A Marriage Proposal For Christmas. Carole Mortimer

can see that.’ He grimaced. ‘Look, Cally—may I call you Cally?’

      ‘I believe you just did.’

      ‘And I’m Noel,’ he told her unnecessarily, giving an impatient sigh as she looked unimpressed. ‘Cally, I want you to know that Celebrations comes highly recommended—you organized my secretary’s wedding last week,’ he enlarged as she looked at him questioningly. ‘Debra Hayes,’ he supplied as she still looked blank.

      ‘Oh, yes.’ She smiled as she remembered the glowingly lovely bride she had spent months consulting with to make absolutely sure the elaborate wedding plans worked out successfully, that smile fading as she also remembered that Debra and her husband, Giles, were supposed to be honeymooning in Barbados right now. ‘Exactly when did Debra recommend us to you?’

      ‘I telephoned her last night, if you must know,’ Noel Carlton revealed reluctantly. ‘I was desperate, okay?’ he added irritably as Cally raised incredulous brows.

      She bit her lip in an effort to stop herself from laughing, finally giving up as she realized she was fighting a losing battle. ‘I’m sure she and her new husband really appreciated that!’ She chuckled gleefully.

      Noel gave a rueful smile. ‘I don’t think Giles was best pleased.’

      ‘Would you have been, in the circumstances?’ Cally shook her head in disbelief as she continued to walk inside the house, depositing the box with the others in the huge hall at the bottom of the wide staircase. ‘They’re on their honeymoon, for goodness’ sake!’ She turned to grin.

      ‘Yes. Well. I was desperate,’ he muttered.

      ‘So you already said.’

      In actual fact, Cally had been slightly thrown off her guard when she’d arrived at Parker Hall and found Noel Carlton waiting for her, no longer wearing his business suit, shirt and tie, but dressed in faded denims and a rugby top that looked as if it might be a relic of his university days ten years or so ago. If anything, he looked more lethally attractive in these casual clothes than he had in his suit!

      He raised a hand to sweep back that overlong dark hair. ‘Ordinarily I could have asked Debra to help me out with this little problem—’

      ‘Oh, so now it’s a little problem, is it?’ Cally teased.

      It was Noel’s turn to grin. ‘It is now that you’re here to help!’

      ‘Don’t expect miracles,’ she warned. ‘I’ll do my best, but this is rather a big house.’ She looked pointedly at the huge hallway they stood in, half a dozen doors leading off it, and this was only the ground floor; there were two more of them up the wide staircase.

      Parker Hall was the old manor house to the local village of Axton, and had once housed the rich and influential family of Parker. But as with many of these old families, death duties and lack of interest in succeeding generations had almost brought about its ruin, the hall now rented out to whoever could pay the exorbitant fee being asked. Which Noel Carlton obviously could…

      ‘As long as the Neilsons weren’t going to eat smorgasbord for Christmas, or something equally unsuitable, I really don’t care!’ he assured Cally now.