A Very Selwick Christmas Read Free Page B

had done it.
    Discretion was something Jane had always done very well. She, on the other hand….
    It was her indiscretion that had bollixed Richard"s career as the Purple Gentian.
    “Well, happy Christmas!” she said, so forcefully that Jane blinked and Miss Gwen frowned.
    But, then, Miss Gwen always frowned. It was when Miss Gwen smiled that one had to worry.
    “Hmph,” said Miss Gwen. “Christmas hasn"t happened yet. We have no idea if it will be happy or not.”
    “Spreading good cheer as always, I see?” Richard strolled over to join them, accompanied by two women.
    One of the ladies was roughly his own age, with pale blonde hair clustered in curls around a china oval of a face. The other, her mother by the look of it, had the determined look of the faded beauty, trying to make up in too-rich fabric and jewels what she could no longer accomplish with her face. Her white hair had been swept into an elaborate coiffure topped with a diamond parure. A very silly thing, Amy thought, to be wearing to a county affair, even one at the home of a marchioness. The older woman clung very determinedly to Richard"s arm.
    Detaching her without visible sign of effort, Richard moved in a touching show of husbandly devotion to his accustomed place by Amy"s side.
    It was, thought Amy, rather clever of him. It put her in between him and Miss Gwen"s fan.
    He was no fool, her husband. He smelled rather nice, too. Like citrus. With a hint of cloves.
    He must have been raiding the gingerbread again.
    Quick to deflect any accusations of good cheer, Miss Gwen favored Richard with her steeliest stare. “Don"t expect me to start spreading goodwill towards men. Useless, the most of them.”
    “What about peace on earth, then?” inquired Richard blandly.
    “Bah,” said Miss Gwen.
    “Bah?” inquired the older of the women Richard had brought with him, in tones of frigid disbelief. “Bah?”
    Miss Gwen looked down her nose. “One bah was entirely sufficient. There is no need to imitate a herd of sheep.”

    “Sheep?” Uncle Bertrand might be slightly deaf when it came to social niceties, but any mention of his favorite subject brought him bounding to his feet. He crossed the room in record time. “Did I hear sheep?”
    “Ah,” murmured Richard. “The pitter-patter of playful sheep.”
    “I had a lamb once,” said the blonde woman helpfully. “But it was a very long time ago.”
    “Never too late for another,” said Uncle Bertrand heartily, clearly empathizing with her plight.
    Amy hastily intervened. “I don"t believe we"ve been introduced,” she said, forestalling Uncle Bertrand before he could inquire after the name, age, and cause of death of the late, lamented little lamb.
    “Forgive me for neglecting my duties,” said Richard. “Allow me to present Mrs. Ramsby and her daughter, Lady Jerard.” He carried on with the introductions, presenting Miss Gwen, Jane, and Uncle Bertrand in turn, but Amy heard nothing after that second name.
    Baroness Jerard. Here. Now. For Christmas.
    Why hadn"t anyone warned her?
    Amy must have said the civil thing. She must have bowed or curtsied. Early training did win through, even when one"s mind was entirely elsewhere.
    No one had told her that Lady Uppington had invited Richard"s…. Oh, heavens, Amy didn"t even know what to call the dratted woman. First love? First disappointment? Careless betrayer of valiant English agents?
    There wasn"t an exactly a one word tag for the-woman-who-broke-his-heart-and-caused-the-death-of-his-second-closest-friend.
    At times, the English language was sadly lacking in crucial terms.

    Ivy and Intrigue: A Very Selwick Christmas

Chapter Two
    Now bring us some figgy pudding,
    Now bring us some figgy pudding,
    Now bring us some figgy pudding,
    And bring it right here.
    -- “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”

    Amy pasted a smile onto her face and took inventory
    of her—well, not rival. She couldn"t call the other woman a rival when they weren"t in