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“You keep me busy all night long, mare.” He slapped her bottom as she swirled passed him. “Show me this cake.”
The sugar-coated fruit cake was on a platter in the middle of the dining table. Mrs Smythe had done herself proud, he agreed. “Shall we slice it?”
He picked up the knife but got no further. Risley charged into the room with Rupert yapping at his heels. “’Tis a carriage, sir. Coming up the drive.”
Jenny ran to the window and let out a cry of alarm. “It’s my grandmother’s coach and grooms. Oh, gracious, we have been discovered.”
Elias lay the knife down and buttoned up his jacket. He rearranged his cravat and ran his fingers through his uncombed hair. Taking her shaking hand, he led her into the hallway. Outside the front door, the coach pulled up, and the groom was lowering the steps.
“Let me speak,” he said to her.
In the rush of excitement, he now knew exactly what he had to do. There was no shame in being forthright and determined. He had disobeyed orders to save lives, and this time, he intended to stand his ground and insist on marrying the woman he loved. Damn protocols and etiquette. He would give them all up for Jenny.
888
Jenny felt sick. The nausea and sense of foreboding worsened when both her grandmother—clutching her horn—and aunt stepped out of the carriage, their pale faces wearing grim expressions. Kitty stomped up the stairs and ignored Risley, who held the door open for her.
“Young man, what have you done with my niece?” she demanded of Elias.
Jenny stepped out of the shadows. “I’m here, Aunt Kitty.”
Susannah lifted her horn to her ear. “Speak up! Why have you lied to me, child?”
Jenny stamped her foot. “I am not a child. I am twenty-one next week.”
“Then explain why your aunt arrived at my house this morning, having been at her son and daughter’s house since Christmas day, expecting to find you at home.”
“I…I…” Jenny blustered. “I’ve been here,” she ended feebly.
Kitty circled the hall and stopped in front of a red-faced Elias. “Here, with you, Lieutenant?”
He nodded. “Since St Stephen’s Day.”
She gasped. “The whole twelve days of Christmas?”
Jenny stood between them and clasped her hands together. “Oh, please, Auntie. Nobody knows. We kept it a secret. I’m in love with Elias.”
“You hardly know the man,” Susannah hollered.
Jenny crossed the space to her grandmother. “But I do. I do,” she implored.
Elias straightened his back. “I admit I allowed Jenny to write to you and concoct a lie. I accept full responsibility for our misdeeds.”
Susannah waved her horn at him. “You are a dishonourable man.”
“I would beg to differ, Mrs Templeton. And if you will join
me in the sitting room, I shall reassure you I have your granddaughter’s best interests at heart and a solution to the situation.”
Kitty and Susannah glanced at each other, and their frowns deepened.
Kitty shook her head. “It is too late for explanations. Jenny, you’ll leave immediately.”
Her heart could not beat any louder. This was it. There was nothing to do but disobey her family and be spurned.
Behind her back, Elias moved and placed his hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “The mistletoe.”
Hanging from the main entrance was the only mistletoe in the house. Jenny had hung it there the day after she had arrived in the hope it might create a little festive atmosphere. Elias took her hand and drew her underneath it. He lowered his mouth, and she rose on tiptoe to meet it. Her aunt gasped as they engaged in a protracted kiss of passion, a display of mutual affection that nobody surely could imagine was false. Only when she ran out of breath did he release her.
