A Christmas Temptation for the Earl (Claimed by Regency Devils #6)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

“Alison, where is Winnie?” The Baroness of Pemberton asked her eldest daughter, Lady Alison Collins. “She was supposed to stay close all night. I told you to watch her.”

Alison frowned at the directness of the question, seeing as her mother had certainly not asked her to do such a thing. Not a surprise, as her mother rarely asked anything of Alison. That would require her to act as if her eldest daughter existed.

“Oh…” Alison looked around for her half-sister. “I am not sure. Have you tried –"

“Winnie!” Her mother cut through Alison’s response and then rushed past her to where Winnie stood gawking through the crowd. “What did I tell you about staying by my side?” Alison’s mother scolded Winnie.

“I did!” Winnie was just twelve years old, and of that age where her attention span was as short as her knack for getting into trouble was long.

“You certainly did not.”

“But I saw…. I saw… I saw…” She looked about, her blue eyes wide and eager. “The cutest puppy. I was only trying to pet it. Where did it go?”

“I do not care the reason, Winnie.” The baroness snatched her daughter’s hand. “The last thing I need today is to lose you. What would your father say if I came back without you? I doubt he would be all too impressed.”

“Perhaps he might thank you.” With a smirk on his face, seeming to enjoy the situation unfolding before him was the Honorable Felix Watts, Winnie’s older brother. “One less headache for him to fuss over. In fact, it is still not too late to lose her. Shall we turn around a moment?”

“Wh -- what?” Winnie’s face dropped and her chin began to wobble as she looked from Felix to her stepmother. “Father would not say that. Would he?”

“Of course not,” the baroness assured Winnie before glaring daggers at Felix. “And that is enough from you.”

“I am only jesting,” Felix chuckled.

“In order for it to be a jest, what you say must be funny.” Appearing as if from nowhere came the Honorable Nerissa Watts, Felix’s younger sister by two years, which made her a good eight years older than Winnie. “And I don’t hear anyone laughing, do you?”

“I’m surprised you noticed,” Felix shot back. “I thought you might have caught your reflection in a puddle and become distracted.”

“If I wished to see my reflection, I would have just asked you for a mirror. We all know you carry one with you everywhere you go, Felix. Don’t want stray hair falling out of place. The horror!”

“I most certainly do not!”

“You don’t?” Nerissa looked aghast. “Well, I stand corrected. On the plus side, now I know what to buy you for Christmas. And just in time.”

Felix scoffed. “If you wish to give me a present, I will take a day spent away from you. I can’t imagine a better gift.”

“How about a week?” Nerissa said dryly. “We can count that as your birthday present as well.”

“How about –”

“Enough!” The baroness cried over her bickering children. “If the two of you cannot behave yourselves, we will return home at once. Is that what you wish for?” One hand on her hip, she widened her eyes threateningly at Felix and Narissa.

“No!” Winnie cried out. “Please, I do not want to go home. The puppy! I want to pet the puppy. Where did it go?”

“No doubt it caught a whiff of Felix’s odor and ran for the hills,” Nerissa said.

“No doubt it caught a sight of that hideous coat you are wearing and jumped off a cliff,” Felix retorted.

“Enough!”

As Felix and Nerissa bickered, Winnie looked around desperately for the puppy, and while the baroness tried to assert her authority and bring some sense of order to her stepchildren, Alison stayed back and watched the scene unfold with a sense of predictability and familiarity that she had become all too accustomed to in recent times.

I have witnessed forest fires that are more orderly and civil. I have heard tell of tavern brawls that are less chaotic. Storms that threaten to tear apart castles surely do so in a more orderly manner than this. Such is the state of my so-called family.

But they were her family, and Alison reminded herself of this fact as she was forced to on so many occasions like this one.

Which might sound strange, but not so much when considering that Felix and Nerissa and Winnie were Alison’s half-siblings, born of a different father and thus nowhere near as close to Alison as one might expect.

Alison’s father by birth had died when she was still an infant, so long past now that she could not remember him. He was an Earl, while her stepfather was a baron, which she felt added to that distance she felt in her family. As if they suspected that she thought she was better than they were.

