by Diane Allen
‘What do you expect? It’s been the year from hell. It is only fitting that we end it on a high note – or should that be a low note? Did you know about Danny’s affair and that he had a son?’ James looked at his wife and noticed how shaken she seemed.
‘Yes, I’ve always know about his love for Amy Brown. He nearly didn’t marry Harriet because of her. Poor Harriet, she doesn’t deserve all this worry.’ Isabelle stopped short as Jane, Luke and Rosie came to join them both.
‘Rosie, are you alright? Would you like to stay with us at Windfell tonight? I know it’s Christmas Eve, but perhaps your mother and father might appreciate you staying here. Ethan would be more than welcome to stay with his mother and father tonight – I’m sure Mazy would like that. You can see him first thing in the morning and then go back with him to Crummock in the evening.’ Isabelle’s eyes had been opened; it didn’t matter about your standing in the world; it was love for one another that mattered.
‘I don’t know, I’ll see. Ethan has taken my mother home, along with my grandfather. It seemed only right that he took her home. I should have gone with her, but Grandpapa said I had to stay here and wait for my father. Ethan’s father will take us back to Crummock, when my father is ready.’ Rosie looked at her cousin Jane and Luke, and for once they looked sympathetically at her.
‘Well, this must have been a shock for you, too. A brother you knew nothing about, being made so public. Your poor mother was distraught. Now, if you do stay, I’m sure you will be able to find a few presents under the tree with your name on. Won’t she, Jane?’ Isabelle gave her daughter a knowing look, to acknowledge that what was to have been hers might have to be reallocated.
‘Yes, of course, and you can help me out by listening to the boring conversations about the cadet school at Giggleswick with this one.’ Jane glanced at her brother and put her arm around her cousin. ‘I didn’t know who he was, Rosie, else I wouldn’t have invited him. I didn’t mean any harm.’
‘I know. It’s just been a shock to my poor mama.’ Rosie glanced over at the closed drawing-room doors.
‘Don’t worry, Rosie. Your father still loves you just as much. Your mother will calm down, and life will carry on as normal.’ Isabelle kissed her niece’s brow as she tried to ease the worry that the night had caused.
‘It’s very strange to find out that I’ve got a big brother I knew nothing about.’ Rosie smiled.
‘Well, at least you haven’t been fluttering your eyelashes at him like I have all night. I had no idea who he really was.’ Jane looked at her mother.
‘That’s typical of you. No more sense than the day you were born on,’ Luke teased his sister. ‘Desperate – that’s what you were!’
‘Why, you cheeky devil!’ Jane scalped her brother with her hand. ‘Come on, let’s go outside and get a bit of fresh air. It will stop all these folk from looking at us as if we are exhibits in a showground.’ She looked at her mother and father.
‘Christmas sky tonight, let’s see if Saint Nick is on his way.’ James laughed, for the magic of Christmas could not be forgotten.
‘I hope he’s put his hand in his pocket this year. Nuts and sweets are alright, but I wouldn’t mind a surprise or two.’ Luke grinned.
‘You’ll get what you are given,’ said Isabelle. ‘Now go on, get some fresh air while we make sure all’s calmed down among our guests.’ Isabelle watched as the three of them walked arm-in-arm out of the ballroom and hallway into the winter’s evening.
‘They are growing up, James. They are no longer children.’ She sighed.
‘I know, and I fear for their futures. We can but be here for them. We can’t tell what 1914 will bring, but if it’s anything like this last one, we are all going to have to be strong.’ James kissed Isabelle, before stepping out with her on his arm to mingle with their guests. War was coming, of that he was sure. But for tonight he would try and forget, and would be there for his family.
‘Just look at those stars.’ Jane looked up to the star-studded sky. ‘Listen, you can hear the church bells in Settle.’
All three children looked up at the sky over Windfell.
‘I hope my mother and father will be alright, and that the appearance of Daniel Bland does not cause even more upset in the family.’
‘I know. Let’s make a wish all together, a Christmas wish to the stars – as Father said, it’s bound to come true.’ Jane put her arm around Rosie.
‘I know what I’m going to wish for. My red star, so that I can become an officer,’ said Luke as he closed his eyes and made his wish.
‘Shush . . . you shouldn’t tell us,’ Rosie said, as she closed her eyes and wished for herself and Ethan to be allowed to wed, and for peace at home.
‘Well, I’m not telling you mine, but it is hopefully going to come true, if I have my way.’ Jane closed her eyes and thought of Daniel Bland, despite the scandal he had brought with him.
All three stood on the gate leading to Windfell Manor, lost in their thoughts, until Danny’s voice was heard calling down the drive.
‘Rosie! Rosie, come here and meet Daniel.’
Rosie breathed in deeply. She looked at her cousins and didn’t say a word as she walked back up the drive to her father and the tall blond-haired young man she now knew to be her brother.
‘Rosie, this is Daniel. Although he has a different mother from you, he is my son and your brother, and I want you to make him welcome in our home.’ Danny put his arm around his precious daughter and looked at Daniel.
‘Hello, Rosie. I’ve always wanted a sister, and now I have one.’ Daniel smiled at her.
Rosie looked up at his open face. He was the image of her father – a father she loved so dearly. She wanted to vent her wrath on him for being unfaithful to her mother, and then she remembered her own love and passion for Ethan. She could have been like Daniel’s mother: alone and pregnant and desperate to find a father for her child, if she had not lost her baby. She thought of the fear and the scandal there could have been. She bowed her head and then lifted it to look at her new brother.
