Christmas Betrothals: Mistletoe Magic

Christmas Betrothals: Mistletoe Magic
Amanda McCabe

Sophia James

Marriage is a Christmas affair for these lords and ladies!Mistletoe Magic –Sophia James Could she be betrothed by Christmas? Miss Lillian Davenport must marry sensibly, although she yearns for some excitement first. Lucas Morgan is wild, dangerous and tempting. If she offers to pay for his silence, can she buy a single, passionate kiss?The Winter Queen –Amanda McCabe Innocent Lady Rosamund is sent to the infamous Elizabethan court. But she is unprepared to meet the likes of Anton Gustavson – a favourite of the Queen. Dark, brooding and mysterious, Anston is drawn to Rosamund’s ethereal beauty, but his secrets make falling in love far too dangerous!

Christmas Betrothals

Mistletoe Magic

Sophia James

The Winter Queen

Amanda McCabe

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Mistletoe Magic

Praise for Sophia James

ASHBLANE’S LADY

“An excellent tale of love, this book is more than a

romance; it pulls at the heartstrings and makes you

wish the story wouldn’t end.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews

MASQUERADING MISTRESS

“Bold and tantalising, plotted like a mystery and

slowly exposing each layer of the multi-dimensional

plot and every character’s motivations, James’s novel

is a page-turner.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews

HIGH SEAS TO HIGH SOCIETY

“James weaves her spell, captivating readers with

wit and wisdom, and cleverly combining humour

and poignancy with a master’s touch in this

feel-good love story.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews

About the Author

SOPHIA JAMES lives in Chelsea Bay on Auckland, New Zealand’s North Shore, with her husband, who is an artist, and three children. She spends her morning teaching adults English at the local migrant school and writes in the afternoon. Sophia has a degree in English and history from Auckland University and believes her love of writing was formed reading Georgette Heyer with her twin sister at her grandmother’s house.

Look out for Sophia James’s latestexciting novel,One Unashamed Night, available in March 2010 from Mills & Boon

Historical romance.

Author Note

Christmas is a time of family and laughter and joyousness, a time when all the good things in the world seem to come together in a crescendo of happiness.

But what happens when people have no family left or the secrets that bind them to their kin preclude the simple ability to embrace the haphazard chaos that is often Christmas?

In this story I wanted to draw in two people on the edge of loneliness and add children, pets, colour and carols. I wanted to see whether the magic of the season had its own power and whether a kiss bought under a sprig of mistletoe could change two lives forever.

I’d like to dedicate this book to my friend Jane,

whose sense of style inspired Lillian.

Prologue

Richmond, Virginia—July 1853

Lucas Clairmont found the letter by chance, wrapped in velvet and hidden in the space beneath the font in the Clairmont family chapel.

A love letter to his wife from a man he had little knowledge of and coined in a language that had him reaching for the pew behind him and sitting down.

Heavily.

He knew their marriage had been, at best, an unexceptional union, but it was the betrayal in the last few lines of the missive that was unexpected. His uncle’s land was mentioned in connection with the Baltimore Gaslight Company’s intention of developing their lines. Luc shook his head—he knew Stuart Clairmont had had no notion of such a scheme and the land, bought cheaply by Elizabeth’s lover, had been sold for a fortune only a few months later.

Loss and guilt punctuated the harder emotion of anger. Jesus! Stuart had died a broken man and a vengeful one.

‘Find the bastard, Luc,’ he had uttered in the last few hours of his life, ‘and kill him.’

At the time Luc had thought the command extreme, but now with the evidence of another truth in hand …

Screwing up the parchment, he let it slip through his fingers on to the cold stone floor, the written words still teasing him, even from a distance.

His marriage had been as much of a sham as his childhood, all show and no substance, but the love of his uncle had never wavered.

Shaking his head, he felt the sharp stab of sobriety, the taste of last night’s whisky and the few bought hours of oblivion paid for dearly this morning, as his demons whispered vengeance.