Chapter Five
On The Fifth Day of Christmas
My True Love Gave to Me
Sweet Breathless Moments
Adriana lingered several feet away from the bustling scene. In the great room, the tree towered over ten feet, decked with gold and crystal ornaments as well as simple wood cuts, nuts, and winter flowers.
Though a maid was assigned the task of watching the candles, they weren’t lit so early in the morning and rare winter sunlight spilled through the tall windows on the east side of the room, bathing them all in a cheery glow.
Alexander’s guests buzzed about the tree and the table laden with evergreens, tea, and breakfast foods. Her own stomach rumbled. She’d slept far too late to risk the chance of eating her morning fare. Now, she glanced with jealousy at the guests, plates and cups in their hands, laughing merrily as they ate their fill of ham, sausages, toast, scones, and tea.
Georgiana sat by the tree, her blue eyes bright as she studied the presents still unopened. She’d already unwrapped three gifts from Father Christmas, the soft white wrapping and red velvet bows cocooning her. The sight warmed Adriana’s heart, pushing back the familiar sadness that Christmas usually brought.
“You have the strangest look upon your countenance.”
Adriana’s heart thrilled at the sound of the duke’s deep but slightly rough voice purring in her ear. She glanced back over her shoulder, her body alight with the sudden nearness of him. “I’m simply glad Georgiana is so happy.”
He circled around her, those dark eyes of his focused on her, searching. “I don’t believe that is all, but I shan’t push.”
“There really is nothing to push about.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Do I look a fool?” He paused. “Don’t answer that. You’ve certainly treated me as a fool this year.”
Adriana winced. “Your Grace…”
He raised one of his strong, broad hands. “Let us not war on such a glorious morning. Christmas is my favorite season, after all, and I do not wish for discord.”
Her initial temptation to argue died quickly as she noticed the boyish glee lighting his face. Somehow, his hair had come free of its usually groomed pomade, and his eyes positively gleamed with excitement.
What could it be like to grow up loving this season? She’d never known any sort of happiness during Christmas until she’d come to Highburn, and then she’d approached the holiday with a wariness of one who couldn’t quite believe the celebrations were real. In fact, she often felt as though she were waiting for the general merriment to descend into violent chaos as her childhood Christmases had when her parents had imbibed in too much gin.
“Would you care to open your present?”
She blinked. She’d begun last year, just before Christmas, and had received a gift from him, but then it was given to her when he distributed the staff presents. “I—”
“Of course you do,” he teased. “What lady doesn’t long for a present?”
“It is generally safer not to expect such things,” she found herself saying.
He sobered. “You do not have a great experience of them, then?”
She allowed her silence to be her answer, having given the duke far too much knowledge of herself already.
“We must change that,” he said gently, then lightly took her by the arm and led her to the tree.
She could hardly breathe, but the scent of evergreen filled the air with its tangy, wintery scent. She focused on it and not the light brush of his fingertips over her sleeve. My God, if she allowed herself, she’d be transported to the emotions of the night before.
“Are you flushed?” he asked, concern altering his tone.
She let her gaze wander up to meet his, and she couldn’t keep her thoughts at bay. As if he could read every sinful image, he stilled, his eyes darkening with heat.
The room dimmed, the voices grew quiet, and even the bright colors of the ladies’ frocks seemed to fade to nothing as they gazed into each other’s eyes.
Something tugged at her hand, and she blinked. Georgiana jerked on her hand again. “Miss Grey? You look funny.”
Mortified to be caught staring at the duke in such a fashion, Adriana cleared her throat and crouched beside Georgiana. “Now, you tell me which present is your favorite.”
“Oh no, Miss Grey,” the duke intoned as he knelt beside them, a shocking display of powerful, muscular limbs folding as he attempted to meet them at eye level. “You shall not be let off so easily.”
She peered at him, lost. “I beg your pardon?”
“Your present.”
She felt herself blush, her cheeks hot under his close attention. She had indeed hoped he would forget and let her get on with looking after Georgiana. For all she had instigated this seduction, she found that in the light of day, she had no idea how to be herself; she’d been Miss Grey for so long. Besides, in front of his guests, she still appeared the demure governess.
The duke pulled his daughter over to him and hugged her small body to his broad chest. “Don’t you believe it is Miss Grey’s turn?”
Georgiana nodded emphatically. “She has been very good this year, so she deserves a very nice present.”
Adriana laughed. “Why thank you, my dear Georgiana. I am so glad you approve.”
The little girl beamed.
Alexander reached beneath the branches of the tree and slipped out a thick parcel wrapped in white cloth and decked with a green velvet ribbon. He held onto it for a moment as if considering, then he passed it to her. “Happy Christmas.”
Adriana took the present, and her eyes flared at the weight. She allowed the package to rest in her lap, staring at it, wondering how this was possible. Alexander knew she was a fraud. A liar. And yet, here she was with a present. There was absolutely no need for that. And there was nothing particularly seductive about sitting in front of so many of his guests. With his daughter standing before him, this felt like an intimate family moment and her heart squeezed with longing. If only Georgiana were her daughter. If only Alexander were her husband. They’d be a proper family, and every Christmas morning for the rest of her life would feel like this one.
But she wouldn’t allow herself to contemplate what might have been. She’d long ago abandoned the fantasy that her grandfather, the earl, would swoop in and rescue her, giving her the life all little girls dream of.
“Open it,” cried Georgiana impatiently.
Steadying her hands, Adriana pulled at the velvet ribbon then slid the tissue away. As she grasped the stack of expensive parchment, her mouth dried with awe. Hundreds of pages of paper, expensive, thick vellum, weighed her hands down and on top, tied carefully to the bundle, were two quills, their nibs perfect and durable. “How?”
