Twelve Days in December: A Christmas Novella Read Online Free Page A

she likely was.
    I don’t even know her age, and we are to marry.
    “Please give me a minute, and I’ll get my cloak.” She closed the door, practically on him, leaving him standing in the hall alone once more.
    I don’t know her age or much of anything about her— beyond what Marsali has shared with me. Which was likely more than she had shared about him with Charlotte. We are the both of us mad to do this, he concluded.
    A moment later Charlotte reappeared in the doorway, a coarse brown, homespun cloak covering her dress. He noted that she looked no less pretty in the worn garment than she had in the wedding gown and silently agreed with Lady Cosgrove that Charlotte and Marsali did look a great deal alike. Perhaps those in the congregation would not notice that he had acquired a different bride. At first. But at the wedding breakfast after there would be explanations to give.
    The least of my worries.
    She glanced back at the bed where her son slept. “I think it would be best to leave him here while we go to the church. If we wake him early, he will cry for an hour.”
    “We can send Ellen up to sit with him and stay with him when he wakes,” William suggested, recalling that the little boy had seemed to take to Ellen, more than some of the other maids he had interacted with.
    “Yes, please,” Charlotte said. “That would be best.”
    He held out his arm, she placed her hand lightly upon it, and they were off, with a quick stop to advise the housekeeper to send Ellen to watch over young Alec.
    I will need to employ a nanny, William thought absently as they left the house. And later a governess. He would supply any sort of tutor Charlotte desired for her son, if only she went through with this today.
    The brief carriage ride to the church was mostly silent, each busy with their own thoughts. He would have paid far more than a penny for hers but found himself too fearful to ask what she was thinking. Will she refuse to get out of the carriage when we arrive? Or will I be waiting at the front of the church alone when she changes her mind? He was not certain he could live through such a scenario again, though if that did happen, at least this time his heart would not be injured. He had learned to guard it well after Daphne. And watching Charlotte’s calm, almost serene expression as she stared out the window, he had the feeling she had learned to guard hers also.
    William wondered what her husband had been like. Is she thinking of him now? How could she not be? He suddenly wanted nothing more than to distract her from whatever sorrowful reflections she must be having. How could they be anything other?
    The carriage turned the corner to the eastern side of St. John’s Park. The trees lining the walk were bare now, dusted with a light layer of snow that had fallen the night before. “In summer this is a very popular spot for walking,” he said, disrupting the silence in the carriage. “We could stroll there if you like. When the weather is warmer,” he added, feeling unexpectedly foolish. It was a little late to be thinking of courting his bride now. Like all else that should have happened prior to this day, that would have to wait until after they were married.
    “I would like that very much,” Charlotte said and bestowed a kindly smile upon him. “Alec would like it too. He enjoys being out of doors. Oh, is that the church?” She leaned in toward the window, attempting a better view.
    “Yes. St. John’s Chapel. Quite a fine building.”
    “I can see that.” Her smile broadened.
    “It cost an absurd amount of money. The organ alone was over $5,000. It came from Philadelphia.”
    Charlotte clasped her hands together. “I had no idea that America had such buildings as this. I can’t wait to see the inside. The outside is perfectly grand.”
    William looked out his window as well, following her gaze from the Corinthian columns up to the double-height portico, topped by a tower that rose more than 200