Free His Christmas Nymph by Marly Mathews

see the look of anguish in his beautiful blue eyes. She closed her eyes against the pain, and hated herself when hot tears started to trickle down her face.
    They hit a bump in the road, and she grimaced as she bounced on the seat.
    “What in the world?” Her father sounded astonished. She couldn’t understand what could give him such a shock, after all, hadn’t they been through enough today? It had to be pretty impressive if it was affecting him so.
      “What is it?” she asked.
    “It’s someone I thought I wouldn’t see this Christmas,” he grumbled.
    “Who is it, Father?”
    “Georgia. It’s your Aunt Georgia.”
    * * * * *
    “Cheer up, Teddy. It could be worse, you might have had that awful man as your father-in-law, perish the thought!”
    They sat eating their luncheon. Edward looked at the crystal on the table and resisted the urge to start smashing it all.
    She must have seen the look of high dudgeon on his face. “Pray, do not abuse the crystal, Teddy. If you must, vent your frustration and go and shoot something. It’s just what your father would have done. You can take the hunting dogs and go and have fun. Or you could go for a ride—you do so love horseback riding.”
    “I don’t want to shoot anything, Mama, and I don’t want to go for a ride. I only want to explain myself to Caroline. She believes me to be a loathsome liar.”
    “From what I saw on her face, she does not hate you, Teddy. You must not think so much of her. She is a passing fancy, you will move on…maybe with Lady Myrtle…”
    He slammed his hand done on the table, causing everything to rattle, and his mother to jump in her seat.
    “Blast and damn, Mama, I will not marry that harridan. I will not! You may depend upon it! She is a simpering idiot, and a fortune hunter of the worst degree. Her reputation is not unblemished as well you know. I wouldn’t marry her if she were the last woman in all of England!”
    “Well, there. You finally said it. You finally told me what you thought. I am proud of you, Teddy. That’s all I ever wanted. And while we’re on the subject, why is it that Caroline reminds me so keenly of someone? I can’t seem to place her, it is most vexing.”
    “She reminds you of Lady Margaret Pudney. She was her mother.”
    “She is that Griffith? That irritating prig was married to Lady Margaret? I thought she did better than your father…I guess I assumed incorrectly. That poor woman. How she must have suffered!”
    “He isn’t that bad of a sort.”
    “He insulted you. He’s as bad as they come in my estimation. I shall make sure he’s not welcomed in any of our social circles.”
    “Pray don’t, Mama. I don’t want you blackening their name. This family has put them through enough.”
    “No, your father put Lady Margaret through her paces. We didn’t have a thing to do with it.”
    “You played a major role, Mama.”
    She waved her hand dismissively. “All in the past, it is all behind us.”
    “Not anymore. It’s right in front of me now, and I want a way to remove it. I won’t give her up, Mama.”
    “What did you do to earn such disdain from her father?”
    “I told her that Lady Margaret wanted us to wed. I told her that she came to Papa and asked him to set the match up should anything happen to her.”
    “You spoke the truth, this I know. There was absolutely no reason for them to doubt you.”
    “I beg your pardon, Mama?”
    She looked down at her champagne while colo ur crept up her neck to her cheeks. His mother was truly French. She guzzled champagne like it was water. Fortunately, they could afford to keep her in her worst vice.
    “How do you know I spoke the truth?” he persisted.
    His mother was unsettled. He could see it the way that colour touched her cheeks. His mother never had that kind of reaction unless she was clearly affected.
    Genevieve was a true actress, she always hid behind a carefully erected mask, but with him that shell sometimes cracked and it