Page 121 of Her Beast

Christmas is a day for friends and family. Why do you insist on punishing yourself with solitude?

Malcolm thought about the contents of his satchel and smiled, albeit unpleasantly.

Oh, you are mistaken, my dear, I’m not punishing myself, at all.

Indeed, Malcolm was about to go and punish somebody else—two somebodies.

In fact, it was his Christmas gift to himself.

Chapter 26

“You have to let me go, Jule. You’ll make me miss my train,” Richard said, squirming in Julia’s embrace.

She didn’t bother to remind him that the journey he’d be taking was solely forhimand would never leave without him.

Julia shuddered to think what Malcolm had paid to hire an engineer to pull his private car back to St. Albans.

“Jule,” Richard whined.

Julia released him and grinned at him. “I’m sorry. But I don’t know when I’ll see you again so I had to get as much unbreaking as possible, Rich.”

Her brother gave a distracted smile at their old jest. When he’d been little, he’d thought the wordembracingwasunbreaking.

“I need my unbreaking, too, Julia.” Nanny Potter slid her frail arms around Julia and hugged her with surprising strength.

When they finally stepped apart, Julia had to look down to meet the older woman’s eyes. It seemed like her beloved Nanny got smaller each time she saw her.

“With all the excitement I never got a chance to tell you howbloomingyou look, my dear.”

Julia blushed; what sort of personbloomedwhile in captivity? “Thank you, Nanny.”

“I hope you will tell Mr. Barton all that is proper for me. I’m mortified that he slipped away before we thanked him for his generosity.”

Julia smiled, even though she was furious at Malcolm for hiding himself away. “He despises being thanked; that is probably why he made himself scarce.”

Either that or he was afraid Julia would fling herself at him. Again.

“Nanny, we’re going to miss our train.” Richard’s voice was loud and strident.

Nanny gave Julia a wry smile. “We’d better go.”

John opened the lift door. “Ready to go?” he asked.

“I suppose I can do it once more,” Nanny said, grimacing as she stepped into the metal box that would take them both away from Julia until who knew when.

“I’m ready!” Richard bounded into the lift—which he’d already ridden up and down at least four times—followed closely by James, who was laden with bags and boxes, most of which were gifts for Richard, who’d gone on a tour of Barton’s with the specific instruction from John that he and Nanny should both choose whatever they wanted.

It had been all Nanny and Julia could do to keep her brother from taking half the store.

“Goodbye!” Julia waved to her dearest people in the world. She waited until the door slid shut before dashing away the two tears that had managed to escape.

She turned to Kemp, who’d waited silently a few steps behind her. “What a lovely day, Kemp. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.”

“It was an honor, Miss Julia. Your brother is delightful and made the day quite festive.”

Julia gave a watery chuckle. “Yes, Richard is a one-person celebration.”

“He seems very happy,” Kemp said, as the two of them walked back to Julia’s part of the house.

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