Peter and the children suddenly arrived, saving Mary from having to reply. The older children's faces were alight with delight. Mary's daughter was still a little subdued as she didn't understand yet that she was about to open presents.
Holding out her hands, Mary called her daughter to her, "Jess, come see Mommy."
The little girl squealed with delight and squirmed out of her father's arms. She then teetered over as fast as she could. As big as Mary had gotten with her pregnancy, she could no longer pick up her daughter and hold her on her lap. But she could hold her against her side.
Once the little girl had gotten settled beside her, Mary kissed the top of her curly black head and beamed at her husband. Against all the odds, this magnificent man had fallen in love with her just as she was. He had also fallen in love with their beautiful daughter. Six months after their marriage he had followed through on his promise, and the two of them had adopted Mary Jessica as their own daughter.
God had answered all her prayers. He had given her the man of her dreams and a child to love. And if Jess and the others would hurry up and open their presents, she knew he was about to answer another one of her prayers and give her another child to love.
"Peter," she huffed out as she held up her hand. He took it in his and squeezed. "Do you think the children can open their presence now? Because I believe I have a present of my own that needs to be delivered too."
At one-minute past midnight, on Christmas morning, Rhyd Charles Michael Hendricks, Earl of Danfort and the future Ninth Duke of Rollens, was born.
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THE END
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Author’s Notes
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I am blessed that I get to combine two of my loves writing my novels and doing historical research. When doing research for this book, I discovered wonderful facts about the place I wanted to set this story in, and about some of the people I decided to use in it.
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Alnwick Castle is a real place. The first part of the castle was built in 1096 by Baron Alnwick. It sits in Northumberland, and for years during its history, it changed hands between Scotland and England during the years of war between the two countries. It is still the home of the Duke of Northumberland as it was at the time of my story.
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The Hulne Priory is also real. It was founded in the 13th century by the Carmelites of Whitefaiars’ and it sits on the north side of the River Aln. For me, this was too good not to use as a place where Mary would have gone to for prayer, while thinking about Peter’s proposal of marriage. The “Old Scottish ruins” and the “magical pond” in my story are not real. I took the legend of the magical spring in France and moved to a fictious location between the Priory and Alnwick castle.
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James Smithson was also real, who lived at the time of this story. He was the illegitimate son of Hugh Percy, the 1st Duke of Northumberland and the widow Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie. He was born in secret in Paris, France in 1765, and was named Jacques-Louis Macie. When his mother took him back to England, his name was anglicized to James Louis Maris. Later he changed his surname to Smithson, that of his biological father’s, prior to the duke’s marriage. Thus, he became James Smithson. In his will, he left his money to his nephew, and then to the United States, if his nephew had no children to pass the money to. He stipulated that if that happened, that the money was to be used to found an educational institution and to be named the Smithsonian Intuition. And just like Peter in my story, he was an English scientist; a chemist and mineralogist.
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Another real person I included in this story is Baron Percy, the son of the 2nd Duke of Northumberland. In my story I showed Baron Percy opposing a bill his father was supposedly sponsoring in the House of Lords. Normally an heir is not a part of the House of Lords while his father is still alive. However, during my research, I discovered that Hugh Percy (the 3rd Duke of Northumberland) was called to the House of Lords by a wit of acceleration in 1812, and styled as Baron Percy. Politically Baron Percy was a Tory and his father, the 2nd Duke of Northumberland, was a Whig. Which I found interesting and used in my fictional story as a reason why the 2nd Duke of Northumberland might call a stratagem meeting with my hero and other Whigs.
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The first women allowed to attend college did not occur until 1868. But I decided that my forward-thinking women and their supportive husbands could have thought about funding such a thing fifty-three before the first women were permitted to attend university. Unfortunately, the bill Peter was sponsoring in my story would have failed. However, I see no reason why Mary, Katie and Jenn couldn’t have all dreamed of such a thing fifty years before the first women were able to win the right to do so. And as their husbands loved and supported them, I see no reason why my heroes wouldn’t wish to support their wives and sponsor a bill to create a women’s college more than fifty years ahead of history.
Other Books by Julianna Hughes
Book #1, Fallen Angels series,
To Save a Guardian Angel
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RELEASED September 29, 2018
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Book #2, Fallen Angels NOVELLA series (a Christmas Novella)
The Christmas Promise
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RELEASED November 23, 2018
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COMING IN 2019
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Book #2, in the Fallen Angels series
To Save a Fallen Angel
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Scheduled for release February 2019
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Book #3, in the Fallen Angels NOVELLA series
The Earl’s Night of Being Wild
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Scheduled for release April 2019
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Julianna Hughes is a retired police sergeant who has spent her life creating romantic stories about pirates and heroic women who are powerful and capable of saving the men they love. After more than thirty years in law enforcement she is now sharing her thrilling and romantic stories with the world.
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The Christmas Promise (The Fallen Angels NOVELLA series Book 2) Page 13