Christmas Delights by Heather Hiestand Read Free Book Online Page B

missed were the hats, both fashionable and military. Next into view were the faces up-tilted in laughter. Then, as she reached the bottom, the costumes became more obvious. The obligatory Tudors, the fantastic military display of lobsterback coats. The eighteenth-century gentlemen, with their falls of lace, and rotund women in the evening dress of early in this century that so admirably cloaked size. She knew, for she had worn those costumes herself during her engagement, while Sir Humphrey had gone about dressed in his admiral grandfather’s black tricorn atop a regular modern evening suit, since he refused to wear a costume. He had been a stolid, unimaginative man, very proper and most kind. She could not imagine how her father’s businesses would have thrived under him, except that he might have been able to bind excellent employees to him by his sheer goodness, if he had the presence of mind to hire correctly.
    While she had been visiting graying memories, her slipper-clad feet had reached the marble floor. All came into sharp relief again: the laughter, the music, the bright colors. Should she be ashamed to be here in her pretty white and green costume? Sir Humphrey had been proper, true, but he had known he was robbing her as he died. He would not grudge her a little masked fun so long after his death. Blast Queen Victoria anyway, for making mourning such a state of desirability.
    Her father stepped down behind her. She turned to ask him whether he wanted to go into the ballroom, the dining room, or the game room, when a girl with long, flowing blond hair, clad in a mid-sixteenth-century gown embroidered with seed pearls at the bodice stopped in front of her. With a red wig, she might have been a young Queen Elizabeth. Instead, Victoria recognized Rose Redcake, waving a dance card, her mask tied around her neck instead of covering her eyes.
    “I saved one for you,” she said, a little out of breath. “Where have you been? I thought you would be one of the first to arrive, since you are staying here.”
    Victoria took the card with a smile and tied it around her wrist. “Father, this is Rose Redcake.”
    Her father bowed slightly, causing his wig to slip down over his eyebrows.
    Victoria laughed and helped him right it. Rose laughed, too, then put her hand to her mouth and coughed.
    “Suffering from the aftereffects of a cold, Miss Redcake?” her father inquired.
    “No, sir, I am well.”
    Her father nodded, but Rose colored and looked at her slippered feet. A path through the crowd opened, and Victoria saw a trio of broad-shouldered, dark-haired young giants, full of masculine energy. Rose followed her gaze and turned, her own expression darkening.
    “Who are they?” Victoria asked.
    “The Dickondell brothers. That is Clement, Ernest, and Sam; he’s the youngest, younger than we are.”
    “Clement is unwed?” Victoria asked, eyeing the man who was clearly the eldest brother, in his late twenties, with just the faint touch of creases around his eyes.
    “He is not adverse to flirtation, but I am not convinced that he does not have his heart set on his cousin Maud. She is nineteen now, so I do not understand why he hasn’t spoken for her.”
    “Does she have any money?”
    “Not that I’m aware of, but that can’t be it. I have an excellent dowry and he hasn’t shown me any special attention,” Rose said.
    “His parents may disagree with his desired match, and his heart has not reconciled him to that,” said Victoria’s father.
    “You speak with authority on the matter,” Rose said.
    “I saw it work so with my brother,” he said.
    “Did he ever marry?” Rose asked.
    “Yes, to the woman our parents wanted for him.”
    “It ended well?”
    “He is speaking of Penelope’s parents,” Victoria said.
    “Oh, has she been orphaned?” Rose asked, missing the nuances of the situation.
    Mr. Courtnay shook his head. “No, but she is with us for a time.”
    Victoria hadn’t known the match had