Free 'Twas the Night After Christmas by Sabrina Jeffries

bit.” Her tone grew wistful. “I didn’t get to spoil my own boy near enough.”
    Camilla burned with curiosity to ask why not, but now wasn’t the time.
    Lady Devonmont kissed Jasper on the forehead, then headed for the door. “I believe I shall retire early this evening. This has been a very long day.”
    “Would you like me to read to you?”
    She shook her head. “I suspect I’ll fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. In any case, you deserve an evening to yourself once in a while.”
    “Thank you.” That would certainly make it easier for her to see his lordship alone later.
    How Camilla wished she could ask her ladyship more about the stormy relationship with her son. But her ladyship had refused time and again to speak about her son’s neglect. That wasn’t liable to change just because he’d had dinner with her. Besides, it might be easier to startle the truth out of him, given how readily he got provoked when the subject involved his mother.
    Camilla crooned Jasper’s favorite lullaby until he fell asleep, then motioned to Maisie to join her outside the door. She considered lying to the girl, but she needed one person to know the true situation. And she trusted Maisie, who adored Jasper as if he were her own.
    Quickly she explained the bargain made between her and hislordship, making it very clear that their assignation was not of the intimate kind. “I would prefer, however, that you not mention this to anyone, even the other servants, and especially not to her ladyship. Her feelings would be hurt if she learned of it.”
    “I’ll be silent as the grave, I swear,” Maisie murmured.
    The girl probably would, too. She had immediately taken to Camilla because of Camilla’s Scottish surname, even knowing that it only came from her late husband. No, she would never reveal Camilla’s secrets, at least not to all the English running about the estate.
    “I won’t be in his chambers too late, I promise,” Camilla said, “but with the way her ladyship has been pining for him, I just couldn’t refuse to meet his terms.”
    “I understand, truly I do. I know you wouldn’t do anything unseemly.”
    “If Jasper should happen to wake and need me . . . ”
    “I’ll take care of it. We don’t want his lordship guessing that he’s here, and we don’t want those gossips in the kitchen thinking the wrong thing, either, do we?”
    Camilla beamed at the girl. “Exactly.” She glanced at the case clock in the hall. It was already later than she’d have liked. “I have to go.”
    Maisie caught her arm. “Be careful. With a man like that—”
    “I’ll be on my guard, don’t you worry.” Then she hurried down to the second floor, where the family rooms were.
    As she approached his bedchamber, her hands grew clammy. She honestly didn’t know what to make of him.
    After their earlier encounter, when he’d railed at her and triedto cow her, she’d expected him to be officious and cold to her at dinner. He was an earl, for pity’s sake. Her previous two employers, of far lower rank, had never treated her with anything but condescension. But although he’d been stiff with his mother, there’d been that moment when he’d joked with Camilla about the angel cutouts. . . .
    She shook her head at her softening toward him. It hardly made up for the fact that he was denying his mother his presence for the Christmas season. No matter how attractive he was, with his London sophistication and his dry wit, he was still behaving quite heartlessly to the countess.
    And her ladyship deserved better. That was one thing Camilla meant to do this evening—make sure that he knew it.
    She reached his bedchamber and tapped on the door, and when he swung it open, her heart practically failed her. Despite the chill in the room, he was dressed only in shirtsleeves and trousers, with nary a waistcoat, coat, or cravat to be seen. The sight of him so casually attired threw her off balance and stirred