Read A Christmas Dance for Free Online

people who are much happier with a bit of distance between them.”
    “Your family?” she asked softly.
    He nodded, surprised at what he was revealing, but feeling compelled to share a piece of his family history because she had shared a piece of hers. “My parents did not get on well together. My sister did not get on with my brother, and my brother couldn’t get on with anyone. Christmas was a. . .disruptive time of year.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    He rolled his shoulders in an effort to release the tension at the back of his neck. “Not an uncommon story. These days, I prefer to spend the weeks before and after Christmas surrounded by peace and quiet at my estate in Staffordshire.”
    “Alone?” she asked.
    “If I can manage it.”
    “Oh. What of your sister?”
    He smiled a little. “It is her holiday tradition to insist I visit her brood in Surrey.”
    “And is she never successful?”
    He had to lift his voice a little over the noise of passing carriage. “As I said, I prefer to spend the holidays in peace.”
    “Is it not adequately peaceful in Surrey?”
    “My sister has children.”
    “I see.” There was a long pause before she spoke again. “I’m quite fond of children.”
    “As am I, when they’re present in reasonable numbers.” He waved politely at an acquaintance passing on the other side of the street. “She has twelve.”
    “
Twelve
?”
    “All boys, including two sets of twins from her husband’s first wife. And all but two under the age of eighteen.”
    “Good heavens.”
    “I believe Heaven washed its hands of them some time ago. In fact, I’m fairly certain the three-year-old has a pact with the devil. He tried to eat one of my cravat pins during my last visit. Scampered right into my room, snatched it off my desk in plain sight of me and popped it in his mouth.”
    Patience grimaced. “It’s fortunate he didn’t become ill.”
    “I pried it out of his mouth before he could swallow.”
    “Oh, that was--”
    “But not before he bit me.”
    “Oh.” Caroline managed to wince and smile at the same time. “I knew a little girl like that once. Her family had rooms above ours. She--” She broke off, looking a bit startled. He imagined she hadn’t meant to reveal her family had taken rooms somewhere. “She was a terror,” she finished uneasily.
    Her fingers lifted to rub at a bit of lace along her neckline for a moment before she gripped her hands tightly ather waist, confirming the suspicion he’d developed the night before. Patience Byerly was not stiff by nature; she merely gave that impression when hiding nerves.
    He didn’t care for the idea of her being nervous now. What difference did it make that her family was not of great means? As the second son of a second son, he hadn’t been a man of great means until his unexpected inheritance of the earldom.
    He wanted to tell her he understood, that he didn’t care a jot what her circumstances had been, nor what they were at present. As a wealthy earl with modest tastes, expenses, and social ambitions he could well afford to take an undowered bride. Unfortunately, he rather doubted, “I wouldn’t mind marrying a poor woman,” would serve to make her smile again. And he very much he wanted to see her smile again.
    “I wager my nephew a worse case than your neighbor,” he offered.
    “Unlikely,” she replied. “It was said even the dogs outside the butcher’s door wouldn’t go near her.”
    “Did she ever draw blood?”
    “On occasion.”
    “But did she leave scars?”
    She frowned thoughtfully, which he decided was an improvement over frowning with discomfort. “Not that I’m aware of,” she replied. “She was a very little girl.”
    “No excuse.” He stopped walking to pull off the glove of his right hand, and held it up to reveal four small white crescents, two on each side of his index finger. “Courtesy of William Grant Higgs, my cannibalistic little namesake.”
    To his great delight, her mouth fell