O Night Divine A Holiday Collection of Spirited Christmas Tales - Kathryn Le Veque Page 0,72

She dragged his head down, kissed his cheek fiercely, and ran out of the room.

Chapter Two

Sir Joseph Sayle watched his sister run out of the room, then turned and gazed thoughtfully at the closed French doors. After a moment, he reached out and opened one a crack. Then he walked across to the dying embers of the fire, stirred it into life with the poker, and added another log.

He sat down on the chair on the left, turned up the lamp at his shoulder, and picked up the book he had left there this afternoon.

It didn’t take long before someone slipped through the French door, closed it, and drew the curtains. Then he strode across the room and held his hands down to the now blazing fire. After a moment, he took off his overcoat and threw it on the sofa. Only then did he sit in the chair opposite Joe. All the old excitement blazed out of him, as bright as it had ever been. And Joe, still won over by the sheer force of his personality, could only smile back.

“Merry Christmas, my friend,” Selim said softly.

“Not as merry as I had hoped,” Joe drawled. “You made my sister cry.”

“For some reason, she thought I was dead.”

“You did not enlighten her.”

Selim shrugged. “I thought you might have told her so.”

Joe frowned at his old, wayward friend. “Why the devil would I do that?”

“To stop her thinking of me,” Selim suggested.

“You really are a coxcomb, are you not?”

Selim grinned. “Yes, but she does think of me.”

“In spite of my evil, mustache-twirling efforts to keep you apart?”

“Forgive me,” Selim said, unabashed. “No one knows better than I the value of a beloved sister. It is not a gift to be made lightly.”

“Are you asking my permission to pay your addresses to her?”

“You will let her choose?”

Joe’s lips quirked. “I don’t think any of us have a choice about that.”

A singularly sweet smile dawned on Selim’s face. “I would spend my life trying to win her love, to earn it.”

“You may have to,” Joe said cynically. “She is not going to be pleased when she discovers you fooled her.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Selim protested. “At least, not at first. I rode straight here from Dover, to presume on our old friendship, and spend Christmas with you if you would have me.”

“And the front door is too mundane for Prince Selim?” Joe said sardonically.

Selim sighed. “The wretched fog slowed me down, and I arrived late. I would still have used the front door, only I saw her out there in the cold. So, I abandoned the horse and ran up. I thought it would save rousing your whole household. But I took her by surprise. I suppose I must have looked eerie, with the fog and the direction of the dim light. I froze when she looked at me. I thought, at first, I had just frightened her. And then I couldn’t think what to say to explain I was not a ghost. And then it struck me I could find out if she loved me. If she didn’t, I could just disappear with my manly self-confidence intact. Publicly at least.”

“And does she?” Joe asked.

Selim’s dark eyes glowed. “There is feeling there waiting to be awakened.” His gaze focused on Joe’s face. “Tell me I am wrong.”

Joe met his gaze for a moment, then rose to his feet. “Come. We had better deal with your horse and your baggage. The bedchamber you had on your last visit is prepared. You might as well use it.”

Emma woke with the knowledge that a light had gone out in the world. In her world.

Only now, when she knew there was no chance of Selim coming back to her, did she realize how much she had been relying on it. Although it wasn’t in her nature to brood or repine, he had always been there, at the back of her mind or at the front, through every party, every drive in the park, and every amusing conversation. At quiet moments. And during offers of marriage.

Davitt’s had been the first she had truly considered. Because she had begun to realize Selim would not come back?

And he wouldn’t.

Except for the miracle of his ghost, which made her ache and yet warmed her to the core. She had never encountered a spirit before, but she knew his must have come for a reason. To make her understand that everyone’s time in this world was precious and finite. She and Selim