Page 15 of Once Upon a Gilded Christmas (To All The Earls I’ve Loved Before #4)

As wonderful as the news was, Edward and Honora agreed not to mention anything until after the end of the Christmas party.

Edward didn’t mind. Honora had come back to him.

While Lady Hammond would be over the moon that her clumsy matchmaking event had resulted in a match, really, it was for the young that she’d thrown this party.

Let the young have their fun.

Alas, for them, by the time the other guests rose, most of the snow had melted into unfavourable slush, not much fun for admiring or playing in.

As a result, everyone chose to remain inside, as Lady Hammond had arranged for more activities—flirtations thinly disguised as “games”.

First up for the morning: a scavenger hunt of sorts, with everyone to be paired up. Lady Hammond had summoned them all—parents included—to the hall. One by one young ladies drew slips of paper from a hat. Each slip had the name of a young man.

Lady Marian, the hostess' daughter, was the first to draw out a name.

Her brow furrowed as she puzzled out the name scrawled on the slip of paper.

"Oh," she declared, realisation dawning on her.

"It says Clifton." This brought some good- natured jibes from the other young men, as Lord Clifton was pushed forward.

No embarrassment on his part as he held out his arm for her.

She studied his arm the way she had studied his name on the paper before taking it.

Next, Lady Juliana. She drew a slip of paper, opened it, read it, then let out a sound of disgust. "Kendall Russell."

It wasn't her reaction to his eldest son's name that bothered Edward; he had seen that coming. It was the reaction of the rest of the room. As soon as Kendall's name was read out, all the other young ladies breathed a sigh of relief.

Poor Kendall. What had he done to earn their distance?

Immediately Lady Juliana rolled her eyes and loudly offered to swap with Lady Marian. Lady Marian took one glance at Kendall and refused. Her arm tightened about Lord Clifton's. "I am quite content with my selection."

It was as if the all-clear had been sounded.

The other young ladies rushed forward, drawing names from the bowl.

While there were some groans—Bertram Ashburton didn't elicit much enthusiasm from his companion Lady Lucy—none of them were as bad as Juliana's response.

Even when begged to swap, Ashburton's companion turned Juliana's offer down.

Even the Ashburton lad was preferable to Edward's boy amongst the lasses.

That stung. Edward would give half his fortune to know their reasoning.

Jacob's name was called out. Seems Lady Frances lucked out. The way her bosom bounced as she clapped over her success lifted Edward's heart somewhat. Interesting.

Juliana came over to her mother, the young lady's hands full of jewellery.

"Please hold this?" She dumped two bracelets and three rings into her bemused mother's hands.

Lady Juliana reached up and unfastened the pendant at her throat.

This she also deposited in her mother's hands, followed by two earrings, leaving herself quite unaccoutred.

"Seems I won't need any of this," she said, with some bitterness.

Honora's reply: "I'm sorry, love." Her hands curled about the fine items. "Good luck. Behave yourself."

Juliana did not reply. She squared her shoulders and returned to the crowd. There was something different in how she moved

"What was that?" Edward asked.

Honora sighed, then opened her hands to take inventory of Juliana's discards. "Charm, Beauty, Affableness, Luck... Oh dear. She could have kept that one at least. Probably should have kept Affableness as well."

At first Edward was baffled. "You mean, that's all her charmed jewels?"

Honora turned a large, liquid gaze on Edward that made his heart melt. "All that she wore today." Another soft sigh escaped her ruby lips. "She had not expected to be paired with Kendall."

The tilt of her head made Edward want to gather her up, kiss her and tell her that everything would be all right. She didn't have to worry about anything, now that Edward was there. He reached up a hand to one of her steel-grey curls. "You're so lovely..."

To his surprise, Honora laughed. She held up the handful of rings and bracelets. "No, my charms are strong."

He blinked. The jewellery...

She continued, "Well, yes, I am lovely, but..." She batted her eyelashes at him in a most coquettish manner. "I don't mind if you find me Youthful and Fresh as well."

Her humour appealed to him. Goodness, that magic in her hand must be strong. "I should go put these away," she mused.

He caught her arm as she moved away from him. "No. I don't mind." He felt a little shy asking this, but, "You can keep them. Really." Right now she was the most beautiful creature in the room, outshining even the loveliest of the fresh young ladies.

And she'd agreed to marry him! Could any man on this earth be more fortunate?

She laid one of her soft, gentle hands on his arm. "Edward, not once have I ever used any charms on you, at least, not deliberately."

"I know. The first time I saw you, you divested yourself just like Juliana did. Didn't stop me from falling in love the moment you stormed into the library, angry at Lord Charles."

Her jaw dropped, only adding to her charm. "I was not angry at Lord Charles."

"Fed up with him, maybe."

She tilted her head. Ah, her neck was so lovely. "Maybe fed up with the party."

He enclosed her cupped hands with his. "But you stayed.

And you talked with me. You didn't try to win me over, or even behave like a proper young lady.

You were yourself, and I loved you for it.

" He couldn't help it. Edward bent forward and planted a kiss on the tip of her nose. It seemed like the best thing to do.

To his surprise, Honora squirmed out of his grasp and deposited Juliana's stash onto the nearest chair.

