Page 19 of A Strange Christmas Game

A weight settled in Charles’ stomach. He shook his head slowly.

“You were just a bairn. A few months old.” Mr. Lester leaned against the bookshelf closest to Charles. “Marriage is not always the same, here, you must realize.”

“So, how… did you ruin… their happiness?”

Mr. Lester closed his eyes as though he were summoning patience. “I was young, vain, and selfish. I tried to force myself upon your mother.” Charles blanched and Mr. Lester said hurriedly, “I did not… my brother wassodispleased with me. He found us. Stopped me.”

“Your brother?” Charles took a step toward him. He did not have to raise his voice for people to be frightened of him and he used that to his advantage, crowding Mr. Lester, all thoughts of his potential flightiness forgotten. Charles did not know who would lie about something like this. There would also be no point. He did not know what could be gained by lying. “You mean my father?”

Mr. Lester nodded.

“ThenLesterisn’t your surname.”

“No, when I knew who you were, when I saw you, I…” he swallowed. “I had a choice. I should have told you the truth. But I was frightened.”

Charles took a deep breath through his nose.

He exhaled.

“Tell me everything,” he said to his uncle. His voice and face were deadly tranquil. “And I shall find out if you are lying.” He nodded to a chair draped with a cloth. “Go on. Sit. I’ll light a fire.”

It was pastmidnight when Florence saw her door open in the dark. The frost and rooftops reflected blue under a full moon. It allowed her to see the entire room.

She was awake and waiting for Mr. Mason’s return. It was farfetched as well as a little wicked, but she’d left it unlatched in the hope that he might come to her.

She had thought it would happen several hours before now and allowed that she had not given much thought as to what they’d actuallydo.Talk, presumably, unless she fainted again. Mr. Maclean had talked to her. Too much.

She considered feigning a faint simply so that he would retreat.

Until she saw Mr. Mason slipping into the room, she had very few salacious thoughts. Well, she had managed to fend them off. Unfortunately, just the sight of him brought all of them back, something which she marveled at given what Mr. Danvers had shown her he was capable of.

It didn’t matter. Not with Mr. Mason. She did not fear him at all.

“You’re awake,” he said, once he was near enough to see that her eyes were open.

“I am.”

“I thought you wouldn’t be.” He hesitated. “I can… should… go.”

“Who will gossip about us here? Harriet?”

Evidently, her teasing smile won him over. He walked quietly across the old boards and settled in the chair near her bedside. She was pleased he did not choose the one by the window.

When he sat, he let out a sigh. “You should be resting.”

“What would you have done had I been asleep?”

“I…”

“Did you plan on watching me?” His much smaller, far less put-upon sigh answered her question. “You did. Well, this is better. What happened at Ullinn House? You were gone far longer than anyone expected. I think Mr. Lester went to look for you.”

“He found me.”

“You were there so late. Will you… we…” she still was not used to thinking that someone was helping her. “Stay there?”

His reply was quiet. “Yes.”

She gathered that, for some reason, he did not want to discuss it further. She tried to respect that and said, “I am pleased you came upstairs.” It was the first time they had been fully alone together, and she was not disappointed by the way his being near her seemed to create an instant warmth. Even before she’d flopped onto him earlier, she’d been aware of how charged the narrow space was between them.

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