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She had no idea if Angela approved or disapproved.

“Um, you wanted to see me?” she prodded.

“I did,” Angela finally responded. “And I’m happy to see that you are still a pretty thing, even when you don’t put much effort into your looks.”

Holly’s mouth popped open at Lady Angela’s outrageous comment, and she couldn’t work out if she should be flattered or insulted.

“Thank you?” she offered by way of answer. Then, when Angela remained silent, she tried again. “Was there a reason I was needed here this morning, my lady?” she asked.

“Yes, there was.”

Spinning around at the sound of a male voice behind her, Holly’s heart stuttered at the sight of Evan, tall and unbearably handsome in a hunter green riding jacket and black breeches.

“Merry Christmas, my lady.” He bowed, all formality. But the sparkle in his eye was pure mischief.

“I enlisted Lady Angela’s help in getting you here this morning. I didn’t think it would be appropriate for me to send for you.”

“N-no, indeed it wouldn’t,” she managed to stammer.

Why she felt nervous, Holly couldn’t have said. But she did.

“I wondered if you might join me on a walk in the gardens, Lady Holly?” he asked.

“Oh, well I – “

“She will,” Angela said abruptly, rising from her seat. “I didn’t drag myself out of a warm, comfortable bed at the crack of dawn just to have her refuse to go with you.”

She turned to glare at Holly, her expression almost accusatory.

“She will join you, and she will allow herself to enjoy this day,” she finished firmly before bustling past them both and without another word, sweeping from the room.

“You don’t have to,” Evan said into the silence, but he sounded uncertain and Holly couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, really?” She quirked a brow. “Doyouwant to tell her that we didn’t listen to her?”

“Not on your life,” he answered swiftly enough to have Holly giggling. “Let’s get out of here then, lest she come back to check on us.”

He held out a hand, and it was only when Holly moved to take it that she noticed a large basket in the other one.

He moved them to the doors that lead to the balcony around the ground floor of the manor and then down the steps to the garden.

A sense of anticipation hung in the air, and Holly realised that her stomach was fluttering with excitement, just as it had during Christmases of old. Just as it used to before she’d given up on Christmas.

* * *

Evan couldn’t quite believe the pleasure he felt in the simple act of having Holly’s hand in his own as they walked through the gardens.

A part of him wanted to blurt out things he wasn’t sure she was ready to hear, but he managed to keep it in check.

Today, his plan was nothing more than to give her the happy Christmas she’d been missing since her mother’s passing.

Just that.

He just wanted to make her happy.

He’d realised last night, as he’d watched her dance and chat and laugh, that her happiness had somehow become incredibly important to him.

And he would have told her so if he’d gotten the chance.