Page 52 of A Christmas Temptation for the Duke
He was not her savior. He was not a good person in hiding. He was exactly as he had always been, and Alison was the fool for thinking differently. He remained man she met last week at themarkets, the one who tried to steal the music box, mocking her all the while. That was the real Earl and everything else was a façade.
With that in mind, Alison came to a final decision. Not that which she wanted, but the only thing she could do. Daniel did not care about her. He certainly did not want her there. So, why was she wasting her time obeying commands that she had never wanted to pay attention to in the first place?
Daniel wants nothing to do with me, but he is too much of a coward to say it. I will save him the effort… even if he probably won’t notice. At this point, why would he?
Alison was not wanted by Daniel, so she would not waste her time in staying at his estate. With her home so close by, empty and beckoning to her, she decided it was time to return once and for all.
To hell with the consequences.
Chapter Seventeen
“Heya!” a voice called to Alison from over her right shoulder.
Alison recognized the voice, but she did not know from where it came. With Pickle held under her arms, she started and paused, then turned slowly… only to break into a friendly smile when she saw who it was that had called out.
“Tommy!” she laughed in surprise.
It was the young boy from the village. Dressed in his usual cheap coat and worn through pants, wearing a hat pulled over his messy blond hair, and with pink cheeks from the cold, he beamed as he raced across the grounds toward her.
“Nice day for a walk, ain’t it!” Tommy said as he came closer. “A bit on the cold side, but what else can you expect with all the snow about?”
“That is a very good point,” she agreed, still laughing. “Which begs the question…” She cocked an eyebrow at him as if in judgment. “What on earth are you doing out here?”
He shrugged. “Just exploring, is all. It’s a free country, ain’t it?”
“Not really,” she shot back. “But the last I checked there is no law against going for a walk.”
“There better not be,” he said as if serious. “It’s all I got to do.”
“Ah, so boredom is the reason.”
Pickle squirmed in her arms to get closer to Tommy, so she put the little dog down in the snow. It yelped and started jumping up his legs, which had Tommy laughing gaily and petting it.
“He likes you.”
“What’s not to like.” He petted Pickle further, scratching behind the dog’s ears and giggling all the while. “What is it you’re doing out here?” he then asked her.
“I live here, thank you very much.”
“Outside?”
“No.” She rolled her eyes. “That there is my home.” She turned and pointed to the manor which sat just beyond the grounds. “In all its glory.”
It had only been a few days since she last visited, but the manor looked different to how she remembered it. It appeared bigger, somehow. More isolated, and lonely. There was no life to it, no sense at all that anyone lived there or would want to. It sat stark against the white backdrop, a sense of foreboding emanating from the walls.
The truth of the matter was that Alison had no real desire to return home. There was nothing there for her, and it would only add to her feelings of loneliness. But she also did not want to remain with the Earl, and she figured that if she was going to be left alone then it might as well be in her own house.
“Say…” An idea then came to mind, and it had her smiling. “What are you doing now, Tommy?”
“I told ya, didn’t I? Walking.”
She laughed. “How you feel about walking a young lady back to her front door? Do you consider yourself a gentleman?”
Tommy stood up straight and put his hands on his hips. “I am!”
“I am sure you are. And, say you manage to see me home safely, how would you feel about…. Oh, some tea and biscuits? And whatever food I can find.”
Tommy’s eyes flashed with hunger. “I think that’s only fair.”
