The Secret Christmas Ciphers Read Online Free

keep his wits about him and be free to travel as required.
    Abigail would be safest not knowing that his seemingly casual lifestyle during the past several months was a cover for his work toward aiding the war effort. Only when his superiors had determined he would be more useful if he were part of a regiment did he ask his father to buy him a commission.
    His father had agreed to buy the commission if Derek would agree to marry Abigail. After all—or so his father claimed—some sort of excuse was required for his finally allowing his only heir to go into the army, and everyone in the neighborhood understood that Abigail’s father was so eager to marry her off, he was offering an unusually generous marriage settlement. While Derek suspected his father’s reasons were much more complex than that, he had agreed for reasons of his own.
    Those reasons, of course, revolved around a combination of guilt and regret that was complicated by his intense feelings for Abigail. He was less sure as to why Abigail had agreed to marry him. She made no secret of the fact that she detested him. Surely the prospect of living with a stepmother was not sufficient reason for her to marry a man she hated.
    But at least they were wed now, and if he lived through the coming months, he was going to devote his full attention to earning his wife’s regard.
    And if he did not live, well then, Abigail would be left a virgin widow free to seek love elsewhere.

 
     
    Chapter Two
     
     
    The log Derek had thrown on the fire had almost burned itself out before Abigail got her emotions under control and managed to stop crying. She hated the enmity between them, but she’d far rather Derek dislike her than that he pity her, so she was determined to continue pretending to despise him.
    She’d just begun to feel a tiny bit sleepy when she heard the slow screech of door hinges and felt a cold blast of air sweep into the room. She sat up in bed. The dying fire still cast enough light that she could make out a form slipping in from the corridor.
    “Pssst. Abigail? Are you asleep?”
    Recognizing the voice, Abigail heaved a sigh. “For god’s sake, Catherine. Do you make a habit of visiting brides on their wedding nights?”
    Catherine ignored the question. She dashed across the room, jumped into bed, and slipped her cold feet over onto Abigail’s legs.
    Used to such behavior from Derek’s stepsisters, Abigail merely grimaced and turned on her side to face her friend. “What do you want, Catherine, besides scaring me and then freezing me to death? Are you trying to turn your stepbrother into a widower on his wedding night?”
    Catherine snuggled under the covers. “I knew you’d be alone and I wanted to talk to you about something.”
    “Couldn’t it wait until morning?”
    Again Catherine ignored Abigail’s question. “I want you to take me to London with you.”
    “What?”
    “You are going for the Little Season, aren’t you?”
    “Well—”
    “Just think about it,” Catherine interrupted. “If you make plans to go alone, your father will try to insist that you hire a companion. But if you take me, I can invite my cousin Parsetta to go with us. Did you meet her when she came for Mama’s funeral?”
    Abigail paused to think. She’d met very few of the sisters’ relatives on their mother’s side of the family. The Earl of Melton, she knew, had married the sisters’ mother several years after Derek’s mother passed away. He’d hoped, some people said, to have a second son to serve as a spare since he had only Derek by his first marriage. Unfortunately, the second Countess of Melton had died in childbirth along with the baby that would have been her fourth daughter. Abigail had been introduced to only a few of the people who came for the countess’s funeral. “I don’t recall meeting anyone named Parsetta.”
    “You wouldn’t necessarily remember her,” Catherine said. “She’s one of those people who is eminently