Not that this changed how much she cared for them, even if she had long since accepted that it did affect how they cared for her. Older than the three of them, and with a different father, Alison was seen and treated as an outsider.

And where she did not think it was done on purpose, she could feel it always. Even her own mother, who Alison knew loved her deeply, could not help but dote on the three children from her new marriage more than she did Alison.

“Alison!” her mother snapped at her suddenly. “What are you doing?”

“Oh…” Alison blinked herself into the moment. “Simply observing, Mother. You seem to have everything under control, and I did not wish to make things worse.”

Nerissa snorted and Felix scoffed.

Her mother sighed. “Will you make yourself useful and check on Mr. Burrows? I want to ensure that he has everything in order so we can leave the moment he returns.”

“But the puppy!” Winnie cried.

“Enough about the puppy,” her mother moaned. “If you think I am letting you out of my sight again, Winnie, you can forget it.”

Winnie scrunched her face into a pout which Alison found adorable.

“Don’t let Pickle hear you speaking about another puppy,” Alison said to Winnie, sticking out her tongue. “He might get jealous.” Pickle was Alison’s pet terrier, a favorite of Winnie’s, even if everyone else seemed to despise him.

Winnie giggled. “Will he?”

“Oh yes,” Alison said seriously, before sticking out her tongue again. “He told me himself to keep an eye on you. Make sure you aren’t out petting other dogs.”

Winnie giggled further.

“Perhaps we will get lucky, and Pickle will run away,” Felix said dryly. “If that is the case, please Winnie, go and pet this mystery puppy you insist on talking about.”

“Perhaps we will get lucky, and you will run away,” Nerissa shot at her brother. “A girl can dream.”

“If it is dreams you are having, feel free to imagine a world where you were never –”

“Enough!” Alison’s mother cried again. “Alison…” She widened her eyes at her daughter. “Mr. Burrows. Please!”

“Yes, yes,” Alison sighed. “Mr. Burrows. And when I find him…”

“Make sure he has ordered and paid for everything for the trip,” her mother recited. As she spoke, Winnie tried to pull away, forcing her mother to use both hands to hang on. “We will meet you at the carriage in thirty minutes.”

“I’ll be there, ready and waiting, in twenty-nine minutes.”

Alison winked playfully at her youngest sister, was about to say goodbye to Nerissa and Felix only to find that they were still bickering at one another as they always seemed to do, then ducked away before she risked being pulled into the storm that was her family.

Speaking of storms…

As she hurried away, Alison pulled her winter coat tight to her body and was sure to wrap her scarf around her neck and pull it over her chin.

She glanced at the sky, noting the heavy clouds which blocked the sun, feeling through her layers the cold winds which chilled her to the bone.

Alison was of the type who loved the winter months, while somehow managing to also dislike the extreme cold that came with them.

As juxtaposed as those two thoughts were, they conveyed the truth.

It was winter in England, the 6th of December in fact, marking today as St. Nicholas Day, the first official day of the Christmastide Season.

To celebrate this most important day, Alison’s mother elected to take the family to the local township of Whitehaven because today was the first day of the Christmas Fair, one which ran for over a week, and it was always a most wonderful affair which the entire town would turn out to patronize.

Alison could not help but smile as she walked through the bustling markets.

There were hundreds of people about, mostly families and young lovers, moving from stall to stall and tent to tent as they shopped for their wares, bought presents for loved ones, and simply enjoyed the merry atmosphere that came about every year on this date.

As she went, Alison dared a glance back in the direction that she had come in, unsurprised to see her family still arguing.

They were always that way, and so on the edges of this family was Alison that had she simply left them, even without her mother’s permission, they likely would not have noticed.

And it is not that they don’t care for me, because I know they do. It is more that I am not one of them, and regardless of how hard I try to make it so, they refuse to see me.

But Alison had an idea on how to change this perception.

What she was supposed to be doing was tracking down the Head of Staff, Mr. Burrows, who was just now navigating the markets and buying for Alison’s mother supplies for the trip they were set to take later in the week; Christmas this year was to be spent at a relative’s house in the far north, and it was all anyone could talk about.

But Alison figured Mr. Burrows could handle that task without her.

What Alison intended to do instead was use this time to scour the markets and find the perfect present for each of her stepsiblings.