A Common Christmas

by Sue London

  Her silence must have gone on too long because Dibbs gave her a sad smile and then drew his breath to speak. Before he could she said, “That does seem a far better solution.”

  The shock of her acceptance was clear on his face. Then he picked her up in a tight hug and spun her around while the others shouted and clapped. When he set her back down he cupped her face in his hands. “So that’s a yes?” he whispered.

  “Yes,” she whispered back.

  “Luds, Josh,” Whit interrupted. “Am I going to have to point out that you’re standing under mistletoe?”

  Both Grace and Josh looked up to see that there was, in fact, mistletoe hung on the kitchen ceiling above their heads.

  “I didn’t put that there,” Grace said.

  Then Josh was kissing her. A tentative, sweet kiss at first. Just the soft slide of his lips over hers, tasting. Then his hand moved to the back of her head and he began kissing her in earnest, nibbling on her lower lip until she opened her mouth in a gasp. She had never been kissed before, not really. As a sheltered girl from the merchant class who had spent the past ten years caring for her ailing parents, she hadn’t even had the occasion to walk out with a gentleman, much less be kissed. It wasn’t what she had expected, based on the simple buss of lips shared by friends and family. He tasted of brandy and mint. And the feel of his mouth on hers made her pulse race, made her breath short. When he released her lips and looked down at her she realized it was bottomless, falling in love with him. She would never stop.

  *

  Dibbs was a bit embarrassed, making such a spectacle of their engagement and first kiss. Their small audience was still applauding, slapping him on the back, and offering congratulations. Grace seemed to finally notice that everyone’s attention was on them and gave a shy smile before ducking her head. Dibbs looked over at Whit. The sly devil had a self-satisfied smirk. Knowing that the flirtatious valet had stood under the mistletoe with Grace for a good ten minutes without trying to kiss her, even in jest, put Dibbs’ mind to rest. And now she was his. Or she would be his, once the banns were read. Unless he could convince her to marry by special license.

  She looked back up at him. “Happy Christmas, Josh.”

  “The happiest,” he agreed.

  With that, they turned to accept the enthusiastic well wishes from those around them.

  Epilogue

  April 1815

  Grace smoothed the apron over her uniform as she walked back into their quarters. She hated wearing the drab gray and white clothes, stiff with starch. Fortunately she rarely had to. Just whenever her husband was desperately short of help. Or today in order to get a first peek at the new countess. She heard the door open again and turned to see Joshua Dibbs. Her husband. He removed his jacket to hang on the peg near the door and said, “Well, what did you think?”

  Grace smiled. “I think I recognize her.”

  Josh put his arms around her waist and pulled her close. “From where?”

  She was distracted for a moment by his kiss. It always felt deliciously naughty to kiss in the middle of the day. “She’s the one who helped me rescue Bitsie.”

  Hearing her name, the cat rose from the spot of sunshine she had been napping in to purr and rub along their legs.

  “Really?” he said, eyebrows raised in surprise.

  “Truly. I had been trying to get the kitten from the boys and she waded in wielding her bumbershoot like a sword. If it weren’t for her I don’t think I would have succeeded. When I thanked her she just said that her sister loved kittens and would never forgive her if she didn’t help.”

  “I think I have some sympathy for those boys now, or at least the punishment they received.”

  “Indeed,” Grace said, remembering the bruises he had in February when, shortly before the earl had married, his fiancée had fought her way through Dibbs and two footmen with her riding crop before taking her ire out on Gideon himself. The servants had been at a disadvantage, not wanting to harm a lady. Grace had been furious with the future countess at the time, having to see those bruises.

  When the Harringtons arrived today and Gideon set to introducing his wife to the staff, the first thing he did was tell Dibbs drily, “Worry not, I made her leave the riding crops back at Kellington.” The countess had blushed rosily and apologized not only to Dibbs, but the two footmen as well, meaning that she had at least noticed who they were. Grace had felt somewhat mollified by that.

  Josh was distracting her again with sweet kisses on the side of her throat. “So we don’t need to worry that she’ll make a habit of abusing the staff?” she asked.

  He paused in his attentions. “I have suggested to the earl that I don’t want to have to worry about that.”

  Grace had to laugh. She was fairly certain her husband ran a bit of England with his mild suggestions to the earl. When she had admitted to him that what she really wanted was to have her own baking business he had used his connections, and suggestions, to secure a kitchen, obtain staff, and begin a groundswell of interest in her goods. Upon his suggestion the earl had taken a basket of her biscuits to his office at Parliament, each parchment-wrapped packet including a small card with her business name and location on it.

