Untamable Rogue (Formerly: A Christmas Baby) (38 page)
Read Untamable Rogue (Formerly: A Christmas Baby) Online
Authors: Annette Blair
Sabrina grinned. “You have renewed her strength. She sobbed when she heard your declaration.”
Ash stared at the closed door as if he might see through it. He placed the flat of his hand against it. “Lord this was not the way I wanted to tell her.”
He heard her scream again, felt her pain to his soul.
“Where the devil is that doctor?” Ash ignored his grandfather’s renewed bid for attention and ran down the stairs calling for his horse. He would ride to hell for the blasted doctor, if he must.
He would do anything to keep Lark safe.
The rogues congregated in the library, midnight upon them. Reed and Hawk paced, sometimes into each other, Gideon stared into the fire. All awaited news of Lark and the babe.
Ashley Briana sat alone awaiting Father Christmas until Rafe and Micah, then Damon and Harry, joined her. That no parent saw, and forbade, their insurgence as the nursery stairs filled with children became a surprise in itself. That they were breaking such exalted rules became the subject of whispered discourse and delight, until Matthew warned that silence would go undetected, noise caught out.
After that, silent as lambs, they watched the strange comings and goings in reference to her new Mama’s bedchamber, all of them waiting for Father Christmas … and perhaps something more.
Sometime after the church-bells rang for the midnight service in the village, they heard the low jingle of sleigh bells, the muted clop of horses hooves, the shush of runners through snow.
Ashley Briana watched as some of the children sat straighter. A few of the little ones stood for a better view and some cowered in fear, until the man they awaited came running up the stairs—hooded, robed in crimson velvet, white of beard, buttonhole of holly, and carrying a fat sack topped by a drum, a trumpet, a porcelain doll.
“In here,” her Papa said, opening her Mama’s door and letting Father Christmas inside.
The children became more silent, more hopeful.
Ashley Briana was not alone in sensing that something momentous was about to take place, for Micah took her hand, squeezed it, and Ashley was grateful.
“That was him,” Damon whispered a few minutes later.
Harry swallowed his pride and allowed his wonder free rein. “I think it was.”
Damon’s gloat was halted, Ashley noted, by a rush of mysterious muffled sounds from her Mama’s closed room. A scream, a cry, a shout of triumph, a lusty wail.
Ashley regarded Micah, certain her eyes must be as large as his.
Some while later, Father Christmas stepped into the hall across the landing bearing the blanketed proof of Ashley’s rising hope, all kicking legs and fighting arms.
“I wonder what else he has in that sack,” little Juliana said.
A stooped old man stepped up to Father Christmas and touched the babe’s fingers with reverence.
“Your great-grandson,” Father Christmas said, handing the mite over. “Small but hearty, and not near as early as everyone surmised.”
The old man wept and held the babe as if it were a fine porcelain treasure. “I only wanted to grow him up,” the old man said. “Burned the will yesterday. Wanted him to know.”
“The Earl will be glad to hear it,” Father Christmas said and then he saw the children, and Ashley started, as he winked before he took the babe back into her Mama’s room.
Several minutes later, Father Christmas returned to the hall, fat sack in hand, and made for the picture gallery.
Taking his wink as a sign of acceptance and permission, the children followed at a goodly distance and watched as the proof of Christmas placed toys beneath the moonlit Christmas tree. When the robed man finished and started in their direction, they scampered up the nursery stairs, muffling squeaks and giggles, and ran to the big window overlooking the yard.
Oohs and Aahs abounded as a bright red sleigh, pulled by two matched pairs, disappeared down the drive.
“Happy Christmas,” floated, as if on the air behind it.
“Did you hear that?” Ash asked as he slipped gratefully back into his wife’s room and stopped at the sight before him.
Larkin Rose, his wife, safe, sitting in her bed, smiling, radiant, so beautiful she made him ache, their Christmas babe suckling at her breast, blanketed and tied with a red bow, a sprig of holly in its center.
“Happy Christmas, Papa,” she said.
Ash’s heart leapt. “Happy Christmas, Mama.”
He shed his shoes and shirt, climbed into the bed beside her, and touched his son’s soft silk fingers. “Welcome to the family, Zachary.”
Lark placed her head on his shoulder and regarded their child asleep at her breast. “Ash,” she said. “I beg you will forgive me.”
