To Wed His Christmas Lady (The Heart of a Duke Book 7) Read Online Free PDF

by way of explanation.
    Mother and Father turned matching glowers on their cherished daughter.
    She wrinkled her nose. “He did.” The spirited miss looked to Cara with a bold insolence that only deepened her mother’s frown. “And with good reason. She is horrid.”
    “Nora,” the countess scolded. A gracious and flawless hostess, the older woman came forward with her hands extended. “We are honored you will be spending the holiday season with us.”
    From beyond her mother’s shoulder, Nora choked. “The hol—”
    Cara snapped her damp, emerald green, muslin cloak, smattering the marble foyer with bits of melted snow. “I thank you for the gracious offer. However, I truly must leave now. My fath—” The lie died a quick death.
    “Now?” The earl furrowed his high, noble brow. “The storm is worsening.”
    “Which is why it is imperative I leave posthaste. If you’d be so gracious as to allow me the use of your carriage.” So that she could slink off, the shamed, laughed about, unloved duke’s daughter, while retaining some level of pride.
    “But—”
    “My family is expecting me,” she said in clipped tones when the earl made to protest once more. This time she fed him the lie they all knew to be a lie. Life had taught her that people did not challenge a duke’s kin. She wrinkled her nose. Well, Lady Nora did. And a handful of the other distinguished students at Mrs. Belden’s. But never before their parents.
    This moment proved that truth.
    “Of course,” the earl said. “I will see the team of horses switched.”
    Standing in the foyer of this bucolic family, Cara huddled deep into the fabric of her damp cloak. What an odd place to be; not wanting to stay with this happy, loving lot, but not wanting to board the earl’s carriage and return to her own life, either…
    And in this moment, being honest with at least herself, Cara indulged the wish she had in her heart this Christmas—to be loved for nothing but herself.

Chapter 3
    A lison was not smiling. Or prattling. Her flushed cheeks and feverish eyes killed all evidence of her habitual mirth. The absolute silence of Cara’s maid was only further heightened by the wind howling outside the Earl of Derby’s carriage. This was very dire, indeed.
    Cara drew the curtain back and peered out into the thick swirl of snowflakes. Then the conveyance stopped. “Why has the carriage stopped?” Did those words belong to her or Alison? A niggling of unease pitted in her belly.
    “I am sure we are merely stopping for a moment because…” Her maid eyed her skeptically. “Because…” Well, blast what was there to stop for in this desolate landscape painted white? “Highwaymen?” Alison breathed, fear dripping from that one word. “ A-choo !”
    The girl’s tendency for the dramatics eased some of Cara’s attention and she gave a roll of her eyes. “Highwaymen do not traverse this road.” It was too well-traveled. She caught her lower lip between her teeth. At least, she didn’t think they did. Schooling her features into an expressionless mask, she peeked through the crack in the velvet curtains and squinted out into the rapidly falling snow. The muscles of her stomach clenched. What if her overly imaginative maid proved correct and there was a blasted highwayman? Wouldn’t that just prove her rotted luck this day? She tensed her jaw. They could make off with every last one of her possessions, but there was one that would have to be pried from her fingers.
    “Do you see them?” Did the clattering of the girl’s teeth have to do with her fever or the cold?
    They both jumped as someone banged on the carriage door. Cara’s heart climbed into her throat and she studiously avoided Alison’s I-told-you-there-would-be-highwaymen looks. With trembling fingers, she peeled open the curtain and brushed her gloved hand over the iced pane. Some of the tension went out of her. The earl’s groom tugged his cap lower and made to knock once