  She had feared that marrying someone from the serving class meant that she would be trapped in service herself. That he would never understand her desire to return to merchanting. But nothing could be further from the truth. She knew that she would be hard pressed to find a husband more supportive of his wife’s endeavors in any class. He had even given over some of his duties to other staff so that he could walk with her to her kitchen each morning. Every day he gave her some reason to fall a bit more in love with him. She decided today it was how he surreptitiously caressed her belly, feeling for whether her pregnancy was evident through her clothes yet. He had been so flustered and delighted the night before when she had put his hand there so that he could feel the tiny bump while they were in bed.

  She kissed his temple and said, “Now that the reception is over I was hoping to change clothes.”

  “Oh, then I can take this off?”

  “Josh, it’s the middle of the day!”

  He sighed. “Cits and their disturbing sense of morality.” He turned her around and began untying her apron with that deft, professional efficiency he had.

  *

  Josh smiled now that his wife’s back was turned. He loved her so much that at times it was almost painful. He was prouder of her business venture than he realized he could be. It had certainly never been something he had considered, marrying a merchant. But now that he had, he found that he thought about her business quite a bit. How to help her, whether she needed anything. He was still diligent in his duties to the household but it was clear to him that he had spent the last ten years in London growing sadder and more withdrawn, focused only on his service to the earl. Now he took time off to squire his wife around to the sights London had to offer. It was like discovering an entirely new city he hadn’t known was outside his door. In January he had even taken her to Kellington to meet his parents.

  He knew that he would do anything for her, would protect and cherish her always. It gave him a guilty pleasure whenever he received updates regarding the ongoing, and ever deeper, investigation that her brother’s apothecary shop was being subjected to based on his recommendation.

  Having removed her dress and at least disrobed her down to her chemise, he pulled her against him and rested his hands on her abdomen. They were going to have the next generation of Dibbs. He couldn’t imagine being any happier. Although she tensed in suspicion at first, she relaxed against him after a moment.

  “You know,” he said softly into her hair, “if we pulled the curtains closed it wouldn’t feel like the middle of the day.”

  “Joshua!”

  He sighed and kissed her shoulder. “It’s just as well. With the Harringtons in residence I should be working now anyway.”

  “Yes, what happened to the work-obsessed man I fe
ll in love with?”

  He hugged her closer. “He fell in love with a beautiful, vivacious woman he can’t keep his hands off of. A woman who changes everyone around her for the better.”

  She turned around and cupped his face in her hands. “Mr. Dibbs, you had no room left for improvement. You’ve always been perfect.”

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  Note: The Haberdashers novels are spicy (explicit)

  Trials of Artemis (Gideon and Jacqueline’s story)

  Athena’s Ordeal (Quincy and Sabrina story)

  Coming Soon:

  Fates for Apate (Casimir and Georgiana’s story)

  The Bittlesworth Boys: Robert (Robert and Imogene’s story)

  Author’s Note

  Hey there! Thanks for reading the first Haberdashers Tale. I had a lot of fun getting to know Gideon’s staff better and hope you did, too. I will always have a soft spot for Josh and Grace. They seem like truly lovely people and will make fabulous parents, don’t you think?

  In these notes I usually tell you all about the research that the characters made me do but there wasn’t as much this time. Partially because the novella was only a quarter the length of a Haberdashers novel, but also because the characters just didn’t push me to look many things up. Grace loves to cook and insisted that I find something like a chocolate mousse for her to prepare. Josh insisted on reciting a piece of a nursery rhyme that wasn’t published until a good five years after this story. He defended the usage by pointing out that’s where they get nursery rhymes to write down, from people saying them. I finally got too tired to argue with him about it.

  Other than that it was just research on word etymology (I swear that my editor Kris can SMELL a word that’s younger than 200 years old), and double-checking that I didn’t counter something that I’d already said in another book. Oh! And in case you didn’t pick it up in context (or already know), the term Cit refers to the merchant class but is somewhat rude. Don’t worry, Josh is just teasing Grace with that one. There’s a handy list of Regency terms online here.

  But mostly this book was just about love. And Christmas. Which was a pretty nice thing to spend time on.

  Come by any time to keep up with the Haberdashers and my other stories at bysuelondon.com. Thanks for reading!