Page 24 of Snowdrops and Winterberry
“I suspected as much.”
She raised herself on her toes and brushed a kiss to his cheek. The rat-a-tat rhythm of his heart picked up pace. He stood as still as a tree on a breezeless day, not by choice but out of sheer shock. He’d not expected such a tender gesture. Even less expected was how much he enjoyed it.
Robbie spun his blanket off her shoulders and slipped quickly from the carriage house and out into the rain, leaving him behind with his whirling thoughts.
Those lofty thoughts he’d had before her arrival hadn’t disappeared in the least. Rather, they’d grown into cloud-built castles, and he hadn’t the first idea what to do about it.
Chapter Eleven
Everyone at Brier Hill wasbeing very strange. Adam usually spent his afternoons with someone, but Nurse Robbie had insisted he stay in his guest bedchamber and read a book. He didn’t mind reading; he’d always liked it. He found he liked it even more knowing that Lady Jonquil was also fond of reading.
But he didn’t want to be reading just now. He wanted to be with the others, which was a new thing for him. Adam was like his father in that way: he enjoyed quiet. Father had often said as much, and he was never ashamed that the two of them liked to keep to themselves.
“I require people,” Mother had once said to his father.
But dukes didn’t need people. Father had taught him that.
Why, then, did he want so badly to be with the rest of the Brier Hill household?
He climbed off his chair and walked over to the window. This window didn’t look out on the mountain he’d walked on with Lord Jonquil, but it did offer a view of the front of the estate. It was pretty. A little breeze was making the branches on the trees sway, and there were lots of flowers. Adam liked Brier Hill. He hoped Nurse Robbie was right, that Lord and Lady Jonquil would invite them to come back again. He and Nurse Robbie would be very happy to visit over and over.
The door to the room opened. He turned and looked, unsure who it would be.
Nurse Robbie stood in the doorway. She smiled at him. She’d been happier since they’d come to Brier Hill. Nurse Robbie should always come with him when he visited here. Then they would be happy together. It was the perfect arrangement.
“Come with me, wee Adam. We’ve something wonderful waiting for you.”
“What is it?” he asked.
She shook her head, smiling all the broader. “I’ll nae tell you. You have to come and discover for yourself.”
He stood firm. “I don’t like to be surprised.”
Nurse Robbie held her hand out to him. “I know you don’t, but sometimes life is surprising. This will be good practice.”
He supposed she was right about that. Life did surprise him sometimes, usually unpleasantly.
With the firmly set shoulders and very serious mouth he’d seen his father use, Adam walked through the door. Nurse Robbie dropped her hand away. He felt bad about that. She was always trying to hold his hand. But he wasn’t a little boy anymore. He was a duke. Dukes didn’t hold people’s hands.
They walked together to the stairs and down to the ground floor. Nurse Robbie motioned for him to go into the sitting room where they always gathered after supper each night. He stepped inside.
The room was decorated... for Christmas. Pine boughs rested on the mantelpiece above the fireplace. An evergreen wreath hung on a wall. Arrangements of other branches and flowers in the colors and jolliness of the holy season filled the room. There were even presents.
“I don’t understand,” he said.
“You missed Christmas,” Lady Jonquil said. “You ought not to miss Christmas.”
Adam looked up at Nurse Robbie, hoping she would explain further.
“When Lord and Lady Jonquil heard you’d not been at home for the Christmas festivities, they determined we’d have a Christmas celebration here, now.”
He looked back at his host and hostess. They looked eager and enthusiastic. Nurse Robbie seemed excited at the idea of Christmas in April. Mr. Simpkin was there as well, which wouldnot have been Adam’s preference. But his heart was starting to swell up with the idea of Christmas, and he was too pleased to even mind Mr. Simpkin being there.
“Is it to be a true Christmastime celebration, with stories and wassail and such?” He held his breath for the answer.
“Of course,” Lord Jonquil said quickly and eagerly. “We can play any and all games we wish. We can sing songs and tell stories. Cook has made wassail since Nurse Robbie told us that is a favorite at Falstone Castle. We also have ginger biscuits because those are a favorite of Lady Jonquil’s.”
Adam turned to her. “I didn’t know that.”
