Christmas Brides (Three Regency Novellas) (25 page)

"Don't forget to bring the rugs," Jeremy cautioned as they were led from the stable.

Neither she nor her husband spoke on the way back to Farley. She was so utterly content, she was not aware of the cold anymore. Nothing had ever affected her as profoundly as riding beside this man she so admired. So loved. How fortunate would be the woman he would select to share his life with.

* * *

Elizabeth was to discover that in the Tate family the gathering of greenery was limited to women and children. Susan had informed her that their husbands were in the billiard parlor.

Elizabeth felt ever so shabby in her faded red cloak next the real Lady Broxbourne whose cloak was trimmed in ermine, just as Elizabeth had surmised. Susan's was almost identical to her mother's, and the two youngest sisters wore velvet capes that were lined with a soft white fur she had never before seen. Each of them looked exquisite. And Elizabeth felt as attractive as a chimneysweep.

Jeremy had brought around both the large sleigh and the small one. "Come with me," Susan said to Elizabeth. "I'll drive the big one, and you can sit beside me. Mama will sit in the back with the children on her lap."

Sarah and Diana hopped onto the small sleigh, and they all took off for the holly bower just south of the folly. As Susan drove the pair of matched grays, Elizabeth faced backward to watch Fanny. Lady Broxbourne had Fanny on her right knee and Tommy on her left. Their smiling faces bracing against the wind, each of them wore woolen mittens, thick wool coats, and bright red mufflers. Their grandmother had spread the rug over their laps and that of Robbie, who sat beside her.

When they reached the holly bower, the dowager demonstrated to the children how to snap off useful pieces of Christmas greenery.

Fanny attempted to listen to her grandmother, but she had no idea of what they were trying to accomplish. She was most interested in the little red balls. She snapped one off and went to put it in her mouth.

"Oh, no, no," Lady Broxbourne said, removing it from her mouth and throwing it away.

"No, no," Fanny said, snapping off another and throwing it the ground.

Elizabeth smiled to herself as Harry's mother carefully explained to Fanny what they were doing. Susan and Tommy went ahead a bit and began to collect boughs.

"Why do you not look for some pine cones, Robbie?" his grandmother suggested.

He scurried off.

Elizabeth once again felt as useless as a third leg, but she was overjoyed that Lady Broxbourne was accepting Fanny so thoroughly.

It was obvious that Fanny belonged at Farley Manor, obvious that she adored her cousins, and they seemed taken with her, too. Elizabeth could not have hoped for Fanny to have received a more hearty welcome.

She set about gathering some larger pieces of holly to augment the meager snatches Tommy and Fanny were gathering.

She heard Robbie exclaim as he began to chase as black kitten that scurried off away from him toward the folly.

She knew there was no way a five-year-old lad could catch the speedier cat, but she wished he could for she knew Fanny would love to hold the kitten.

A minute later she thought she heard a child's cry. Her heartbeat thumped. She dropped her greenery and straightened up instantly from bending over a bush, her gaze arrowing straight to Fanny. Fanny was fine. Her little face was screwed up with great seriousness as she concentrated on her task of severing a limb of holly.

Elizabeth gathered the greenery she had dropped and began to return to her task when she heard a second cry. This one of desperation.

This time she knew something was wrong with Robbie, and she started for the folly.

From some distance behind her, Elizabeth heard Susan's strangled cry. "Robbie! Robbie!"

"This way!" Elizabeth said, racing off toward the direction of the child's cries. As soon as she broke free of the bower, she realized what must have happened.

Robbie had broken through the ice and fallen into the icy lake.

"Go for a rope!" Elizabeth instructed as she sped forward.

Within the sea of stark white snow, all she could see was a tiny hand waving.

From fifty yards behind her, she heard Susan's anguish. "Oh, my God, he's fallen in the lake!"

Elizabeth knew if the thin ice could not support a five-year-old child, it would not support them. She threw off her heavy woolen cloak. She was the best hope of saving the child since she was easily the smallest adult. And her father had made sure she knew how to swim. If she could just get to him in time, she could tread water, holding him, until someone could toss them a rope and pull them away.

