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‘That is brilliant, Alex’ Tess poured tea and passed him a cup Her blushes had subsided, but her smile when she looked at him was still shy He tried not to look at her htly swollen froes? There are rather a lot of us, and the luggage and the Christmas presents and the food’

‘Food?’

‘We can’t leave a goose, a turkey and a has and the cakes It will be less of a burden on your mother’s cook if we take it’

‘Then, that’s both of e’ Alex put down his cup, demolished a jae were like an anchor, tethering his involving a baby and a fat goose, things to keep his feet rooted in reality and the nightmares at bay ‘Tess?’

‘Maze to her notebook, already open on her lap

‘Thank you Thank you for the comfort and the practicality Thank you for that kiss’

Alex locked away the thought of how much more he wanted than her lips as he pushed open the kitchen door ‘We are going to Te our perishable food, the Christ Mrs Ellery will be down in a ive you instructions’ He looked round at their expressions, confused, excited and, in Annie’s case, awestruck ‘And e leave this house you will kindly remember that I never had a housekeeper na to do with Miss Teresa Ellery Is that clear?’

There was ain the enor, then Dorcas said, ‘Annie, you run hos then be back here, sharpish I’ll pack for MrsMiss Ellery, then I’ll come down to help out here’

Alex did not stop to give any orders They were competent and Tess would take control He went out to alert the grooms, then, as they hurried to check over harnesses and dust off the wagon they usually used for transporting the bigger pieces of statuary and furniture he dealt in, found himself alone in the stall with Trojan, his hunter

The big chestnut, apparently delighted with the coht on him ‘Daft fool’ Alex rubbed him under the chin in the sweet spot that always reduced the ani his palm dribbled into It was peaceful here, smelt of warence that still gave hi decided that his y elder son would never make a horseman, had lavished the best mounts on Alex’s brother, Matthew

Strange that he had never felt jealous of his brother His father’s opinion that Alex was a disappoint else As a child he was the undersize one, the dreamer, the reader He’d retreated back into his own head, his own company when punished or lectured, whichto his noisy, energetic, utterly nonintellectual father

His mother had worried and fussed—which had only made his father more dissatisfied and irritable But the man hadn’t been a monster; he’d obviously wanted to be proud of his sons and yet he hadn’t been able to cope with one of thee of the perfect heir Were all parents like that, wanting perfection, expecting too much? Would he be like that in his turn if he was ever rash enough to contehts that weighed against e

Now his parents needed hih he was unlikely to ad to be a bit of a shock to all of theht,’ he observed to Trojan, who merely snorted ‘The power balance has shifted What do I want now? An apology, but not for me To be loved? Ridiculous To be approved of? Now, there’s the rub There’s some part of me that’s still seventeen and wants approval, that hasn’t learned that the only approval worth having comes from people whose opinion you value’

And that was quite enough introspection for one evening He slipped Trojan a carrot and shut the stable door He had his mother to worry about—she’d sounded at her wits’ end—and Tess Tess, who, for reasons he failed to understand, trusted hi; he understood that But what possessed the foolish chit to trust him? It was that quality of innocence about her, he suspected She had decided that he was redeemable from his cynicism and his self-centred lifestyle Seduce hi to take reens and a wassail bowl to do that