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Loved The Summer Seekers? Keep reading for a sneak preview of The Christmas Escape, the captivating new Christmas novel from USA TODAY bestselling author Sarah Morgan!
The Christmas Escape
by Sarah Morgan
1
ROBYN
She hadn’t dared hope that this might happen.
Someone less cynical might have thought of it as a Christmas miracle, but Robyn no longer believed in miracles. She was terrified, but layered under the terror was a seam of something else. Hope. The kaleidoscope of emotions inside her matched the swirl and shimmer of color in the sky. Here in Swedish Lapland, north of the Arctic Circle, the unpolluted skies and clear winter nights made for frequent sightings of the Northern Lights.
She heard the door open behind her, heard the soft crunch of footsteps on deep snow, and then felt Erik’s arms slide around her.
“Come inside. It’s cold.”
“One more minute. I need to think.”
And she’d always done her best thinking here, in this wild land where nature dominated, where a human felt insignificant beneath the expanse of pink-tinted sky. Everything she’d ever done that was foolish, selfish, risky or embarrassing, shrank in importance. Because this place didn’t care.
Trees bowed under the weight of new snow, its surface glistening with delicate threads of silver and blue. The cold numbed her cheeks and froze her eyelashes, but she noticed only the beauty. She instinctively wanted to reach for her camera, even though she already had multiple images of the same scene.
She’d come here to escape from everything she was and everything she’d done, and had fallen in love with the place and the man. It turned out that you could reinvent yourself if you moved far enough away from everyone who knew you.
Erik pulled the hood of her down jacket further over her head. “If you’re thinking of the past, then don’t.”
How could she not?
Robyn the rebel.
Her old self felt unfamiliar now. It was like looking at an old photo and not recognizing yourself. Who was that woman?
“I can’t believe she’s coming here. She was three years old when I last saw her.”
Her niece. Her sister’s child.
She remembered a small, smiling cherub with rosy cheeks and curly blond hair. She remembered innocence and acceptance and the fleeting hope of a fresh start—before Robyn had ruined it, the way she’d ruined everything back then. It had been a compulsion, a reckless determination to test the boundaries and see how far she could go.
Was family love unconditional?
Turned out it wasn’t, and she’d gone too far. Her sister had forbidden her ever to make contact again. “Stay away from me.”
There had been no room for Robyn in her sister’s perfect little family unit. Even now, so many years later, remembering that last encounter still made her feel shaky and sick. She tried to imagine the child as a woman. Was she like her mother? Whenever Robyn thought about her sister, her feelings became confused. Love. Hate. Envy. Irritation. She hadn’t known it was possible to feel every possible emotion within a single relationship.
Elizabeth had been the golden girl. The perfect princess and, for a little while at least, her best friend in the world.
Time had eased the pain from agony to ache.
All links had remained broken—until that email had arrived.
“Why did she get in touch now, after so long? She’s thirty. Grown.”
Part of her wanted to celebrate, but life had taught her to be cautious, and she knew this wasn’t a simple reunion. What if her niece was looking for answers? And what if she didn’t like what she heard?