“Lark.” He kissed her crown, placed his cheek upon her hair. “I received forgiveness from my mother, and never knew its power until I did, so I gladly give you mine. But why call for forgiveness when there is such wonder to be met?
“Rather, let me thank you for our new son and a life as joy-filled as Christmas, for you saved me when you switched those cards.
You
are everything I never knew I wanted for Christmas, and for as long as we both shall live—you, Micah, Ashley Briana, and our sleepy little Christmas boy.”
Lark raised her head, caught his gaze with brilliant eyes, and met his lips, while gratitude and love rushed Ash in tides too wild to be borne.
“I love you, Ash.”
“I love you, my Lady Blackburne, though I am not half good enough for you.”
THE END
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
At least two members of The Rogues Club never had their stories told:
Myles Quartermaine, Earl of Northclyffe
and
Hunter Elijah Wylder, Marquess of Wyldborne
Since revamping the original Rogues,
Plots for the last two are dancing like sugarplums in my head.
Tentative titles are: Unholy Rogue and Unmasked Rogue
I hope at some point to bring their stories to life.
Bio: Annette Blair
A National Bestselling Author for Penguin Books, Annette left her job as a Development Director and Journalism Advisor at a private New England prep school to become a full time writer. Thirty-five books in, and she’s added Cozy Mysteries and Bewitching Romantic Comedies to her Regency, Victorian, and Amish Historical Romances. The Rogues Club, her readers say, is the series that put her on the map.
Happily married to her grammar school nemesis, Annette considers romance a celebration of life. Always happy crafting a new story, she loves hearing from her readers.
https://www.facebook.com/annette.blair.author
http://twitter.com/annetteblair
Awards and Accolades
(Formerly: A Christmas Baby)
The Rogues Club, Book Four
2005 Aspen Gold Winner, HODRW
2005 Reviewers’ International Org. Award of Excellence Runner Up
2005 Regency Romance of the Year Award Nominee, HRC
2005 Gallant Rogue of the Year Nominee, Reed Gilbride St. Yves, HRC
2005 Bravest Heroine of the Year Award Winner, Larkin McAdams, HRC
2005 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence Finalist, S Magic RWA
2005 Top Ten Reads for 2004, Lynda Lukow, MyShelf
2004 #1 Top Pick Review, October, ARR
2004 Top Pick Award, RRAH
Operation Petticoat, February 2013
Sisters of Sprit Anthology, Novella: Moving Pictures, TBA
Cloaked in Malice, July 2012
Mammoth Book Ghost Romance, Jonquils in the Snow, Novella, June 2012
Scoundrel in Disguise, March 2012 (Reprint)
Untamable Rogue, February 2012 (Reprint; Formerly A Christmas Baby)
Unmistakable Rogue, February 2012 (Reprint)
Unforgettable Rogue, January 2012 (Reprint)
Undeniable Rogue, January 2012 (Reprint)
Butterfly
Garden
, Oct 2011 (Reprint)
Skirting the Grave, July 2011
Kissingate Magic, Mammoth Book Scottish Romance, January 2011
Jacob’s Return, May 2011 (Reprint: Formerly Thee I Love)
Vampire Dragon, April 2011
Fall in Love Like a Romance Writer, February 2011
Naked Dragon, January 2010
Death by Diamonds, July 2010
Bedeviled Angel, August 2010
Hot Ticket Anthology, Annette’s You Can’t Steal First, Sept 2009
Larceny and Lace, Aug 2009
A Veiled Deception, January 2009
Never Been Witched, Feb 2009
Gone with the Witch, May 2008
Sex and the Psychic Witch, August 2007
The Scot, the Witch & the Wardrobe, Dec 2006
Hot Ticket Anthology, You Can’t Steal First, May 2006
Scoundrel in Disguise, May 2006
My Favorite Witch, January 2006
The Butterfly Garden (in reprint), April 2005
The Kitchen Witch, Oct 2004
A Christmas Baby (in reprint as Untamable Rogue), Oct 2004
An Unmistakable Rogue (in reprint), Oct 2003
An Unforgettable Rogue (in reprint), Oct 2002
An Undeniable Rogue (in reprint), Mar 2002
Thee I love, (in reprint as Jacob’s Return) Oct 1999
Lady Patience, Sept 1999
Lady Faith, March 1999