Page 39 of The Christmas Countess

A bright pink string, coming in through the door, weaving up over the sconce by the entrance, and then strung across the room to the foot of the bed.

Her toes wiggled. Something thick, stuck between her big and second toe.

The string was tied from her toe—or what she presumed was happening at the foot of the bed—she couldn’t see her feet past her belly swollen so full with child she was sure her skin was going to burst open at any moment.

She wiggled her left big toe. The string moved.

“Dom?”

No answer. He couldn’t have gotten far, for she’d just heard him.

With a groan, she moved to sit up and swing her legs off the side of the bed. Once upright, the groan turned into a smile when she realized exactly what day it was.

And why she currently had a pink string tied to her toe.

Christmas.

Leaning to the foot of the bed, she grabbed her wrap and pulled it about her shoulders. She bent over, stretching with her fingers to remove the string from her toe, but she couldn’t reach her feet for her belly in the way.

She would just have to leave it.

With a heave, she pushed herself out of bed and waddled across the room. She lifted the thread from around the sconce and balled it in her hand as she followed it out into the hallway. Into the corridor and the string stopped at a table along the wall. The end of it tied to the foot of a large silver platter, and in the middle of the tray, a tiny marzipan bunny, sitting upright, front paws high, looking at her.

She laughed, looking around. “Dom?”

Silence.

Karta picked up the bunny, thinking for a moment to save it, but then she saw the blue string tied to the end baluster of the stairs three feet away. She popped the bunny into her mouth.

Heaven.

Bending her left leg up behind her, she managed to wedge her hand back far enough to tug the pink string free of her toe. Just as she set her foot down, Theodora bounded up the stairs, barking, her tail in a frenzy. She nuzzled into Karta’s side, nudging her forward.

Karta laughed. “Hint received.” She went to the blue string, her fingers pinching the thread as she followed it down the stairs.

An elephant in the drawing room was her reward at the end of the blue string.

She moved throughout the house with Theodora at her side, following entwined strings to and from rooms. Purple, teal, black, red, green, and yellow threads in a rainbow of gaiety guiding her to a penguin, a bear, a hawk, a squirrel, a deer, and a lion. All of them crafted with such fine attention to detail she was amazed by each creation.

At the lion in the kitchens, she paused again, looking around her. Not a soul was to be found anywhere she’d been in the abbey. “Dom?”

Still no answer.

She looked at the last thread tied to the leg of the table that she’d seen weaved amongst the others throughout the house, but hadn’t yet gotten to the start of it. A gold thread. This was the start of it.

She moved to it, her forefinger and thumb pressing together to capture the silky string and she followed it.

The longest of all the threads, she followed it from room to room, up a level and back down a level until it delivered her to the study.

She pushed open the door. The golden thread stretched out across the room to a silver platter on the desk. Domnall was standing next to it, his dark blue eyes intent on her.

She laughed, running across the room as fast as her heavy belly would allow and she grabbed his arms. “I cannot believe you did this for me.”

His eyes slightly squinted, trepidation tinging his look. “It was good?”

“It was beyond good—it was perfect.” Her gaze dropped from her husband to the silver platter sitting next to him on the desk. In the center sat a grey…blob. She stared at it a long moment, trying to discern the shape of it. “But what? What is this one?” she asked, pointing at the platter.

He sighed with a quick shrug. “That one is a dog—Theodora, to be exact.”

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