Page 15 of A Lesson in Love

When it came to Christmastime dinners, Father’s definition of “festive” was, in essence, “deliciously extensive.” He would be the most enthusiastic about the evening’s invitation, though Clarissa, Lucy’s sister, would be a close second. She loved the games that were almost always played after holiday dinners. Their brother, Charles, shared Lucy’s enthusiasm for greenery gathering and the raucous ridiculousness of Twelfth Night.

Lucy could feel her own excitement bubbling over. She turned to Reed, standing at her side. “Are you equal to a gathering this evening, having been traveling all day?” She hoped he was, but she also didn’t intend to ignore his needs.

“I am,” he said, taking her hand. “You have mentioned the Grahams often enough that I am eager to make their acquaintance.”

“They are wonderful hosts, especially this time of year,” Father said.

“Their gatherings are so very long this time of year,” Mother countered. “The other hostesses in the neighborhood are left with far too little time to plan our own gatherings.”

“Are we planning more than one to be held here with the neighbors?” Amelia, Lucy’s sister-in-law, asked.

Mother shook her head. “One with a guest list, but the rest of our entertainments and traditions are for family.”

Robert, Lucy’s brother-in-law, stood on Reed’s other side. “A bit of good fortune, Reed. We won’t be run off our feet entirely.”

“That will bemyChristmas gift,” Reed said with a teasing grin.

Lucy pressed her free hand to her heart, as if deeply relieved. “That is my bit of good fortune: I can avoid getting you an actual gift.”

Reed lifted her hand to his lips and lightly kissed her fingers. He then slipped away with Robert.

Father pulled Lucy’s arm through his. “We have a plan, dearest, for filling the house with greenery. It will involve anextended hunt for evergreen boughs and mistletoe and holly but will be well worth the effort.”

“Will we be decorating beyond the usual three rooms this year?”

Clarissa nodded eagerly. “All the public rooms, we have decided. And if we find enough, we might even decorate bedchambers. Wouldn’t that be delightful?”

Mother overheard and gave Father a look of horror that held just enough amusement to take off any true edge of criticism. “This ‘extended hunt’ could take hours and hours.”

“All the better,” Charles declared.

Amelia and Robert moved to stand beside Mother. They were creating a united front.

“Not everyone wishes to spend an entire day out in the cold snipping branches and climbing ladders,” Amelia said.

“It is a tradition,” Charles insisted.

“The tradition is a brief greenery hunt,” Amelia insisted. “If you wish to make it such an enormous undertaking, you will have to do so short-handed.”

“You will refuse to participate?” Clarissa’s tone turned just the tiniest bit defiant.

Lucy’s eyes darted to Reed, who was watching this exchange with a look of misgiving that matched what she was feeling. His gaze met hers and, rather than look frustrated or exhausted with yet another bit of head-butting among her otherwise lovely family, he winked at her.

He stepped forward and faced Father with an air of almost ridiculous theatricality.

“I will not be deterred, old man.” Reed’s tone matched his posturing. “Resign yourself. You will not reduce our Christmas to a battleground akin to the one we barely survived in London.” He tugged Lucy away from her father and spun her into his embrace. “Never fear, my lady, I have come to rescue you fromthis place of Yuletide disagreements. We will flee where’er we must to escape the battle brewing before us.”

Lucy giggled, recognizing his dramatic speech from his “rescue” of her from her family’s London home, adapted in that moment for their current situation.

That her family also began laughing told her that they, too, understood what Reed was pointing out and the ultimatum tucked underneath it.

“We will behave,” Mother insisted. “No battles, we promise.”

“Shall we believe them, my love?” Reed asked Lucy, keeping her tucked in his arms.

“I think we should, darling.”

Father’s good-natured grin relieved the last whispers of tension in the room. “Reed and Lucy might be the most newly married among us, but we all know perfectly well that they are more than willing to teach the lot of us a much-needed lesson in love.”