Read Online Joan Smith by The Kissing Bough - Free Book Online

be necessary, Jane. Kind of you to ask.”
    “It’sonly a scratch, for God’s sake,” Nick scoffed.
    “We ain’t all heroes, Nick,” Pelham said forgivingly. He nudged his friend aside for a private word. “You seem a bit testy tonight, Nick. I know you’ve had a bad time of it in Spain, but you’re home now. It’s Christmas. You have a beautiful young fiancée. What more could you possibly want out of life? Just relax and enjoy yourself, or Miss Aurelia will think she’s marrying a bear.”
    “Sorry, Pel,” Nick said, and gave himself a good talking to. He was behaving like a lout. What was the matter with him? He decided it was Goderich, rapidly sinking into oblivion abovestairs, that was putting him on edge.
    When the mulled wine was prepared, they all tested it and agreed it was fine.
    “Forgot the apples,” Pel said, and went off in search of them.
    Shortly after his return, the mummers arrived and the whole party went out to watch the performers in their painted paper costumes and flowered headgear enact the traditional Christmas performance. They were all there—King George and the Doctor and Turkey Snipe, having at each other with their wooden swords. Nick pushed his worries aside and enjoyed the show. He invited the performers in for a glass of mulled wine and cakes, then they were off to Squire Archer’s house.
    “Well, by jingo, that was enjoyable,” Pelham said when they had left. “And on New Year’s we will have the wassailers around to serenade us. There is nothing like a good country Christmas season.”
    “Their costumes were made of paper,” Aurelia said.
    “That’s part of the tradition,” Pelham explained.
    “Why don’t they have cloth ones? At the Christmas pantomime in London they have lovely costumes.”
    “That’s London. This is the country,” he said simply.
    Miss Aurelia thought the country had a deal to learn from London, and when she was mistress of Clareview, she would teach them the proper way to put on a show.
    In the general melee after the departure of the mummers, Jane thought old Lord Goderich might enjoy a cup of the mulled wine, and took one up to him. He was allowed wine, and in fact, usually had a posset at night to help him sleep. Nick soon noticed that she was not about, and asked Pelham where she had gone.
    “She took a glass of wine up to your uncle, I believe. She is always thinking of others,” he added, smiling as proudly as if Jane already belonged to him.
    “I promised to visit Uncle before retiring. I had best go up now, or the wine will have put him to sleep.”
    “Say good day to him for me. I stopped in earlier, but he was sawing logs.”
    Jane found Goderich already asleep when she arrived, his candle guttering low in its holder. She just looked at him, rather sadly. His blankets were all askew. She set the wine aside and straightened his blankets. When she looked up, Nick was standing at the door watching her, with a frown of concentration creasing his brow.
    “He’s asleep,” she said softly. “Shall I blow out the candle?”
    “I promised him I would come up and say good night. I hope he doesn’t think I forgot.”
    “He will have forgotten all about it by morning,” she said. “We’ll leave the mulled wine to let him know you were here. If he awakens in the night, it might put him back to sleep.”
    “That was thoughtful of you, Jane,” he said.
    “Lord Goderich was kind to me in the past. He gave me my first pony, took me on my first trip on a sailboat. I just wish I could do more for him.”
    “I feel the same.”
    “His time is nearly gone. You are doing what would please him—if he realized it, I mean.”
    “What is that?”
    “Why, you will be carrying on in his place as Lord Goderich. Marrying, running the estate, raising more sons to run Clareview. That is what he always wanted.”
    “That’s true, but I must confess, I came home to please myself. It never even occurred to me that it would please him. What a