Merry Misrule - St. Clair, Ellie Page 0,5

my hide. She was quite looking forward to your visit. I promise you that I shall be on my best behavior. We shall pretend nothing ever happened in the past, and I shall stay as far from you as you choose. Is that fair?”

Joanna sighed. She had been looking forward to spending time with Caroline as well. Her friend had remained here in the country since the summer, and as Joanna now lived in London, she had little opportunity to see her. If Eli was willing to keep his distance…

“Very well,” she finally gave in, “but I will decide so for Caroline, not for you.”

“Splendid,” he said, beaming, “she shall be extraordinarily pleased.”

His face softened for a moment, and she wondered whether he was actually showing some vulnerability or if this was all an act.

“I am sorry, Miss Merryton, truly I am. I’m not used to polite company, having spent so long away, and even before then—”

“You were not much one for the entire politeness aspect?” she said wryly, and he chuckled.

“I suppose not.”

Joanna nearly laughed herself, but then she remembered who he was and that he always knew exactly what to do and say to keep himself from trouble — trouble which she had no time or energy for. She had been provided a brief respite from her work, but after this time away, it would be back to hours bent over her needlework once more, for this was the one holiday she would receive this year. This time had been hard worked for and should not be taken for granted.

“I am sorry.”

“You have said that a few times,” she said, finished with it all and no longer caring if anything she said to him was offensive in the least. “But are you truly sorry about what you said, or are you merely sorry because now I have become a woman you wouldn’t mind kissing under the mistletoe?”

And with her nose in the air, she brushed by him and out into the corridor, quite proud of herself and her retort.

She knew it wasn’t entirely true. She would never be as beautiful a woman as Cecily — Lady Danvers now — or Caroline, but, from the change in attention from young men she encountered, she was aware that she no longer blended into the wallpaper and the furniture as she once did.

She only hoped she had made him think, so that the next poor soul he tried to capture under the Christmas canoodling bough wouldn’t go through what she did.

For one thing was certain — no matter how handsome, how charming, how apologetic he was, that woman most certainly would never again be her.

Chapter 3

Elijah was captivated.

He’d like to say it was because no other woman had ever spurned him so. No other woman had been uninterested in his advances. No other woman had ever spoken to him with such forthrightness, so unapologetic in her words toward him.

But it was more than that.

There was something about Miss Joanna Merryton. She was beautiful, in a fresh, unique way. Her green eyes reminded him of emeralds, but they were a bit too shrewd and just a bit too far apart from one another. They also had a bit of a cross-eyed look when she squinted that made him wonder whether her lack of spectacles was a choice.

Her hair was a mix between gold and chestnut, sleek and fine, but also seemingly as straight as could be from what he could tell. The ringlet that seemed to be attempting to surround her face when he’d first sought her out had been nearly straight by the time he had left her room. Her cheekbones were high, and a dimple emerged every now and then when her mouth curled into a smile, even if it was a wry one — as it seemed to be whenever she looked at him.

Maybe it was the way she held her nose in the air when she glanced his way, as though she was trying to convince herself that she was better than he and his rash behavior. He wasn’t sure, but, try as he might, he couldn’t stop looking at her throughout the entire dinner that evening.

And this was but the first day of the Christmas party to be held at Briercrest.

A Christmas party he had never expected.

While he had been on the front lines, suffering from rations and lack of cheer, somehow he had assumed that everyone at home would be of an equally low morale.

He had