Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish Read Online Free PDF

for babies. Mashed potatoes with a touch of butter. Boiled vegetables, plain oatmeal.”
    â€œWhat about meat?”
    He cast back over more than two decades of memory. “Not yet, and not much fruit, either. Strawberries gave my youngest sister hives when she was a baby, so I wouldn’t advise them. Pudding was always very popular in the nursery.”
    â€œIf the weather weren’t so foul, I’d send one of the grooms over to fetch Nanny Fran from Westhaven’s townhouse. Do you like onions in your omelet?”
    â€œA few.”
    The kitchen was soon full of the scent of good, simple cooking. He watched as Miss Windham cut slices from a fresh loaf of bread then slipped them onto a tray for toasting. She moved with a competence that spoke of time served in the kitchen, and yet she could not possibly be the cook: if the entire household had been given leave, there was no point in the cook remaining for just two grooms.
    â€œWhere do you hail from, Mr. Charpentier?”
    â€œHere and there. The family seat is in Kent, though I was raised at my stepfather’s holding in Cumbria. I’m a merchant by profession, trading mostly with the Americans and the Scandinavians these days.”
    â€œI’ve never seen Cumbria, though I’m told it’s lovely.” She spoke as she worked, the epitome of domestic tranquility.
    â€œCumbria’s lovely in summer. Winter can be another matter altogether.”
    â€œWill you be with family for the holidays?”
    He was distracted momentarily from answering by the picture she made standing at the stove, watching the omelet cook as she occasionally peeked at the toast and also assembled the accoutrements of a tea tray.
    Why wasn’t she with family? He barely knew the woman, but seeing her here, cooking for him, making him feel welcome with small talk and chatter while the snow came down in torrents outside, he felt a stab of something… poignant, sentimental.
    Something lonely?
    â€œI’ll be with my uncle and his family. I have half siblings, but my sisters have seen fit to get married recently, and one doesn’t want to impose on the newlyweds.”
    â€œOne does not. Three of my brothers have married, and it can leave a sister not knowing quite how to go on with them. Pepper?”
    â€œA touch.”
    â€œIs he asleep?”
    â€œNever ask. If he is, it will wake him up. If he isn’t, it will let him know you’re fixed on that goal, and he’ll thwart you to uphold the honor of babies the world over.”
    She smiled at the omelet as she neatly turned it in the skillet. “Her Grace raised ten children in this house. She would likely agree with you.”
    A ducal household? No wonder even the domestics carried themselves with a certain confidence.
    When he might have asked which duke’s hospitality he was imposing on—his half brother had regular truck with titles of all sorts—she brought the tea tray to the table, then cutlery and a steaming plate of eggs and bacon. She set the latter before him and stood back, hands on hips.
    â€œIf you’ll give me the baby, I can hold him while you eat.”
    â€œAnd what about you? As a gentleman…” But she was already extricating the child from his arms and taking a seat on the bench along the opposite side of the table.
    â€œEat, Mr. Charpentier. The food will only get cold while we argue.”
    He ate. He ate in part because a gentleman never argued with a lady and in part because he was starving. She’d served him a sizeable portion, and he was halfway through the omelet, bacon, and toast when he looked up to see her regarding him from across the table.
    â€œYou were hungry.”
    â€œYou are a good cook. Is that oregano in the eggs?”
    â€œA little of this and that.”
    He paused and put his fork down. “A secret family recipe, Miss Windham?”
    She just smiled and pretended to tuck the shawl around