Three of our best-loved historical
novelists wish you…
A Magical Regency Christmas
Christmas Cinderella
Elizabeth Rolls
Finding Forever at Christmas
Bronwyn Scott
The Captain’s Christmas Angel
Margaret McPhee
Table of Contents
Award-winning author ELIZABETH ROLLS lives in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia in an old stone farmhouse surrounded by apple, pear and cherry orchards, with her husband, two sons, three dogs and two cats. She also has four alpacas and three incredibly fat sheep, all gainfully employed as environmentally sustainable lawnmowers. The kids are convinced that writing is a perfectly normal profession and she’s working on her husband. Elizabeth has what most people would consider far too many books and her tea and coffee habit is legendary. She enjoys reading, walking, cooking and her husband’s gardening. Elizabeth loves to hear from readers and invites you to contact her via e-mail at [email protected].
For Trish Morey, Anne Oliver and Claire Baxter—you’re my touchstone.
The Reverend Alex Martindale looked down at the innocent babe in his practised arms and braced for the inevitable storm. Red-faced, eyes scrunched up against the holy water dripping into them, the Honourable Philip Martindale, heir to considerable estates and, far more importantly, apple of his parents’ doting eyes, roared his displeasure.
Having baptised every infant in the parish for the past two years, Alex was used to the noise. Nevertheless he shot a look over the aristocratic squaller to its father, Viscount Alderley. ‘Takes after you, Dominic—temper and all.’
The Viscount grinned. ‘Not me, cousin.’ He glanced at his wife. ‘Must be Pippa.’
Alex snorted and continued blessing his little cousin, the child who—thank God from whom all blessings flow—had displaced him as Dominic’s heir. There was a tug at his surplice and he glanced down.
His goddaughter, the Honourable Philip’s elder sister, looked up at him solemnly. ‘You got water in his eyes, Uncle Alets,’ she explained. ‘Mama or Nurse better give him his next bath.’
‘Ah. Was that it?’ he said, preserving a clerical straight face. ‘Thank you, Emma.’
* * *
The christening party in the Great Hall at Alderley was a rowdy and cheerful affair. It