  “I have the utmost confidence in your health.” Madeline accepted the cup Fiona’s grandmother offered and raised it to her perfectly formed lips. “It would be odd indeed if everyone in Yorkshire were attempting to sound like carriages.”

  Fiona gulped her tea. The hot liquid swirled down her throat, and she grabbed the teapot to pour herself more, sloshing tea over the delicate lace tablecloth. Heat prickled the back of her neck, and her hands shook as she sopped up the amber puddle with a napkin.

  “And of course,” Madeline’s clear voice continued, “We were also sorry to miss having you last year, and the year before as well. But then I suppose you might find it uncomfortable, now that you’ve reached such an advanced age with no husband—”

  Grandmother’s mouth opened, and she seemed more alert than normal.

  “I must go.” Fiona leaped up. Perhaps if Fiona hastened, her cousin would follow and then—

  “She’s already got one!” Grandmother beamed and selected a sweet. “Next year she’ll be hosting her own festivities.”

  Fiona stiffened.

  “Excuse me?” Madeline halted, and a knot in Fiona’s stomach hardened. Of all the times for Grandmother to be vocal. Nothing delighted Madeline more than gossip, and her ties to London were strong.

  Fiona’s knees wobbled, and she sank back into her chair. If the world were ending, she may as well be comfortable.

  “Surely Fiona hasn’t found a husband?” Madeline leaned forward.

  “She has.” Grandmother gave a contented sigh.

  Madeline’s smile broadened to an almost unladylike extent. “However did you find a husband?”

  “Fiancé.” Fiona’s voice wobbled at the lie. “That’s all.”

  “Mm-hmm!” Madeline turned her gaze to the window and the jagged curves of the Dales, scattered with snow. “Who knew it would be so simple to find a fiancé here?”

  The landscape seemed rather devoid of any dwellings, much less one belonging to an appropriate husband-to-be.

  “He’s . . . er . . . away!” Fiona said.

  “I can’t make his acquaintance?” Madeline’s tone was mournful, even though her eyes seeme
d to sparkle with something very much resembling mirth. “He’s not an officer, is he?”

  “That’s it!” Fiona exclaimed. “So he’s very much gone.”

  Madeline’s perfectly groomed eyebrows arched up. “How astonishing. What’s his name?”

  “Um . . . We’re trying to keep the engagement secret now,” Fiona said. “I hope you can be understanding.”

  “So he lacks a name?” Madeline asked, her voice calm, though her lips extended upward briefly, before she hastened to sip her tea. “I look forward to meeting such an extraordinary person.”

  Fiona averted her eyes. Her gaze fell on the tea caddy. Dust clung to the mahogany box, and Fiona brushed her finger over the wood. Visitors were not common at Cloudbridge Castle.

  “He is said to espouse all the best possible qualities,” Grandmother declared.

  “Indeed?” Madeline tilted her head, and for one blissful moment the woman seemed uneasy. The baroness’s eyes soon narrowed. “To think you met someone here, without any assistance. And how unlikely that he should be in possession of such apparent brilliance.”

  “Ah, but you forget that Fiona is brilliant herself.” Grandmother beamed. “I was so concerned about her future and was relieved to find she was engaged all along.”

  “Secretly!” Fiona hastened to add. “A secret engagement. In fact, we met in London, during my season.”

  “Those two weeks?” Madeline’s eyebrows soared upward.

  “Which was why Fiona was so eager to return home,” Grandmother added, but her voice faltered somewhat, and her gaze rested on Fiona too long.

  “I see,” Madeline said. “Likely even our grandmother has not had the good fortune of meeting this ideal man.”

  Fiona coughed now, and this time the pain in her chest felt real.

  “Well I am sure that now all the soldiers are being returned home, you will have no more need for discretion.” Madeline smoothed the folds of her dress. A ruby ring sparkled from her finger against the green fabric. “One week. Grandmother will desire the meeting as well. You wouldn’t want her to suspect you invented the man!”

  Madeline laughed, and Grandmother joined her after a trace of hesitation that Fiona despised.