Merry Misrule - St. Clair, Ellie Page 0,11

few of the party brought skates.

Joanna and Caroline had a few games of their own in mind.

Briercrest had beautiful pasture in the summer — miles of greenery stretching toward the tenants’ homes dotting the hill as far as one could see.

Joanna had only seen the grounds covered in white once before — every other Christmas had been brown. And while she was aware of the difficulties snow could bring in terms of travel and the work required of the staff, she had to admit that she loved the beauty of the frost lining the tree branches, the chill seeming like diamonds in the air.

Their party had grown since the previous evening, and they made quite the drawn-out group as they plodded along.

Joanna’s hip was bumped and she nearly took Caroline down with her, but she smiled when she saw the eagerness on the faces of the children as they raced by her. Christmas could be a time of such joy, she remembered, although it had been some years since it had been so for her. Since her grandmother had been alive.

“There it is!” Caroline cried excitedly. “The lake.”

She craned her neck around — looking for Thatcher no doubt, but he was nowhere to be found, and she had to settle for Joanna’s company instead.

It was a small yet pretty lake surrounded by evergreens and frosty trees. In previous years, the ice hadn’t been thick enough to skate on it, but this year had proven to be just cold enough for them to enjoy it.

Some of their party sat down on a blanket laid out by the few footmen who had accompanied them and began to lace their skates, while many of the children simply slid out on the ice with their boots.

This was what Christmas was about, Joanna thought, putting all concerns about Elijah to the side. It was about family and fun and a time to find joy. Even if that joy was fleeting.

Caroline, as it happened, had not forgotten their plan of revenge.

“Over there,” she said, pointing to a thatch of evergreens. “Little Clementine has agreed to help us.”

Joanna nodded as Caroline ran over to her niece, who was staring out at the ice before her with trepidation. She was the youngest of the bunch, her eagerness at not being left behind clearly at odds with her nervousness over sliding across the ice.

“Come,” Caroline called to Joanna, a gleam in her eye, and Joanna wondered now whether her plan had perhaps been too malicious, if she was bringing out the worst in her friend.

But Caroline was on a mission now, and there would be no stopping her. All Joanna could do was go along.

They left the path and the skaters behind as they began to make their way through the deeper snow, lifting one boot after the other, leaving footprints in their wake.

“Are you sure this will work?” Caroline asked, looking back to Joanna.

“No,” Joanna said with a laugh and a shake of her head, “but we can do our best.”

They hunkered down behind a row of bushes, and quickly went to work packing the snow into hard balls. They had just finished stockpiling their ammunition when voices came from the other side.

“She said Caro was through here,” Lord Elijah was saying, and Joanna looked to Caroline, trying to signal with the widening of her eyes and a shrug that she had no idea who might be with him. There was a huff of breath and the crack of a branch through the still of the air. “She said she was in trouble — that she fell. Perhaps—”

Just as he crested the top of the hill, Caroline picked up a ball of snow, stepped back, and heaved it in the air toward him.

And missed.

“What in the—” Lord Elijah’s head whipped toward them, but Joanna was there to correct Caroline’s mistake.

She leaned back, put everything she had into it, and chucked the ball toward him. She hit him square in the face.

Lord Elijah stood there for a moment in shock as the snow dripped off his handsome, sculpted cheekbones.

Joanna remained immobile for a moment, suddenly completely unsure of this plan, for she had no idea how he was going to react.

“Eli?” Lord Alexander was there next to him, his own mouth open, aghast at what he had just witnessed. He craned his neck to try to see who was there through the trees, and Joanna was reminded of how like Lord Elijah he looked, yet how different as well.