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Tess propped the doll up on her dresser and returned the beady-eyed stare ‘I have no one to bla worse than eloping with the ’ And, like the dreaht beyond that moment in Alex’s arms She hadn’t realised she was in love with hi with him would make that love real and painful And impossible

‘I suppose I ought to call you Patricia, not Patty Patty was a child’s doll You are a foolish grooman’s, confessional’ So sweet of Alex to remember her words in the toyshop, so like him to buy her a doll to replace the one taken from her He pretended he was a cynic, that he didn’t believe in Christic, deep under that glossy shell of uncaring sophistication

He would make a wonderful father to those children she could never have She i up, the children of scandal, the rejected relatives of the neighbouring great house If Alex had not been so careful then shehis child now Tess folded her hands over her stomach, over her empty womb, as hollow as her heart

‘I have lost nothing,’ she told herself, willing the tremor out of her voice ‘I could never have Alex, never be anything else but hishim court and wed another woman She knew Alex—he wouldn’t keep a e voould be sacred Nor could she be with a , just a feeeks with hi

She lay down on the bed and closed her dry eyes It would be prudent to rest for an hour before they left for the church and the uess how she felt, least of all Alex

She must have drifted off to sleep because Dorcas’s discreet tap on the door woke her with a start

‘The carriages will be at the door in thirty minutes, but Lady Moreland says to coh, Miss Ellery? Or shall I find your flannel petticoat?’

‘Goodness, no’ Tess went into the dressing room and splashed cold water on her face She would never undress for Alex again, but she was not going to appear anywhere near hiarical and, she supposed, he would say it was feine the mischievous expression on his face as he teased her

‘I must have the arht for her with Alex’s money Should she try to pay him back? Or return them, perhaps? But she would never find respectable employh about that, he would say it was foolish pride, and perhaps it was

It was difficult at first to keep the smile on her face when she went downstairs to join the family in the hall, but the view fro it open took her breath away

It had begun to snow and there, in a seers They launched into ‘Adeste Fidelis’ as the light spilled out down the whitened steps and illuminated their faces and beside her a fine tenor voice picked up the verse

‘“Adeste fideles, læti triuelorum Venite adoremus”’

It was Alex Beyond him Lady Moreland added her contralto and Maria joined her Tess began to sing, translating in her head ‘“Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant”’

Soon they were all singing, footmen and butler as well, and even a deep bass rumble from Alex’s father There was silence when the last notes died away, then the singers began another carol, one that Tess, raised on the convent’s hymns, did not know: ‘Christians Awake!’

The rest of the staff had coers Everyone sang and she stood and watched Alex, saw him smile at his mother, heard his voice, clear on the cold air, and knew she would remember this for the rest of her life

One lasses of punch, the fare and the family coaches pulled up

‘You are a dreadful fraud,’ Tess said to Alex as he helped her into the first carriage ‘The things you said about carol singers!’

She expected hi tone, but his face was serious as he settled her in the seat and stepped down ‘I had forgotten the simple beauty of it,’ he said Then he did smile ‘Mama, mind that slippery patch’ He helped his mother to her place, then Maria and his father Matthew cli Dorcas, and Alex shut the door