A Midwinter Fantasy - Leanna Renee Hieber [39]
He heard a hiss from the rearmost room—a kitchen, likely—from which warm and intoxicating odours flowed. Someone was mulling wine, a fine cabernet. “Go, go out the side. One of them is here!” hissed a voice with a French accent.
Michael rushed forward. He was in time. In the kitchen he found Josephine, who had prepared a feast that overflowed from tables and countertops. Lord Withersby was lighting candles, careful to keep his absurdly excessive mauve sleeves from catching fire.
“Hullo, friends.” Michael grinned.
Josephine and Elijah turned, sheepish. “Sorry, old chap,” Elijah murmured. “We wanted to have this all done and ready before you got here, but the spirits sure were quick about it, weren’t they?”
Michael didn’t know what to say.
Seeming to understand, Josephine took his hands. “Have you lived a whole life over? For us it’s only been a day. You must promise to tell us all about it!”
“Josie, it’s private,” Elijah scoffed. “If the spirits went rooting around in our pasts, do you think we’d want to share?”
Josephine raised an eyebrow, shocked at her fiancé’s unusual moment of discretion. “C’est vrai. I suppose for once you are right.”
“Listen,” Michael said, grabbing Elijah, “whom do I have to thank—?”
Elijah waved at him to be silent. “I’ve a message from the orphanage. Little Charlie’s health has turned a corner. He said an angel came and commended him for his help. You should have him over for a nice dinner, he said he’d like that—and ‘God bless us’ and all that nonsense.” Withersby grinned. Michael pressed his hands to his face in a prayer of thanksgiving.
Josephine removed her apron, showing herself in a far fancier gown than anyone should have been found cooking, and threw one last handful of cinnamon sticks into the wine. “Finis.” She turned to Elijah. “Allons-y, ma chere.” She turned to Michael. “Joyeux Noelle!” Kissing him on both cheeks, she darted into the main hall and out the front door.
Elijah plucked a piece of paper from his vest pocket and pressed it into Michael’s hands. “Get done with this quickly and stop us all from living in sin. I love you!” He kissed Michael’s forehead and darted out the door.
Michael opened the paper. Stunned by his good fortune and his even better friends, he entered the sitting room and sat before the hearth, tears of joy in his eyes. While The Guard couldn’t be more different as individuals, Michael doubted there’d ever been such care between other humans. He held a certificate for two rings, courtesy of Lord Withersby’s favourite jeweler.
He felt as though his heart might burst from the magnitude of his blessings. It was hard to imagine that just yesterday he’d been feeling that his world was collapsing, that he’d lost everything. His heart was as full as the first day he joined The Guard. He’d lost nothing. He had everything yet to gain.
Heedless of the falling snow, flakes melting immediately against her flushed cheeks, Rebecca was down the block before she knew it, at the address specified in the letter. She went to turn the key in the lock and found it already open. The interior was lit. It smelled like heaven.
She did not take the stairs to the upper landings because a crackling warmth drew her toward the parlour. Inside sat a dapper man upon a divan, his hair more kempt than Rebecca was ever used to seeing, and his oceanic blue eyes were wide and brimming with promise. In what surely must be firelight, it seemed as though a great aura hung about him, as if he were channeling an angel. Or perhaps they were illuminating him for her. Lighting the way.
Michael Carroll. This was the man she’d been meant to love all along, the dear friend whom she had loved all along. And now she understood the truth. He was her past, her present, her . . .
“My Christmas yet to come,” she murmured from the doorway.
Michael’s eyes snapped up to behold her, and his face, somehow joyous even without expression, shone like a sun when he bestowed upon her his magnificent smile. The light was, in fact, his own. Jumping to his feet, he rushed to the threshold and took