A Victorian Christmas

by Lorraine Beaumont

  “Of course but…I am not sure,” he said worriedly.

  “Grab the bull by the horns man, just open it,” said Sebastian.

  Devlin reluctantly tore away the paper and opened the box.

  “Well what is it?” asked Isabelle, leaning forward.

  “It is a ring.”

  Her eyes brightened. “What kind of ring?”

  “It is a wedding ring?”

  “Why would your ghost of a father give you a wedding ring?”

  “I believe he intended to give it to my mother.” He gripped the ring tightly. “He wasn’t lying,” he said barely audible. His heart hurt suddenly for his mother and for his father but at the same time, he was filled with hope for his own future.

  Wedding

  It was a picture perfect wedding.

  Sadie wore the beautiful ice blue gown and with Eliza’s help with her hair, she looked just like Cinderella. At the last minute, Katherine had come up to the room with a lovely bouquet of white roses from the conservatory with silver pinecones she had decorated and all of it was held together by a dark blue velvet ribbon.

  Turns out getting a minister wasn’t that difficult either as one was visiting relations just down the rode apiece or so Grayson said. So it would seem luck was on their side after all, which is just what Mrs.’ Flint said they needed.

  “Do you have the ring?” asked the Minister, swaying slightly on his feet. He had imbibed a bit of alcohol before he arrived.

  Sebastian handed out the ring.

  Devlin took the ring that was from his father for his mother and slipped it onto his wife’s finger.

  “By the power vested in me,” he hiccupped. “I now pronounce you husband and wiffffe...,” he slurred.

  Devlin leaned forward and placed his forehead to hers. “I will love you, forever and always,” he whispered, staring down into her beautiful eyes.

  “And will I love you, forever and always,” she whispered back, smiling.

  “Are you two going kiss or what?” Eliza urged. “I have places I need to be.” She tugged her dark blue cloak closer around her body.

  “Yes, Eliza.” Devlin smiled.

  “Oh and do not forget to think about sending me to the future.”

  “Yes, Eliza, we will,” said Devlin.

  “Thank you Eliza,” Sadie said, smiling up into her husband’s dark eyes.

  “Yes, thank you Eliza,” he murmured.

  Devlin lowered his head and kissed his wife deeply.

  “You can thank me laaaaaaaaaaaaa….”

  Eliza vanished. Poof. Just like that.

  After the ceremony

  After the ceremony ended, Eliza had vanished and the minister took himself back off to his relations home. The rest of the group stood around looking at the tree, commenting on the weather, eating confections, and drinking hot chocolate, per Katherine’s orders.

  “I say this has been one of the best Christmas’ ever,” said Grayson, taking Isabelle’s outstretched hand.

  “I think so too,” Katherine agreed, between bites.

  “How do you think Eliza will fair in the future?” Grayson asked, taking a sip of his drink. He decided to forgo the confections and instead poured a glass of Brandy. He needed after all the talk of going to the future and coming to the past and his niece vanishing. It was all a bit too much to absorb in one evening.

  “Oh, I think she will be all right,” said Sadie. “I filled her in on just about everything I could think of.”

  “I hope you told her how to use the necklace, in case she needs it.”

  “No.” She covered her mouth, shocked. “I forgot.”

  Katherine widened her eyes. “I am sure she will be fine.” She quickly shoved another confection in her mouth.

  Devlin frowned. “Katherine, are you all right?”

  “Yes,” she mumbled, covering her too full mouth.

  Sebastian handed her a cup of chocolate. “Here is something to wash that down.”

  “Thanks.” Her face flushed. “I am eating for two you know.”

  “More like an army,” Devlin muttered under his breath.

  “Did you say something, Devlin?” inquired Katherine.

  “Oh, I said I forgot to give out a gift,” he quickly recovered, bent down, and pulled one last large package out from behind the tree. “Isabelle, this came for you.”

  “For me?” she asked, pressing her hands to her chest.

  “Yes, here you go.” He handed out the package.

  Isabelle took it and hastily undid the trappings on the box. “Oh, there is a letter.”

  “What does it say,” asked Grayson.

  Isabelle scanned the letter.

  Isabelle,

  I know you do not have much use for me but these are yours, and with their help, and help from the good lord above, I have made a new life, and well, I made a promise and intend to keep it.

  I would ask for your forgiveness, and I know how stingy you can be, but I am asking for it just the same.

  Yours truly,

  Judith Alexandra Beauchamp

  “My goodness, wonders never cease.” Isabelle folded the letter, walked over to the sofa, and set the box down.

  “What is it?” asked Grayson.

  “You will not believe this.” She turned.

  “Well, are you going to tell us?” Sebastian asked, watching his wife sneak another confection and pop it into her mouth.

  “Judith sent back my cloak and jewels.

  “By God, it’s a Christmas Miracle,” Grayson said.

  Devlin looked into his wife’s eyes. “Why yes, yes it is.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.” Sadie smiled up at her husband.

  Alone at last

  “I thought they would never leave.” Devlin lowered his wife down to the bed.

  “Do you think we should have invited them to stay?”

  “Oh God no!” he said, laughing.

  “Devlin!” she giggled, she couldn’t help it. She was glad they were gone, too.

  Standing up, he removed his waistcoat and laid it over the back of the chair.

