The Theft Before Christmas by Cheryl Bolen

asking for my hand in marriage.”
    Hugh? He wasn’t even aware his Charlotte knew his first name.
    “This is the best Christmas ever,” Lady Daphne said.
    He thoroughly agreed.
    * * *
    Later that night, in his wife’s old bedchamber where they stood before the window and peered at the white landscape stretching as far as they could see. Jack drew her into his arms. “So now, Crafty Lady, you’ve added matchmaker to your list of skills.”
    “I regret to say my skills in that area need improving. I never even suspected those two were falling in love.”
    “But once I pointed it out, you employed one of your most proficient skills.”
    She looked up into his face. “Which is?”
    “How to put this delicately? Your ability to . . . to tell harmless, little white lies.”
    She sighed. “I suppose I am most proficient at that.”
    “Will you tell them there was no foal, that you merely wanted them to be alone for a few moments?”
    “I haven’t decided.”
    He looked askance at her. “And did your mother really receive a letter from Mrs. Huntington?”
    She shook her head. “It was a brilliant stroke on my part, do you not agree?”
    “Yes. My wife is the most brilliant of liars.” He released her. “Allow me to fetch your Christmas gift, my love. Next to the spectacular necklace your father presented your mother, I fear my offering will look awfully meager." He swallowed. “But it is most precious to me because it belonged to my mother.”
    He pulled a blue velvet box from a dresser drawer and handed it her.
    She opened it, and just as her mother had done earlier that evening, Daphne’s eyes watered. “Your mother’s pearls! They are beautiful.” As she looked up at him, a tear slid down her check. “It means more to me than any of my possessions, save my wedding ring.”
    He drew her into his arms. “They will be lovely on you.”
    “Oh, my dearest, our first Christmas together couldn’t have been more perfect.”
    “I can think of one more thing. . .” His gaze slid to the big bed that was draped in curtains of yellow silk.
    She drew up to him and spoke huskily. “Just this once with no one else to hear, I must say you are brilliant.” And she kissed him hungrily.
     
    The End
     
    Win a $50 Gift Certificate
     
    I hope you enjoyed The Theft Before Christmas . If you did, would you please consider posting a review by the book's listing at iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble or a site where you might have read it? If you do, please send me an email at [email protected] and I will enter your name in one of my quarterly drawings for a $50 gift certificate to iTunes, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. Each time you review one of my books, let me know, and you will get another entry for each review. There will be a drawing each quarter.
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    The Regent Mysteries Series
     
    If you enjoyed reading The Theft Before Christmas , you may also enjoy the first two installments of The Regent Mysteries:
     
    With His Lady’s Assistance (The Regent Mysteries, Book 1)
     
    The prince regent recruits Wellington's best spy, Captain Jack Dryden, to find out who's trying to murder him. But in order to mix in the highest echelons of English society, the exceedingly handsome spy must feign an engagement to the prodigiously plain spinster Lady Daphne Chalmers. As this unlikely couple's investigation deepens, so does their attraction to one another. Buy at Amazon.com .
     
    A Most Discreet Inquiry (The Regent Mysteries, Book 2)
     
    It all started quite innocently when Lady Daphne Chalmers's duchess sister came to her sleuthing sibling for help in retrieving love letters she wrote to Major Styles, now deceased. But as Daphne and her own lover, Captain Jack Dryden of His Majesty's Hussars, join forces to track down the letters, they follow a trail of treachery and murder that threatens the entire kingdom. Buy at Amazon.com .
     
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