A Christmas Courtship Read Free

but if they were, he hoped Antony Mortimer wasn’t in his sire’s mold. The Amberleys were gentry through and through, and honor and justice were listed high in their priorities; the Mortimers were upstarts, come to prominence in a single generation, and honor and justice didn’t figure at all in their philosophy. Still, maybe it was all just gossip, based on nothing more than someone’s having seen Antony in the company of a young woman who looked like Blanche.
    Mr Gilbey gave a wry smile. A young woman who looked like Blanche? No other woman looked like her; she was gloriously unique with her tumble of silver-blonde curls and those magnificent eyes. No, if someone saw Antony with a woman who looked like Blanche, then that woman was Blanche. The jeweler’s smile faded. Amatch between the Amberleys and the Mortimers? What a misalliance it would be. Her father, impoverished as he now was, would still regard such a connection as a social disaster; and Clement Mortimer’s ambitions required a titled bride for his son, not an Amberley without a penny to her name. No wonder the young lovers, if lovers they were, were apparently striving to keep their affair a secret. Picking up his instruments, Mr Gilbey prepared to continue engraving the beautiful cup, and Blanche’s affairs faded from his thoughts.

    *
    Unaware that she’d occupied the jeweler’s mind for so long after her departure, Blanche hurried up the almost deserted pavement of Westgate Street. It was a broad thoroughfare that led up from the River Severn toward the crossroads in the center of the city. The shop windows were illuminated as the short winter afternoon drew toward a premature close, shortened by the yellow-gray clouds that filled the sky, bringing with them the promise of snow.
    There were wreaths of Christmas greenery on doors, and garlands in windows, and a group of musicians stood on a corner singing ‘God rest ye merry, gentlemen! Let nothing you dismay!’ Blanche shivered as she made her way toward the Saracen’s Head inn, where she was due to meet Hannah Cutler, the former housekeeper at Amberley Court, who, together with her husband Jake, the former head gardener, had remained faithfully in the employ of the Amberleys after their financial ruin. Jake drove Blanche and his wife into Gloucester once a week in the pony and trap to do their shopping while he called upon various old friends, then he returned to the Saracen’s Head in the late afternoon to drive them home to Amberley St Mary again.
    A small party of soldiers stood on the pavement outside the Bell tavern on the other side of the street. At times of war it was prescribed that members of the armed forces should always wear uniform, and so such groups of soldiers were not an uncommon sight. They were laughing together, and the light breeze carried their voices so clearly that she was left in no doubt as to the fate they intended for the Emperor of the French should he ever fall into their clutches. Their words were a sharp reminder of the war for Blanche, for her brother Jonathan’s regiment was embarking for the Spanish peninsula in the new year, and the seemingly endless conflict would touch upon her personally for the first time.
    She hurried on, glancing up at the darkening sky as a few stray snowflakes drifted on the frozen air. The cathedral bell rang out, and she quickened her steps in dismay. It was laterthan she’d realized, and Hannah would already be waiting for her; but first there was another appointment to be kept – with Antony Mortimer.

CHAPTER 2
    Blanche could still hardly credit that Antony had come to mean so much to her in such a short time. They’d only met the month before, when chance had caused them both to ride along the same country lane near Amberley St Mary, and so instant and strong had been the attraction between them that she’d very swiftly found herself breaking all the rules by agreeing to meet him again. Now, for the first time in her life,