Free Christmas Kiss (A Holiday Romance) (Kisses and Carriages) by L.L. Muir Page A

more clearly?
    He often thought of his home as a large empty box made of stone. No wife and children waiting inside for him. But that day, as he stood knee-deep in snow, ignoring the buffeting of the wind as it tried to push him out of his boots, there was a woman and child waiting inside.
    Of course the letter made it clear the woman, to whom he was unusually attracted, was conspiring against him and should not be trusted. But the cherub? What had possessed him to ask the child if she knew the coachman? Doesn’t every child know a coachman? What if she hadn’t understood that he was asking about a specific man?
    What a coward he was! He’d been given a miracle and for fear of a bit of bruising to his heart, he’d doubted it.
    But perhaps the damage could be undone.
    “The pair of ye should be grateful for each other.” It was if the wind blew his own words back to him.  And yet, the sound still hummed in his ears. It hadn’t been a memory at all. The words had been murmured! And not by him!
    He whipped around, expecting to find the coachman at his back.
    From the drift against the barn wall, snow blew across his footprints and splattered against the old tanner’s cottage, like a massive ghost moving from one grave to the next.
    “Show yerself!” His voice boomed loud and clear, chasing away the murmur, shaking the roof of the stable just behind him.
    He heard a roar but had no time to turn before he felt a terrible weight crash into his back, force his breath from him, and send him into oblivion.
    * * *
    After extensive experimentation, Bree proved that rubbing two sticks together was not the key to starting a fire. It helped warm her up, but she wasn’t sure it if was due to exercise or anger, just like before.
    How could that man just let them freeze?
    Sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the hearth, she pulled the quilts off the little girl and draped them over her own shoulders, then opened her arms so the kid could crawl onto her lap.
    “We’re just going to have to keep cuddling until he comes,” she said.
    The kid rolled her eyes and grinned, her shaking shoulders the only indication she was laughing—or would have been laughing if she had a voice. Then she bent and collected the little box of odds and ends Bree hadn’t been able to make odds and ends out of.
    “I don’t think you should be playing with that,” Bree said, but didn’t take the stuff away from her. What was the worst that could happen? She’d start a fire?
    And damned if she didn’t!
    Sparks shot out from between the rock and the metal thingee, landed on the fluffy stuff and caught fire! A minute later, actual pieces of wood were lighting up.
    “So sue me,” she said. “I’m a city girl. My idea of girl’s camp was going to a hotel to swim and have a sleepover.”
    It was getting late in the afternoon, but the shadows that had been falling were chased away by their happy little fire. The little girl sat down on Bree’s lap, but jumped back to her feet in surprise when Bree’s stomach growled.
    Bree laughed. “I guess I’m hungry. Are you getting hungry?”
    The girl shrugged and climbed into the chair. The room was warming enough so they no longer needed to sit so close to the flames. Bree got up and draped a blanket around the kid so her back wouldn’t get cold, then she went to the lunch tray to see if there was anything left that the girl might eat. And maybe if Laird Gorgeous-but-Mean heard them moving around, it might remind him there was someone in the castle besides himself.
    She bent over the tray and found just what she’d expected. Nothing. They’d been pretty hungry at lunchtime too.
    Something large crashed downstairs.
    Bree stepped to the door and pressed her ear against it.
    She could hear him moving around down there, but the door was thick and she couldn’t tell much, only that someone was making noises. Clumsy noises.
    Is he drunk?
    Man, if they’d been freezing their butts off because he’d