  Sadie twisted her hands, nervously. “Devlin…”

  “Yes,” he said, turning toward the bed, pulling his shirt from his trousers.

  “I forgot to mention something to you.”

  “What might that be?” he asked, unbuttoning his shirt, and shrugging out of it.

  Her gaze slid over her husband’s naked torso. His chest was bare and very muscular. She had not expected him to be so in shape. Even Byron didn’t look that good. She grasped the coverlet, nervously picking at the threads.

  “What is the matter?” He walked over to the bed and looked down at her.

  “Ah…” She bit her lip, not knowing how to proceed.

  “Am I moving too fast for you?” He asked, placing his knee on the bed.

  She shook her head. “No…ah…about that?” she hedged. How was she going to tell him she was not a virgin? What would he do?

  Gently he cupped her face, sliding his thumb back and forth on her jaw. Shivers raced through her. He was so damn sexy. His sandy blonde hair fell forward over his brow as he leaned in for a kiss and seized her mouth with his own.

  Sadie caressed his shoulders, his naked flesh warm to the touch. His palm skimmed over her breast, cupping, massaging. Her heart beat erratically raging against her ribcage like a drum. Boom, boom, boom, it thumped loudly. She was so nervous. Would it matter that she was not a virgin?

  “Devlin,” she said, clutching his shoulders tighter.

  “Yes…” he murmured kissing the tender flesh of her neck.

  “I am not a virgin.”

  He didn’t even lift his head. “Neither am I.”

  “Are you upset?”

  “Not at all,” he murmured while placing kisses along her collarbone.

  “Why aren’t you upset?” She pushed his shoulder.

  “Because now I do not need to teach you anything,” he said and nipped playfull
y at her neck.

  Turns out Devlin taught her a thing or two after all.

  Epilogue

  That night, after he had made love to his wife three times, Devlin crawled from bed and snuck downstairs.

  Sitting behind his desk, he pulled out a piece of vellum, dipped the nib of his pen into the ink, and jotted down one last poem.

  “This key I give you is to a door

  it represents what your life holds in store

  it is a journey that has come to an end

  and one that is about to begin

  It is around the corner you have yet to turn

  Through the door you have yet to open

  Perhaps out of grasp …

  but never out of reach”

  Devlin Renquist “The Rogue” “The Reformed Rogue”

  It was a fitting ending to a story full of promises kept and dreams realized. Pushing away from his desk, Devlin Renquist went to join his wife in a forgotten time, to live out his very own happily ever after.

  Second Epilogue

  Present Day, New York City

  Eliza stood outside a brown building, wearing a pair of polar bear fleece pants, a defy gravity hoodie, and a Cruella de Ville t-shirt, with lobster socks stuffed into a pair of oversized boots, shivering in the snow.

  “Bloody Hell,” she muttered, wrapping herself more securely in her own dark blue cloak.

  A car swished past.

  Holding her heart, she spun around.

  A bell rang in the distance—ding, ding, ding, dong.

  Swinging around, she looked down the darkened street.

  Someone with a jarring gait, walked toward her, slowly…

  “Hello,” she called out and then covered her mouth. Sadie’s advice popped in her head. “Do not talk to strangers.”

  “Oh, Bloody Hell! Everyone in this place was a stranger to her.

  Indecisively, she stood there a moment more. Probably, a moment longer than she should have…he was almost to her. A black cat bounded down the stairs darting around her feet.

  She turned back around and screamed.

  KEEP SCROLLING TO TAKE

  A SNEAK PEEK AT MY OTHER SERIES

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  “A defective spell book, a dress with a mind of its own and a date to die for…what could possibly go wrong?

  As a resident of Edenbrooke Hollow, Melody Granger is no stranger to magic or the world beneath the town where zombies inhabit the sewers, but when she acquires a spell book from a charlatan at the local Potions, Broomsticks and Beyond, and her spells start to backfire, she realizes someone may be trying to derail her carefully made plans to join the elite circle within her coven.

  As for the mysterious man that has suddenly shown an interest in her….will he end up being her downfall or the love of her life?

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  The paranormal romance that centers the story and pulls you into its embrace like a lover you had forgotten how much you enjoyed kissing. There is mystery and more than anything there is the need to find out what dark secret lies at the core of it all.

  Briarcliff Township may look like any other town snuggled deep within the forests of the New England coastline but it harbors a dark secret. When the winds change, old stirrings arise from forgotten misdeeds and a thirst for vengeance. Something wicked this way comes…

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  When Paige Walsh attends the annual Highland Games on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina and makes a deal with a Gypsy she has no idea that her illustrious plans to find a Hunky Highlander for her own would backfire and instead of one man wearing a kilt, she somehow ends up in the past facing an entire clan of Hunky Highlanders.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

  Lorraine Beaumont is a #1 Amazon bestseller in Time Travel and #1 International bestselling author of the popular series, Ravenhurst. All of her books are written with an ensemble cast of characters, filled with plenty twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. She writes in several genres. Time Travel Romance, New Adult, Young Adult Dark Urban Fantasy and Contemporary Comical Romance with a Supernatural Twist, and Coming Soon a Mystery Suspense Romance Series that will make your hair stand on end and your pulse jump into overtime and that’s all before your meet Hero of the story.

  She lives in Maryland and is busy writing her next novel. Connect with her online, she loves hearing from her readers.

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