A Knights Bridge Christmas

A Knights Bridge Christmas
Carla Neggers

New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers celebrates the joy and romance of Christmas in New EnglandClare Morgan is ready for a fresh start when she moves to the small Massachusetts town of Knights Bridge with her young son, Owen. Widowed for six years, Clare settles into her job as the town's new librarian. She appreciates the warm welcome she and Owen receive and truly enjoys getting the library ready for its role in the annual holiday open house.Clare expects to take it slow with her new life. Then she meets Logan Farrell, a Boston ER doctor in town to help his elderly grandmother settle into assisted living. Slow isn't a word Logan seems to understand. Accustomed to his fast-paced city life, he doesn't plan to stay in Knights Bridge for long. But Daisy Farrell has other ideas and enlists her grandson to decorate her house on the village green one last time. Logan looks to Clare for help. She can go through Daisy's book collection and help him decorate while she's at it.As Clare and Logan get his grandmother's house ready for the holidays, what neither of them expects to find is an attraction to each other. Better than most, they know all the crazy things that can happen in life, but everything about Knights Bridge and this magical season invites them to open themselves to new possibilities…and new love.

New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers celebrates the joy and romance of Christmas in New England

Clare Morgan is ready for a fresh start when she moves to the small Massachusetts town of Knights Bridge with her young son, Owen. Widowed for six years, Clare settles into her job as the town’s new librarian. She appreciates the warm welcome she and Owen receive and truly enjoys getting the library ready for its role in the annual holiday open house.

Clare expects to take it slow with her new life. Then she meets Logan Farrell, a Boston ER doctor in town to help his elderly grandmother settle into assisted living. Slow isn’t a word Logan seems to understand. Accustomed to his fast-paced city life, he doesn’t plan to stay in Knights Bridge for long. But Daisy Farrell has other ideas and enlists her grandson to decorate her house on the village green one last time. Logan looks to Clare for help. She can go through Daisy’s book collection and help him decorate while she’s at it.

As Clare and Logan get his grandmother’s house ready for the holidays, what neither of them expects to find is an attraction to each other. Better than most, they know all the crazy things that can happen in life, but everything about Knights Bridge and this magical season invites them to open themselves to new possibilities…and new love.

A Knights Bridge Christmas

Carla Neggers

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

For Leo and Oona

Contents

Cover (#u1342504f-2d8b-520a-9077-1deb00c74ece)

Back Cover Text (#u01b997b6-1520-598c-937e-98b30da933f5)

Title Page (#u56797b0d-548a-5280-b197-9ed2fae11b93)

Dedication (#u12df0ce0-26e6-5bf0-818f-ce132b29b622)

Prologue (#u038c53e3-fbf6-59fd-b004-be071541d3a2)

One (#u594b5d94-e934-56c2-be35-47e9b0c2f834)

Two (#uc2a03e09-c566-5556-8dc9-01341fee6a55)

Three (#ub5565100-871c-5d48-9320-5989a20800c0)

Four (#litres_trial_promo)

A Recipe for Applesauce Spice Cake with Maple Frosting or Cream Cheese Frosting (#litres_trial_promo)

Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Six (#litres_trial_promo)

A Recipe for Oat Waffles (#litres_trial_promo)

Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

A Recipe for Molasses Cookies (#litres_trial_promo)

Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

A Recipe for Hot Chocolate (#litres_trial_promo)

Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

A Recipe for Baked Sweet Potatoes and Apples (#litres_trial_promo)

A Recipe for Chive-and-Parsley Butter (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Author Note (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Prologue (#ulink_ba9cc243-2071-5674-980b-5809c51de3e1)

“I cannot change! I cannot! It’s not that I’m impenitent, it’s just... Wouldn’t it be better if I just went home to bed?”

—Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

December 1945

FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD DAISY BLANCHARD paused on South Main Street and sighed at the once-stately house across from the Knights Bridge common, just past the town library. Built in 1892, the house had a curving front porch, tall windows and Victorian details that must have looked grand in their day. Now, a week before Christmas, the house looked shabby and forlorn against the gray winter sky. It wasn’t decorated. There wasn’t so much as a wreath on the front door.

It was, by far, the worst-looking house in the village.

My house, Daisy thought with dismay.

Even through the war, she and her mother had managed to decorate for Christmas. They would scour the house for bits of ribbon and yarn and they would cut evergreen boughs and gather pinecones in the yard. They’d learned to be resourceful. Everyone in their small town west of Boston had done the same—using, reusing, mending, sharing what they had. Other homes, businesses, churches, the library and town offices were decorated for the season. The First Congregational Church had a crèche, and a family of carrot-nosed, top-hatted snowmen greeted shoppers at the country store.

The only reason her house wasn’t decorated, Daisy knew, was because her father believed decorating was a waste of time and effort.