THE CAVALIER’S CHRISTMAS BRIDE
Lauren Royal & Devon Royal
The Cavalier’s Christmas Bride is the SWEET & CLEAN edition of A Secret Christmas by Lauren Royal
1st Edition, October 2017
Novelty Books
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Book Description
More Chase Family Books
A Message from Devon...
Chase Family Tree
Cover Image
Dedication
1: Lady Chrystabel Trevor...
2: Joseph Ashcroft...
3: Three days into...
4: When Lord Tremayne...
5: When they'd scraped...
6: Chrystabel watched Creath...
7: The moment the heavy...
8: When Chrystabel woke...
9: There was no time to waste.
10: "Where's Creath?"
11: While hanging a wreath...
12: "Wait."
13: Joseph was planting...
14: Seated three hours later...
15: Having no idea why...
16: "I'm so glad you talked...
17: The yule log burned...
18: "Lady Chrystabel, you...
19: "Me?"
20: Chrystabel passed...
21: In the pitch-black...
22: She'd said yes.
23: Chrystabel had broken...
24: Everything had worked...
Thank You!
BONUS MATERIAL
Author's Note
Explore the Chase Family World
Excerpt from THE VISCOUNT'S WALLFLOWER BRIDE
Excerpt from ALEXANDRA
Books by Lauren & Devon Royal
Contest
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
Contact Information
Copyright Page
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The Cavalier’s Christmas Bride is the SWEET & CLEAN edition of A Secret Christmas by Lauren Royal
England, 1651
Christmas has been outlawed by the new Commonwealth government—but that won’t stop Lady Chrystabel Trevor from embracing the holiday spirit. When she finds herself snowed in with handsome and intriguing Joseph Ashcroft, the Viscount Tremayne, merrymaking leads to mayhem. In a time of fear and oppression, can the magic of Christmas bring two hearts together?
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A MESSAGE FROM DEVON…
Not gonna lie, I thought it was pretty cool growing up with an author for a mom! I’d always been into books (like, every morning when 1st grade reading time ended, Mrs. Schultz had to physically pry the book from my hands), plus there were perks. Mom was always home with us kids, so we never had to go to daycare. She was also always on deadline, so we got to eat a lot of Pizza Hut for dinner. And I could impress my friends by moseying into Barnes & Noble and casually pointing out my mom’s books on the shelves.
The only problem: I wasn’t allowed to read them!
Her romance novels were for and about adults, and I was just a kid. A kid who loved books and hated rules—so you can imagine my dismay.
Of course, the instant I was old enough, I swiped a full set of her books from the garage and devoured them all in a row. And I wasn’t surprised when I loved every one, because, you guys, my mom is seriously awesome.
Recently the aforementioned awesome lady had an awesome idea: releasing new, revised versions of her novels that are appropriate for all ages, so that everyone can enjoy them. To think, all those dismay-ful years could have been avoided!
I knew instantly I was the girl for the job. My mom and I have been writing together basically since I learned how to type—our first all-new collaborative release, Alice Betrothed, is a project we started when I was in middle school—plus, I was a sweet-romance-reading teenager myself only a few years ago. I literally bumped into walls walking around high school with my nose buried in a book.
There’s a crazy amount of fantastic romance out there right now—we’re SO excited that you’ve chosen our book! Like, spontaneous-dance-party-excited! I would be doing the robot right now if I weren’t busy typing. Maybe I’ll wrap up this letter so I can go do that.
I so hope you’ll enjoy Chrystabel’s story!
xoxo
October 2017
CHASE FAMILY TREE
To see a larger version of the Chase Family Tree, click here!
For Lauralee Motis
With thanks for your friendship
and the lovely flowers
ONE
Grosmont Grange, England
December 20, 1651
LADY CHRYSTABEL Trevor adored Christmas.
Or at least she had until this year.
She frowned as her sap-sticky hands wove yet another wreath from the greenery she and her younger sister had collected. “Just five more days,” she said, thinking of all the decorating they still had to do.
Arabel meticulously measured two loops of red ribbon. “But just four days until Christmas Eve.”
“Yes, and we must be ready by Christmas Eve.” Chrystabel sighed as she eyed the enormous pile of boughs they’d cut and trimmed. “I cannot believe how long it took to make the garlands. This isn’t easy alone.”
“You’re not alone, Chrys.” Arabel sounded sweetly sympathetic. “I’m still here. Matthew’s still here.”
“Martha and Cecily aren’t here.” Martha and Cecily were their older sisters. “And neither is Mother.” Not that Mother had ever helped her girls prepare for Christmas, anyway. She’d been a rather uninvolved parent, leaving her children to be raised by nursemaids. But this was their first Christmas without her, and having her home and not participating had been better than not having her with them at all. “It makes me sad that we never see her.”
“Just pretend she’s dead,” Arabel suggested airily.
Arabel said everything airily. Pretty, fifteen-year-old Arabel was dark-haired and dark-eyed and statuesque—like Chrystabel and the rest of the Trevors—and she was the happiest person Chrystabel knew. Nothing ruffled her. She could find the good side of anything.
Unabated cheerfulness like that set Chrystabel’s teeth on edge.
“Mother is not dead,” she pointed out unnecessarily. “I could forgive her if she were dead.” Their father had died, after all—fighting for the king in the Civil War—and Chrystabel had never blamed him for leaving them. Death was sad but normal.
But there was nothing normal about being alive and
