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Cara swallowed around the lump filling her throat. She was so touched. “That means a great deal to me,” she said softly.
“The chain was my grandmother’s,” Emma added. “It’s a Victorian piece, and it’s from all of us. You’ve been absolutely wonderful and we hope you won’t forget us.”
Cara’s eyes burned as she lifted the key to study the intricate design. The key was solid, heavy, and the necklace was beautiful. “I don’t know what to say. This is… wonderful, and thoughtful.” The lump in her throat was making it hard to talk. She loved the key and necklace, loved that she was taking home a bit of Langley Park, and was touched that Emma would give her a Sherbourne family necklace, but the gift felt so much like a farewell gift, and she wasn’t ready to say goodbye.
Chapter Thirteen
Alec did thebreakfast dishes with Cara, and even though Uncle Frederick had offered to help, Alec encouraged his uncle to find a comfortable chair and read the new mystery novel he’d just gotten from Alec.
“It’s the newest in a mystery series Uncle Frederick enjoys,” Alec said to Cara as they washed and dried the dishes together. “Uncle Frederick is a big mystery reader.”
“Are you going to go read, too?” she asked him as they finished the last of the dishes.
“Is that a bad thing?” he asked.
She smiled. “No.”
He hung the damp towel on a towel bar. “What are you going to do?”
“Put the turkey in the oven and then see if the aunts need help, and if they don’t, I might take a little nap.” She smothered a yawn. “The champagne has made me sleepy.”
“You can always come nap in the library. Your snoring won’t bother me.”
Cara grabbed the dish towel he’d just hung up and snapped him with it. “I don’t snore!”
But she was laughing and then he was dancing away from her, and then returning, his arm going around her waist, bringing her close.
“How do you know you don’t snore?” he asked, his head dropping, his mouth hovering just above hers.
“Because girls don’t snore,” she said demurely. “And my sister would have told me. Ella and I always shared a room growing up.”
He kissed her then, a deep, delicious, intoxicating kiss that made her head spin and her heart slow, every nerve tingling with pleasure. Every time he kissed her, she fell a little harder, and kissing him now, made her emotions even stronger. She didn’t want the kiss to end, and when he put a hand low on her back, holding her to him, she looped her arms around his neck, her body pressed to his, and the sensation of being hip to hip, breast to chest, was so good, so electric, she lost complete track of place and time.
Cara had no idea how long they were kissing, and touching, but the vigorous step of Aunt Emma followed by the aunts’ voices brought her back to the present. Cara stumbled back, while Alec managed to look calm and collected even as the aunts faced them.
“Everything okay in here?” Dorothy said, trying unsuccessfully to hide her smile.
“Just checking on the turkey,” Cara said unsteadily.
“And how is it?” Emma asked.
“Hot,” Alec answered, with a wink in Cara’s direction.
Cara was mortified. Her cheeks burned and she went to the sink, washed her hands while Alec chatted with the aunts a moment before saying he was going to call Mrs. Johnson and see if he couldn’t find out where the Christmas pudding might be. Then he walked out, and Cara, still embarrassed, looked for the foil so she could cover the turkey.
The aunts were doing something and she concentrated on tenting the foil over the big bird, shaping it as her mother always did. Once the turkey was back in the oven Cara waited for one of the aunts to comment on what they did, or didn’t, see, but neither said anything. Instead, they discussed what would go inthe oven when, and what needed to be started first, and since it was a huge stove with six burners and two ovens, the scheduling of everything was far easier.
Emma’s phone rang and she glanced at the number, and then stepped into the hall to take the call. She was only gone a few minutes but she looked quite pleased when she returned.
“You’ll never guess who that was,” Emma said to Dorothy.
Dorothy had been stirring the cranberries on the stove. “Who?”
“Elizabeth.”
“Elizabeth who?”
“Alec’s Elizabeth. Lady Elizabeth.”
