Page 88 of The Duke Who Saved Christmas
The majestic door swung open almost as soon as we hit the bottom step. “Thomas—Sylvie!” Emily said, shock etched into her features. “What are you doing here? Out there, even? Goodness me, get inside. You look absolutely frozen. Thomas, where is your car? Why are you running up the driveway like a couple of teenagers who’ve snuck out a bedroom window to a party?”
“Mum, would you let us in?” Thomas asked, ushering me ahead of him with one hand on the small of my back. “We’re going to freeze to death soon.”
“Of course, of course.” Emily shuffled herself out of the way. “Get in here, you silly things. Thomas, is that a pig in your coat?” She looked at me. “Why is there a pig in his coat?”
“It’s Nana’s pet pig,” I replied slowly, loosening my scarf from around my face. My skin tingled as the warmth inside prickled at my cheeks. “We found her under a tree.”
Emily shut the door behind him and waved a hand in the direction of someone, squinting at the pig. “Goodness, so it is. Whatever is she doing here?”
“No idea. She tends to escape and go off on her jollies like a cat, and I’m guessing the weather came in before she could get home.”
Emily touched a hand to her chest. “Lizzie, do you know where Jeremy is?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the younger woman replied. “He’s in the staff kitchen.”
“Could you please ask him to come to the living room? Beatrix will need some food and warmth before she’s to go to the barn.” Emily turned back to me as the younger woman hurried off. “Don’t worry. Jeremy is our farmhand—Beatrix will be perfectly safe and warm in the barn with the other animals. He just cleaned it this morning in preparation for them being inside for a few days, and we have a small, secure stall she can sleep in alone.”
Well, that was better than where I was expecting her to end up, which was on my bed.
I nodded, still shaking with the cold, and Thomas turned at the sound of another pair of footsteps. I’d barely jerked my head around to look when Emily took hold of me and started fussing over me in a motherly way I hadn’t felt in so long.
“Whatever happened? Last I knew he was delivering the trees for your sister’s wedding. What are you doing here?”
As she busied herself with relieving me of all my outerwear, I explained everything that had happened from us getting the trees sorted to Gramps’ car breaking down and Thomas parking his in the ditch at the side of the road.
She requested someone bring us a pot or two of hot tea and ushered us both into the living room where she proceeded to plonk our bums on the floor in front of a roaring open fire.
Honestly, I was too cold to argue, and I think Thomas was, too, although he did shoot me an amused look when Emily bustled over with two blankets and tossed one in his lap but carefully wrapped the other around my shoulders.
“I’ll call your grandmother and let her know where you are—and the pig.” Emily patted my shoulder.
“Would you make sure they’re all right, too?” I asked softly. “I don’t want to be here comfortable if they’re not.”
“Of course, sweetheart. I’ll be right back.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – SYLVIE
Thomas eyed me with a tinge of curiosity. “Do you think their power might be out?”
“I don’t know. It’s gone out before in lesser storms,” I replied, clutching the blanket tighter around me. At least I wasn’t going to freeze to death anymore, but that didn’t stop me being worried.
“They’ll be fine. We’re usually the first to lose power given how old the wiring is in this place. If we have it, most of the houses in the outer area of the village will.” He shuffled across the rug to a little closer to me and the fire. “And I know your grandma keeps the pig in the house, but she’ll be fine in the barn.”
“Oh, I’m not mad about that at all. I was half afraid she’d end up in my bed, if I’m honest.”
The young woman from earlier—I’d already forgotten her name—set a tea tray down on the coffee table closest to us. “Can I pour you both some tea?”
“Don’t worry, Lizzie,” Thomas said, shrugging off his blanket. “I’ll do it. You aren’t working.”
“I don’t mind, my lord,” she replied.
Wow.
That was weird.
I knew Thomas was a duke, of course, and I’d always known that he had some form of household staff—an estate as large as the Castleton estate simply required it—but I’d never quite put it all together into one.
My lord.