The glamour faded. His tunnel vision receded and while he saw Honora in all her middle-aged truthfulness, to be honest, it still lifted his heart. He took her face in his hands. "I still love you. Always have."

He kissed her. He kissed her like he wanted to kiss her that first evening. Gentle, loving, and pouring his entire heart into it. Theirs was not a passionate kiss, that might preclude more intimate activities, but a promise that his heart belonged to her entirely.

After his lips parted from hers, a smile spread across her face. No magic could ever compete with the light that illuminated his heart now. "Always will," he completed his promise.

"I love you too."

Once all the youth had been sorted into their pairs, for better or worse, Lady Hammond clapped her hands for attention.

"Each pair are given a card. Upon this card is written a room name.

Once you have reached that room, you will find a clue.

From this clue you are to identify the item in the room of which it describes.

Once you find that, note the item on your card.

With the item will be the name of your next room.

And thus you follow the clues and the rooms, identifying each item.

First pair to complete their card with accuracy will be declared the winners. "

Several of the young ladies giggled at this prospect. "I hope we win," Lady Frances gushed to Jacob. He only grunted as he studied the card Lady Hammond had handed to him. "This says, 'Parlour'," he announced, possibly louder than she should have.

Kendall perked up. "Parlour, did you say?" He strode off. Juliana hastened after him, grabbing at his sleeve. "Where are you going? We don't start at the parlour."

Kendall leered at her. "But we can get ahead. Obviously the parlour is one of the rooms on the hunt." He pulled his arm out of Juliana's grasp.

All the other young folk consulted their cards in a quieter manner, then slipped away, some through the front door. Interesting, Edward thought. It appeared the game was not limited to the inside of the house.

"But we don't know if it's the next room. For all we know, it'll be next to last. What about all the other rooms before it?" She snatched the card from Kendall's hand, read the room's name with a quick glance, and stalked up the stairs.

Kendall threw up his hands, muttered something about stubborn women and chased after her.

Edward wanted to go after him, but what would he say? He turned to Honora. "Will they be all right?"

She shook her head. "Maybe we should go after them."

Edward clutched at her arm. "Kendall wouldn't harm Juliana." If he did, Edward would have more than words to apply to Kendall's backside, should he be anything less than the gentleman he raised him to be.

"It's not Juliana I'm worried about."

Lady Hammond clapped her hands once more.

"Speaking of the parlour," this elicited some amusement from the remaining parents, "I have provided for refreshment, if you would like to join me.

This will give you a front row to some of the fun.

Otherwise, you are welcome to roam and watch the game from the other rooms."

As much as a cup of tea and a nice biscuit would be welcome, Edward read Honora's face. It was best to follow Kendall and Juliana, lest Kendall learn first-hand that the fairer sex weren't always that fair when it came to war.

Honora worried her lip between her teeth.

Yes, Kendall was being a bit of a boor. Didn't explain Juliana's initial disgust of him, though it did explain why she wasn't going to sweeten to him any time soon.

Still, it mattered that her daughter was letting this young man get so much under her skin.

Absolutely not would there ever be a romantic attachment between these two, not that she and Edward had returned to each other, but they were to be siblings.

Some level of civility was expected between them, especially as they were now adults, and such things were expected of sibling adults, even if they could have been terrors to each other as children.

As she and Edward hurried from the hall into a deserted corridor, they realised they had no idea what any of the rooms for the game were. "Where could they have gone?" Edward asked.

Honora thought about that. "Solar, upstairs?"

For lack of a better idea, that's where they went.

Sure enough, the solar was one of the rooms. On the door a small card had been nailed, with a little rhyming couplet:

"While outside I'm ten feet tall,

When in here, I am quite small."

She and Edward read it several times, coming up with nothing. He looked to her, shaking his head in defeat.

The entered the room, but no young couples lurked. "Not this room," Honora admitted. "Where else?"

But Edward was looking about the solar.

This was a lovely room for the afternoon, its windows looking westward over the garden.

The curtains had been drawn open to let in the natural light.

Alas, it also let in the natural chill, in spite of a cheery fire.

Not quite the same angle as was visible from their bedroom, but still a lovely view nonetheless.

The large french doors opened to a small terrace where one could sit outside if the weather was clement.

"Tall outside," he mused, "but small inside." He looked about, hands behind his back. "If we can decipher the clue, we'll find out the next room to look."

Honora's fingers itched to pull the curtains closed to conserve the heat, but them being open might be part of the clue. As she looked out the window for anything that might be tall, Edward looked about the room.

"Oh," he declared, almost immediately. "The Laundry."

"The Laundry?" Honora turned from the window to find Edward gazing at a small picture of sunflowers.

He pointed to a small card stuck to the frame. "Says Laundry here."

Honora hesitated. "Isn't that... Downstairs?"

"Probably." Edward smiled at her. "If I wasn't so concerned over the children, I'd say maybe we should stay here." He reached for her hand. "I'm sure we could find something to keep us occupied." Removing her glove, he pressed his lips to her bare skin.

She couldn't help but smile. "Are you tempting me?"

His eyes twinkled. "Could I?"

She let out a small whimper before laying her forehead against his chest. That whimper turned into a small laugh. "I'm sure they'll be all right, right?"