 She ran as fast as her legs could propel her, and when she got to within twenty feet of the child—now she could see the top of his dark head as it plunged beneath the surface of the frigid water—she lay on the ice and began to slither toward the break in the ice in order to better distribute her weight.

The cold shocked her system. Pain pulsed from the outside in. Her flesh felt as if it were burning. She began to shiver uncontrollably.

She kept watching the hole in the ice, the place where she'd last seen his tiny hand as it plunged beneath the water's surface.

"Don't Susan! You're too heavy!" warned Lady Broxbourne. "Let Elizabeth get him. You go for a rope."

"No, I will!" Sarah called. "Be careful Elizabeth."

By now Elizabeth was numb to her own discomfort. Her only thoughts were of getting the boy. He had been underwater for several seconds. She decided speed was more important now than finesse. She put her weight to her knees and went to stand up when the ice cracked, then broke into shards, plunging her beneath the surface.

She flailed about in the water, feeling for Robbie. But she got nothing except for fists of piercingly cold water. She knew she would have to go head first next time. This time she would go against her natural instinct—which was to close her eyes against water—and open them beneath the icy surface of the lake, praying she would be able to see Robbie before it was too late.

Her first plunge, all she saw was blackness. The sheet of ice over the lake kept light from penetrating. Her heartbeat galloped at the same time her stomach sickened. She was not going to find him.

She found the cutaway hole and came up to draw deep waves of air into her exploding lungs before she plunged back underwater again. This time she rocketed herself lower, her arms flailing wildly, praying her hands would come in contact with the precious little boy before it was too late.

Please, God. Please
.

That very second, she felt him. She still could not see him. It was too dark. She enclosed one arm around him and kicked against the heavy water, propelling both of them toward the area of light.

She barely had enough air left in her lungs to make it. Breaking the water's surface, she gulped for air at the same time as she elevated Robbie's lifeless head above hers. He still did not move. "Dear God, no!" she cried.

And that very second, he started coughing.

No sound had ever been more welcome. Now, she could call for that bloody rope! "Help!"

If help did not come soon, both of them would freeze to death. They were half way there already. Her body shivered so savagely, her teeth cut her lips.

Despite her size, her strong legs allowed her to continue treading water with little effort, but her arms were extremely tired from holding Robbie above her shoulders. She couldn't last much longer.

Then she heard Harry's voice.

Chapter 6

He refused to leave her side even though he knew she was not in grave condition. His mother had seen to it that she dressed warmly and stayed beneath the blankets to bring up her body temperature. She'd been in that cold water for so damn long.

For a brief few minutes that afternoon, he'd thought he lost her. He hoped to God he never again had to endure anything as painful as that. During those moments, he lamented that he'd never told her how much she had come to mean to him, never told her he had fallen in love with her. He meant to tell her now.

"I wish your family would quit treating me as if I'm a heroine," she told him as he sat on the edge of her bed, holding her hand.

"First, love, it is not
my
family. It's our family. For better or worse, you're part of us."

There was a knock on her chamber door. "It's Susan. May I come in?"

"Of course," he said.

Sniffling, his eldest sister entered the chamber. His heart went out to her. She'd become hysterical when her firstborn had fallen into the frigid lake. Not only was she paralyzed with fear, but she was likely traumatized by reliving the same horrifying accident from her own youth.

She came straight to the bed. "Oh, Elizabeth, my dearest sister, I had to come and tell you how very glad I am to have you in our family. If it hadn't been for you, I'd have lost my precious Robbie—and no telling how many of us would have perished trying to save him."

Elizabeth shook her head and went to protest, but her husband cut her off.

"She's right, my dear," he said, kissing her hand. "You were the only person in the group who knew how to swim."

"She had such wonderful presence of mind," Susan said.

"How is it," he asked his wife, "you
do
know how to swim? It doesn't seem to be a skill many ladies seem to possess."

"My papa. He must have wanted a son most badly for he was constantly treating me as one does a son." Elizabeth laughed to herself. "I remember him telling me that my ability to swim might save someone's life one day. How is poor little Robbie?"

"He's beneath the blankets, and his teeth are still chattering, but he's going to be just fine. Robert and I are so profoundly grateful to you."