“They were my mother’s.” He stared quite seriously, then added, “Not the paper, the quills. And I thought you would use them as they deserve.”
Her breath hitched in her throat. She traced her fingers over the delicately carved teak quills. His mother’s? That hardly seemed an appropriate gift for a woman like herself.
“Paper?” questioned Georgiana. “Does that mean you were naughty or nice? I would have thought you’d get a doll at least.”
Adriana leaned forward and kissed Georgiana’s cheek. “You are sweet, but this paper is as good as any doll to me.”
Georgiana’s nose wrinkled. “Truly?”
“You see,” Alexander said, circling his arms about his daughter’s waist, “Miss Fl—” He pressed his lips together, a look of frustration crossing his features. “Miss Grey is a storyteller.”
“I know that,” Georgiana said factually, looking up at her father with adoring eyes. “She tells me stories every night.”
“Does she?” Alexander asked, his voice full of appropriate awe.
Georgiana nibbled her lower lip, then stared from Adriana to her father. “You should let Miss Grey tell you stories. She’s very good at it.”
Adriana winced.
The duke laughed, a deep, booming sound that drew the attention of several of his guests, but he ignored them. “Miss Grey has told me many marvelous and fantastical tales.”
A rueful grin tugged at her lips, and Adriana looked down at her present. Despite the strangeness of it all, she could hardly contain the happiness rattling around inside of her as her fingers curled around her bundle. He must have put the present under the tree after they’d come in from the oak grove. She had trouble believing he’d given her such a gift when he’d been contemplating giving her the sack. And yet, the present was incredibly intimate, one very personal to her.
What had happened last night that encouraged him to do something so special? In all her life, she’d never received such a present. Her parents had always forgotten or been too poor to buy her gifts, and once she’d become an adult, there had been no one who might bestow such a thing on her. That this man, a man she’d unscrupulously lied to in order to secure her position, was now so kind, filled her with immense gratitude and awe.
Was this what Christmas was supposed to feel like?
Tears stung her eyes. Horrified, she blinked several times. She couldn’t let him see how something like this could affect her.
“Miss Grey, are you crying?” Georgiana asked.
Adriana laughed to hide her embarrassment and lifted her hand to delicately dab against her eyes. “’Tis just the tree. It makes my eyes water.”
Alexander stared down at her silently.
She smiled at him, a genuine smile that she couldn’t hold back. “Thank you, Your Grace.”
“It wasn’t His Grace,” Georgiana said. “It was Father Christmas.”
And in that brief moment, she recalled that Georgiana didn’t know this man was her father. And in the same way, she would never be able to reveal the way her heart had begun to beat for him. As kind as he seemed in this moment, she could not fool herself into believing this was a romance or a love affair. His Grace had nearly evicted her the night before, and she could never be anything more than a trumped-up guttersnipe in his eyes.
At best, a woman for his pleasure. At worst, a woman of scandal.
And yet, the present in her hands seemed to speak otherwise.
“Beresford,” someone called.
Alexander didn’t look away and a line had formed between his brows, as though he sensed her sudden distress and wished to ease it.
“Your Grace,” the same woman called. “Whatever are you doing?”
Suddenly, three ladies and two gentlemen surrounded them. The guests sashayed over, boxing them in with no escape, the tree behind them.
Adriana fought a grimace as skirts of yellow, pink, and sea green swung about her. A pair of well-polished boots stepped perilously close to her own skirts.
“Whatever is so fascinating?” one of the ladies trilled.
“Surely not your governess,” another said.
“Well, she is quite a pretty piece for such a drab position,” one of the gentlemen drawled.
“Haverston,” tutted the first woman. “Don’t be shocking.”
“Just pointing out the obvious reason for His Grace’s lingering,” retorted Haverston.
Alexander tensed, his broad shoulders suddenly hard as the granite that studded the moors. He gently put Georgiana away from him and stood to his full height, which left him almost a head taller than his male guests.
At six feet and a few inches, he was the most intimidating man in the room. Perhaps in the county. “Did you have something to say, Haverston?”
“Of course not, Berresford.” The older man’s face bore the lines and wear of a man who liked his brandy backed up. “But don’t you think we should add to the revels?”
The ladies fluttered their fans, glancing with wide eyes between the two men.
Alexander raised a dark brow in answer.
Haverston leaned toward the lady wearing the yellow silk gown and murmured, “Don’t you think we should have some extra entertainment?”
The lady batted her mousy lashes. “Of course. One can always use more entertainment.”
“What did you have in mind?” asked Alexander.
Haverston glanced down at Adriana, his brown eyes alight with a vicious sort of mirth.
Adriana’s stomach tightened. She knew eyes like this man’s. Haverston was the sort who viewed anyone beneath his station as a thing. A thing to be used or made fun of for his pleasure. It was tempting to stand up and run from the room, but she was trapped with Georgiana lacing her little fingers into hers.
The little girl clearly sensed something wasn’t right and pressed toward Adriana.
Haverston’s lips pursed in a self-satisfied smile. “Why don’t we make your little governess the Queen of Christmas?”
The ladies gasped, first in shock, and then they began to titter with laughter.
The color drained out of Adriana’s face.
Alexander narrowed his gaze and began to speak but then stopped. A slow smile pulled at his lips as he gazed down at her. “That sounds like a splendid idea. Queen Anna until Twelfth Night.”
With his proclamation, Haverston clapped his hands together and the ladies giggled with delight.
And she, Adriana, couldn’t wait to get him on his own. So that she could murder him. Christmas or no.