Page 28 of The Earl's Christmas Deal
Adam, who was trying to place a candle in his basket and finding it too large, looked up at that and frowned at her.
“Really?” he asked, looking astonished. And then, more quietly. “I am the same.”
Emilia breathed out, realising how grateful she was that he had not asked herwhyshe did not like the festive season; he had just empathised with her feelings.
“I loved Christmas when I was a child,” she added, “and it is usually a joyful time, but lately it has felt a little…”
“Hollow,” he finished for her, and Emilia felt something loosen in her chest.
“Yes. Exactly. I think this year is the first where I have felt the seasonal joys I once did. It is, I am sure, having so many guests in the house and everything looking so festive.”
“Do you know that Lord Spencer said the same to me before I came here? I confessthatI was not sure if I should attend. I am not always the most jovial company at this time of year. But he was right. He told me I might feel Christmas cheer simply by being around others.”
Those blue-green eyes found hers and there was such intensity within them that she was unable to look away.
“I have never been so grateful that he encouraged me to come.”
Emilia pulled in a shallow breath as they both reached across the table to retrieve their items. Their fingers alighted upon the same object and an electric charge seemed to snap where their skin touched. Adam cleared his throat, moving his own hand away and giving her a nod as she took the item in question.
Emilia fought to conceal the fact that her hands were shaking violently.
Across the room, Lionel was watching his cousin with excitement bubbling in his chest. He had not seen Adam speak to anyone so intimately since Anastasia’s death, and he had great hopes for the match.
“Miss Fairfax, you are quite outdoing yourself with your basket. You are making me look quite inept.”
Charlotte looked at his rather forlorn offering and cocked her head to one side. “Isn’t it dreadful?” he said with false melancholy. Charlotte’s basket was beautifulandperfectly ordered. Even the colors were exactly as they should be, an array of reds, golds, and greens. It positively exuded Christmas. Somehow, Lionel had managed to make his own basket look entirely brown.
“It just needs some ribbon around the edges. Here, we shall swap, and I shall do a little tinkering with your basket if you allow me.”
“Pray, take it away from me. I should sooner give it to a dog than to the poor. None of them would want it.”
She laughed and began to wind a gold ribbon around the wicker at the edges without comment.
Charlotte was enjoying herself enormously. Lionel was already halfway through the book of poems and confessed to her that he had not been able to put it down until late into thenight. His reaction had been similar to her own. He read the poems several times through and found new meaning in them every time he did.
Something about him reading the book she had suggested in his bed into the early hours sent a thrill of forbidden pleasure through her.
His basket was not so very bad, just a little haphazard in its style, and as she rectified it, she glanced at Emilia. Her friend and Lord Bellebrook were still talking in low voices with one another, Emilia no doubt conscious of keeping herself distant from him at all times.
Charlotte was very pleased to see her making a connection away from the influence of the duke. She wondered if she might devise an insult so appalling that the duke would leave the house in disgust. Smiling at the thought, she allowed herself to hope that something might blossom between Lord Bellebrook and Emilia.
“I have not seen Adam so open for many months,” Lionel commented, surprising her as she turned to him. She raised her eyebrows as though she did not understand to what he referred, and he gave her a knowing smile that made him look even more handsome than he already was. “Christmas can be a trying time. I am simply glad he has ventured out of his study and found someone with whom he can converse who is not me or his aunt. We were growing very tired of him.”
Charlotte really did laugh then, and as she presented his basket back to him, Lord Spencer exclaimed to no limited degree that she was a ‘marvellous creature,’ and she felt herself blush up to her hairline at the praise.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” came Lord Sternwood’s voice from the back of the room. “Spillikins!”
There were many exclamations from the group as the baskets were moved to the side in their completed state. Manyseemed relieved that they would not have to make any more, and Lionel was very much among their number.
Emilia and Adam preceded them into the drawing room where Spillikins had been set up for them all to play. Lionel enjoyed the game but had not played it for some time.
A number of sticks had been poured onto a table where the guests all gathered. Lionel felt anticipation run through him as he brushed against Miss Fairfax, who was already looking at the game with an analytical eye.
“Shall we be a pair?” he asked innocently.
Lionel was many things, but he was not a coward. He had had some dalliances with women in the past, but he had never met anyone like Charlotte Fairfax. Increasingly he was beginning to think that he should make his intentions known. Life was too short, as his father would say, to let the chances slip by without grabbing them with both hands.
“Why yes!” Miss Fairfax replied and bent over the tableas they strategised on the best stick to choose. The game was simple in its construction—each pair would try to remove a stick without jostling or dislodging any of the others. It was fiendishly difficult towards the end when the majority of the sticks were placed in the centre.