Elizabeth gathered her blue shawl closer around her as a shiver sent her shaking. "I'm ever so grateful that my husband got there in time—and with a rope—to get us out of there."

Susan's gaze flicked to his. "I did not know my dear husband was possessed of such deep emotions. Did you, Broxbourne?"

Though he had known Robert since he was eight years of age, today was the first time he'd ever seen him cry. Tears welled in his own eyes when he thought of losing his own loved one. Elizabeth. "I doubt there was a dry eye there today."

Susan reached out and patted him. "The children—minus Robbie—are going to decorate the drawing room with fresh greenery this evening. We're going to allow Robbie to lie on the sofa near the fire and watch. I would like to request the footmen to place two sofas near the fire, the other for you, my lady."

"Will you feel up to it, love?" he asked Elizabeth, his voice tender.

"I wouldn't miss it."

* * *

Harry's eyes had moistened! How very touching that he loved his nephew so. Since the day she had met him, she had understood that this rugged, privileged man was possessed of a tender heart. And a nobility of spirit. And a generous soul.

She was touched at his concern for her, too. Just when she was feeling as if she were as worthless as ashes in the hearth, he had the ability to make her feel. . . valued? How could that be?

"I'm glad we're finally alone," he said after Susan departed. His husky voice held a note that had not been there before. Not ever.

Truth to tell, she was glad to be alone with him. She would like to imagine this a real marriage, if only for a few moments. What would it be like to allow herself to love him? The very notion sent her heartbeat roaring, her stomach plummeting, and her lower body stirring in a way she had never experienced. She gazed into his black eyes. "Me, too."

He squeezed her hand. "This afternoon, for a few minutes, I thought I'd lost you."

Had she heard him correctly? Her eyes widened. She was afraid to breathe, afraid she might miss his next words because of the roaring of her heart.

"And all I could think of," he continued, his voice low and uneven, "was I never told you how much I . . ." He swallowed. "I love you."

Surely she was dreaming! Or had the depth of her own feelings made her hear what she wanted to hear, not what he really said? She could not remove her eyes—which were now filling with tears—from his. Had he really just said he was in love with her? "You love me?" her voice squeaked like a child's. What a pathetic viscountess she made!

"I think I knew it that morning I left you at St. Clement's, right after we exchanged vows. Walking away from you that day was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Time after time, I picked up my pen to write you, but I thought it would be too cruel to both of us, given my belief that---"

"---that you were going to die." Tears streamed down her face as she squeezed both his hands.

"Now that you've come into my life again," he murmured, "I never want us to separate. I've wanted to be with you every waking minute."

She flung herself into his arms, weeping with joy. "Oh, Harry, my dearest love, I do love you!"

Now that she was enclosed within her husband's arms, she was finally warm.

* * *

His mother was enjoying decorating the drawing room with greenery even more than her two little grandchildren she was supposedly assisting. Why was it, he wondered, her icy countenance melted when she was with the children? He could not have been more pleased at the way she had taken to his precious little Fanny.

What a wonderful home Farley Manor was going to be for her, surrounded by so many who loved her. And soon, he hoped, she would have brothers and sisters. His breath hitched at the memory of how thoroughly he and his wife had loved that afternoon.

"Comfortable, my love?" he asked Elizabeth, who reclined on a sofa, her husband at her side, near the blazing fire.

The glow of the smile on her flawless face could brighten the darkest room. "Never more so."

"Mama!" Fanny ran up to them, excitedly. "Milady says I'm to get a present!" Milady was the name the grandchildren had adopted for his mother.

"That's wonderful," Elizabeth said.

Though he was certainly not impartial, he thought Fanny the loveliest little girl he had ever seen. Her short, dark curls framed a delicate ivory face that was tinged with pink cheeks. Though her dark eyes were his eyes, he did not possess the uncommonly long lashes this beautiful creature did. In the firelight, her hair glistened with a mahogany tint. From her lovely red velvet dress trimmed in white lace, it was obvious Elizabeth spared no expense when dressing Fanny even though she had cut corners with her own wardrobe. He went to set his daughter on his lap.