A SECRET CHRISTMAS
Lauren Royal
3rd Edition, January 2018
Novelty Books
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Book Description
More Chase Family Books
A Message from Lauren...
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 couldn't...
24: Chrystabel and Joseph...
25: The Church of St. Mary...
Thank You!
BONUS MATERIAL
Author's Note
Explore the Chase Family World
Excerpt from VIOLET
Excerpt from LOST IN TEMPTATION
Books by Lauren Royal
Free Historical Recipe Book
Contest
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Jewels of Historical Romance
Contact Information
Copyright Page
BOOK DESCRIPTION
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?
MORE CHASE FAMILY BOOKS
For more information, click on a cover.
Chase Family Series: The Jewels
Chase Family Series: The Flowers
Chase Family Series: The Regency
Chase Family Series: The Renaissance
Boxed Sets
A MESSAGE FROM LAUREN…
For years and years, my readers have been asking for a book about my unconventional Ashcroft parents, Chrystabel and Joseph. And finally, here it is! I’m so excited! It’s a Christmas romance and stands alone as a complete story—so it’s a perfect book of mine to start with if you enjoy holiday stories. It’s set in 1651, before all of my other Chase Family Series titles.
As for how it is that an Ashcroft story is part of my Chase Family Series…
It’s unusual for an author to center all her novels around a single family, and it wasn't something I planned to do when I started writing. And as it turned out, the Chase Family Series should more rightly be called the Chase/Ashcroft Family Series…except I fear it’s far too late for that!
The Chase family came to me all at once. I knew I wanted to set my first books in the late 17th century, and I wanted to write about people affected by their times. An English family with Royalist sympathies would have lived through a lot in those years—the English Civil War, the Protectorate, exile on the Continent, the Restoration—and those experiences would have forever shaped their personalities. So the Chases came to me: Jason, the oldest, who had responsibility thrust on him too soon by the untimely deaths of their parents; Colin, a middle child filled with resentment for his parents’ choices and what those had ultimately cost him and his siblings; Kendra, the only girl, raised by imperfect but well-meaning older brothers; and her twin Ford, the baby of the family, the happy-go-lucky one who was too young to feel the burden of their circumstances.
Ford later marries Violet Ashcroft, bringing her eccentric relations into the Chase family circle. The Chase Family Series currently includes four books featuring Ashcrofts—Violet, Lily, Rose, and this one, A Secret Christmas—with more planned for the future.
Following this series, I decided to write books set in the Regency period. By then the Chases and Ashcrofts felt as real to me as my own family, so it was natural to write about their descendants. Though over a hundred years have passed, evidence of the original families still remain, hidden in old portraits, hereditary traits, and family legend (the truth of which astute readers will know better than the Regency families do!). I had a lot of fun tying these characters together across the centuries.
My daughter and I are now writing Chase books set in the Renaissance era, so the tradition continues. Will I ever write about different families? I can’t say for sure, but I'm not ready to walk away from the Chases and Ashcrofts yet!
I love to keep in touch with my readers! Join my e-newsletter to receive free and 99¢ book suggestions each week as well as new release bulletins. And I'd be thrilled to see you in my Readers Group on Facebook, where I share sneak peeks and gather suggestions from my favorite readers!
There are so many great romance novels out there—thank you for choosing mine. I so hope you’ll enjoy Joseph and Chrystabel’s story.
Happy reading!
CHASE FAMILY TREE
To see a larger version of the Chase Family Tree, click here!
For my dear nieces
Stacy and Lindsay Gordon
Wisconsin and London are one thing,
but please don’t move to Wales.
I don’t cope well in the wilderness.
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 have to 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, Chrystabel.” Arabel sounded sweetly sympathetic. “I’m still here. Matthew’s still here.”
“Martha and Cecily aren’t here.” Martha
