Season's Regency Greetings Read Online Free

blushed, but made no attempt to hide the smile in her eyes. “As you can also imagine, there’s no need to dress up!”
    Smiling now, the housekeeper led her upstairs. “He’s a great one, is Lord Trevor,” she said to Cecilia. “We only wish he came around more often.”
    â€œ I suppose he is quite busy in London,” Cecilia said. “Indeed he is,” the woman replied, “even though I sometimes wonder at the low company he keeps.” She stopped then, remembering her position. “Miss Ambrose, your pupil is across the hall. You’ll hear the bell for dinner.”
    Cecilia decided before dinner that it would be easy to make her excuses the next day when Lord and Lady Falstoke returned, and take the mail coach back to Bath. She would express her concerns about Lucy to the marchioness before she left.
    To her consternation, David looked as glum as his sister when he came into the dining room with Lord Trevor, who carried a letter. The man seated himself and looked at his nieces. “I received a post not twenty minutes ago from your parents,” he said.
    â€œ They’re not coming home tomorrow,” David said. He looked down at his plate.
    â€œ Why ever not?” Janet asked, indignant. “Don’t they know we need them? I mean, really, they took Chambliss with them, and Cook!”
    â€œ Chambliss is our butler,” Lucy whispered to Cecilia.
    â€œ It seems that your older sister needs them more,” Lord Trevor replied, his voice firm. “Do have a little compassion, Janet. They have promised to be here for Christmas. I’ll be staying until they return.”
    Janet turned stricken eyes upon her uncle. “But they are to host Lysander!”
    â€œ Perhaps the earth will continue to orbit the sun if he has to postpone his arrival for a few days,” Lord Trevor remarked dryly. “David, eat your soup.”
    They ate in silence, Lord Trevor obviously reviewing in his mind how this news would change his own plans. Cecilia glanced at Lucy, who whispered, “I will hardly have any time to be with her, before we must return to Bath.”
    â€œ Then the time will be all the more precious, when it comes, my dear,” Cecilia said, thinking of her dear ones in India.
    David began to cry. Head down, he tried to choke back his tears, but they flowed anyway. Lord Trevor looked at him in dismay, then at Cecilia. As sorry as she felt for the little boy, she almost smiled at the desperation on the barrister’s face. You can argue cases for the lowliest in the dockets, she thought, but your nephew’s tears are another matter. She rose from the table. I have absolutely nothing to lose here, she thought. No one should be crying at Christmastime.
    She walked over to David’s chair and knelt at his side. “This is difficult, isn’t it?” she asked him quietly. “I know your mama wishes she were here, too.”
    â€œ She’s only twenty miles away!” Lord Trevor exclaimed, exasperated.
    â€œ It’s a long way, when you’re only—are you six, my dear?” she asked the little boy, who had stopped crying to listen to her. She handed him her napkin.
    â€œ Seven,” he mumbled into the cloth. “I am small for my age.”
    â€œ You know, perhaps we could go belowstairs and ask the cook for ….”
    â€œ Mama never coddles him like that,” Janet said.
    â€œ I would,” Cecilia answered. She looked at Lord Trevor, who was watching her with a smile of appreciation. “Do you mind, sir?”
    â€œ I don’t mind at all,” he replied. “Miss Ambrose, do as you see fit.”
    Cecilia took David downstairs. The second cook beamed at the boy, and suggested a bowl of the rabbit fricassee left from luncheon. In another minute, he was eating. Cecilia sat beside him, and Cook placed a bowl of stew before her, too. “If you don’t mind