‘Welcome to our family, Daniel. A big brother for Christmas – now that’s different. Better than any present I could have wished for. Happy Christmas, Brother.’ She linked her arm through Daniel’s and her father’s, and looked towards where Ethan stood waiting with the horses to take them home. Ethan was the main love of her life, the one whose love made her strong. Unlike her father, she would marry her wild rover, regardless of the scandal. She knew that her Christmas wish would come true.
30
‘Harriet, I love only you, and have done since the day we met. My fling with Amy Brown was just that. We both were young and stupid. I knew you were the only one for me, but she was just too much of a temptation.’ Danny lay next to his wife as she sobbed, with the bedclothes pulled up around her.
‘But you have a son, and you have brought him home! How am I supposed to feel and deal with that?’ Harriet turned and faced her husband with tear-filled eyes.
‘I’d hope you would deal with it like you always do with our children. I know he’s not yours, but he is mine. My son, who I’ve just found. And by the sound of it, he has had a very bad deal in life up until now.’ Danny sighed as he held his wife close to him.
‘Do you think I care about his upbringing? I hated Amy Brown and everything she stood for – she was wild and uncaring, while my mother always groomed me to behave like a lady, to find a good man and settle down. But just as I had done so, Amy came along and stole you from me, albeit just for a brief time. She deserved all she got. At least your firstborn is alive, while mine are dead in the grave and I will never see them again.’
‘Oh, Harriet, we can’t do anything about the past. I loved our sons, too, but we must look to the future. We have both gained a son tonight – if you let Daniel into your heart. He’s not come to make any bother. His grandfather’s left him Ragged Hall. He’ll not ask anything of us, except recognition of him as my son.’
Ha
rriet looked up at the husband she loved. It was true that she could not alter the past, and she had always known about Danny’s affair with Amy, so a child from the dalliance should not come as a shock. ‘It was the way I found out – I made such a fool of myself. I was more worried about Rosie and Ethan dancing together, and then Isabelle looked at me like I was mad, not realizing I knew nothing of Daniel Bland’s presence.’
‘Surprisingly, Isabelle handled it well, and so did James. However, I wish Daniel’s arrival into the family could have been a little less public.’ Danny smiled. ‘On the way back home, he and Rosie talked as if they had known one another all their lives.’ He ran his fingers through Harriet’s long hair and kissed her brow. ‘Forgive me, and make our black sheep welcome into our fold.’
Harriet nodded her head, before turning over in bed and keeping her thoughts to herself. Daniel was Danny’s son, and she would grow to love him. In the morning another two places would be laid at the Christmas dinner table: one for Ethan and one for Daniel. Her family was complete once again. They would celebrate Christmas with the living, and would look to the future.
Archie lay in his bed with the bright moon shining down through his bedroom window, the ghostly ribbons of light illuminating the room and making him unable to sleep. It was his first Christmas without his beloved Charlotte next to him. He thought of her laughter, and of her love of Christmas and her family. What would she have made of Daniel’s appearance? he wondered. He pulled the blankets up over him, trying to keep warm against the hard frost that was being laid down in the outside world.
‘God bless, and happy Christmas, Charlotte, my love,’ he whispered as he closed his eyes and dreamed of Christmases past, and of the love that he and Charlotte had shared. ‘One in, one out,’ he muttered as he drifted off to sleep, thinking of Daniel sitting at the Christmas table. What the future held, they would have to wait and see, but whatever it was, he knew he’d never love another like his Lottie.
‘Noel: Christmas Eve 1913’
by Robert Seymour Bridges
A frosty Christmas Eve
when the stars where shining
Fared I forth alone
where westward falls the hill,
And from many a village
in the water’d valley
Distant music reach’d me
peals of bells aringing:
The constellated sounds
ran sprinkling on earth’s floor
As the dark vault above
with stars was spangled o’er.
Then sped my thoughts to keep
that first Christmas of all
When the shepherds watching
by their folds ere the dawn
Heard music in the fields
and marvelling could not tell
Whether it were angels
or the bright stars singing.
Now blessed be the tow’rs
that crown England so fair
That stand up strong in prayer
unto God for our souls
Blessed be their founders
(said I) an’ our country folk
Who are ringing for Christ
in the belfries to-night
With arms lifted to clutch
the rattling ropes that race
Into the dark above
and the mad romping din.
But to me heard afar
it was starry music
Angels’ song, comforting
as the comfort of Christ
When he spake tenderly
to his sorrowful flock:
The old words came to me
by the riches of time
Mellow’d and transfigured
as I stood on the hill
Heark’ning in the aspect
of th’ eternal silence.
Diane Allen was born in Leeds, but raised at her family’s farm deep in the Yorkshire Dales. After working as a glass engraver, raising a family and looking after an ill father, she found her true niche in life, joining a large-print publishing firm in 1990. She now concentrates on her writing full time, and has recently been made Honorary Vice President of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
Diane and her husband Ronnie live in Long Preston, in the Yorkshire Dales, and have two children and four beautiful grandchildren.
By Diane Allen
For the Sake of Her Family
For a Mother’s Sins
For a Father’s Pride
Like Father, Like Son
The Mistress of Windfell Manor
The Windfell Family Secrets
Daughter of the Dales
First published 2018 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2018 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-9518-1
Copyright © Diane Allen 2018
Cover images: Girl © Gordon Crabb, background © Shutterstock.
Author photograph © Linda Nash
The right of Diane Allen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred to in or on this book.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.