It Happened One Midnight (PG8) (39 page)
Read It Happened One Midnight (PG8) Online
Authors: Julie Anne Long
Tags: #Romance, #General, #Historical, #Fiction
And so for a time, Tommy and Violet had eyed each other with the wariness of cats while Jonathan looked on. Until:
“I’ve always wanted a sister,” Tommy had finally said truthfully yet cautiously—for one would need to be a bit mad to
wish
for a sister like Violet. And Violet, made magnanimous and soft by motherhood and still inclined to weep a little at sentimental things (which infuriated her, as she was fiercely loyal but not at
all
sentimental), swept Tommy into her arms. Jonathan doubted the friendship between two such . . . distinctive . . . personalities would always be quite so effortless and giddy, but this would do for a beginning.
His father and mother, however, had not spoken to him in weeks. Not since his father had turned over the Thomasina de Ballesteros card.
Jonathan hadn’t precisely avoided them. And it didn’t appear, at least, that they’d been avoiding Jonathan. But the silence was just rather tacit. And he knew that Violet and the earl had been invited to join his father and mother for breakfast after the baptism. Quite pointedly, a similar invitation had not been extended to Jonathan and Tommy, or to his brother Miles and his wife Cynthia. For Cynthia wasn’t welcome in the Redmond home, either.
Little Ruby Alexandra predictably and understandably roared in astonished outrage when she was dipped in the font. Jonathan looked forward to telling his niece about the time her mother had threatened to throw herself down a well after an argument with a suitor.
And that’s when he glanced toward his father and mother now, a reflex, and saw his mother reach for his father’s hand, much the way Tommy had reached for his. Jonathan was beginning to understand how much could be conveyed in utter silence between two married people.
He just wasn’t certain precisely what was being conveyed between his parents in that moment.
And then the service was over, and everyone stood to file out of the church.
Just as the sky opened up and the rain plummeted.
With disconcerting rapidity the pathway into town turned into a bit of a muddy soup, driving all the parishioners who’d walked to church into the warm welcoming arms of the Pig & Thistle across the road to wait out the downpour.
Leaving a cluster of silent Redmonds standing bemusedly in front of the church. For Jonathan and Tommy and Miles and Cynthia had walked to church in the clear cold morning, while his father, mother, Violet and the earl had arrived in the Redmond carriage.
For a moment, the silence was taut enough to be thumped like a drum.
And then his father turned and addressed Jonathan as if they’d spoken only yesterday.
“Why don’t we put the ladies in the carriage and have them taken back to the house? The four of will surely survive a walk in the rain if it continues.”
The ladies
. Meaning Cynthia, Violet, Tommy, and their mother.
And Jonathan, for a moment, was speechless. As was Miles, apart from a brow that shot up.
The ladies in question seemed to be holding their collective breaths.
“Why don’t we?” the Earl of Ardmay said smoothly.
And thusly a quartet of silent, astonished, wide-eyed ladies and one baby were duly assisted into the carriage, which rolled away.
Leaving a quartet of silent men behind.
“We could walk back now,” Jonathan mused. “Or . . . we could have a game of darts at the Pig & Thistle and wait it out.”
His father turned to him. His face was unreadable. And then the corner of his mouth twitched. “Darts it is,” his father said.
“I’ll win,” Jonathan said, after a moment, unable to resist.
A hesitation.
“Perhaps,” his father said easily, after a moment. “Perhaps not.”
With a smile that was faint but real.
It was the perfect answer, as far as Jonathan was concerned.
And they all made their way into the Pig & Thistle.
“
P
ACKAGE FOR YOU,
sir.”
The Duke of Greyfolk looked up at the footman hovering in the doorway, and beckoned him forward with a sweep of his hand, as he settled his haunches into the indentation in his favorite chair in the library where Thomasina and Jonathan had peered in at him one midnight.
He accepted the small paper-wrapped bundle and sliced the string with a letter opener.
The first thing revealed was a folded sheet of foolscap. He thumbed it open and read:
This gave me courage when I needed it. I hope it will remind you of how brave you can be.
He parted the layers of tissue and stopped when he caught a glimpse of red.
And carefully, from its generous nest, he lifted his medal.
San Francisco Bay Area native J
ULIE
A
NNE
L
ONG
originally set out to be a rock star when she grew up (and she has the guitars and fringed clothing stuffed in the back of her closet to prove it), but writing was always her first love. She began her academic career as a Journalism major, until she realized Creative Writing was a better fit for her freewheeling imagination and overdeveloped sense of whimsy. And when playing guitar in dank, sticky clubs finally lost its “charm,” Julie realized she could incorporate all the best things about being in a band—namely drama, passion, and men with unruly hair—into novels, while also indulging her love of history and research. Since then, her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the RITA®,
Romantic Times
Reviewer’s Choice, the Holt Medallion, Bookseller’s Best, and the Quill, and reviewers have been known to use words like “dazzling,” “brilliant,” and “impossible to put down” when describing them.
Visit Julie at www.julieannelong.com, www.julieannelong.typepad.com, or www.myspace/julieannelong.
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“Warm, witty and fabulous!”
S
UZANNE
E
NOCH
“A fresh voice that stands out in a chorus of Regency historicals, Julie Anne Long entrances with deftly woven humor, strong and believable characters, and a genuinely rich and emotional resolution. Delicious and delightful!”
K
AREN
H
AWKINS
A Notorious Countess Confesses
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
IT HAPPENED ONE MIDNIGHT
. Copyright © 2013 by Julie Anne Long. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition JULY 2013 ISBN: 9780062118080
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-211807-3
FIRST EDITION
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