At the Hall he handed their cloaks to the butler and urged Viola toward the large drawing room, from which came the sounds of conversation and laughter. “Let me go change,” she whispered, resisting.
“You look beautiful.”
“My hair is a dreadful tangle, Wes…”
He wiggled his eyebrows at her. “And it looks ravishing that way.”
She tried to look stern, but was smiling when he led her into the brightly lit room.
The cousins were playing charades. His mother and sisters sat on the sofas, watching and laughing at the children’s antics. Freddie and Tom stood near the punch bowl by the window, and with them—
“Stephen!” cried Viola. “Oh, Stephen, you’re here!” She ran across the room and flung herself into the arms of her tall, lanky brother, just arrived from Brussels via Eastbourne and then Pevensey.
Wes watched fondly as his wife and her brother put their heads together, their hair the same shade of chestnut. When she turned and flew back to him, her eyes glowing and her face shining with joy, he caught her to him. “If you brought my family to me, I should bring your family to you,” he whispered in her ear. “Happy Christmas, darling.”
She took her face in his hands. “This is the happiest Christmas I’ve ever known.” And she kissed him, and he kissed her, and neither cared that everyone in the room was watching and smiling, too.
Afterword
Map of a Lady’s Heart was originally published as part of the anthology At the Christmas Wedding, featuring wonderful stories by Maya Rodale and Katharine Ashe. If you want to read more about how Mr. Gray, inland pirate of Shropshire, won Lady Serena’s heart, and why the Duke of Frye jilted Serena so coldly and cruelly—or perhaps not so cruelly—At the Christmas Wedding is available from online retailers, in ebook, print, and audio.
And don’t miss the prequel to this story, also set at Kingstag Castle: At the Duke’s Wedding, featuring many familiar faces, especially Lady Sophronia.
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Also by Caroline Linden
Desperately Seeking Duke
About a Rogue
A Scot to the Heart
The Wagers of Sin
My Once and Future Duke
An Earl Like You
When the Marquess was Mine
Scandals
Love and Other Scandals
It Takes a Scandal
All’s Fair in Love and Scandal
Love in the Time of Scandal
A Study in Scandal
Six Degrees of Scandal
The Secret of My Seduction
The Truth About the Duke
I Love the Earl
One Night in London
Blame It on Bath
The Way to a Duke’s Heart
Reece Trilogy
What a Gentleman Wants
What a Rogue Desires
A Rake’s Guide to Seduction
Other Novels
What a Woman Needs
Novellas and Collections
When I Met My Duchess in At the Duke’s Wedding
Map of a Lady’s Heart in At the Christmas Wedding
A Fashionable Affair in Dressed to Kiss
Will You Be My Wi-Fi? in At the Billionaire’s Wedding
Short Stories
About a Kiss
A Kiss for Christmas
Like None Other
Written in My Heart
About the Author
Caroline Linden was born a reader, not a writer. She earned a math degree from Harvard University and wrote computer software before turning to writing fiction. Since then the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series four times, which is not related but still worth mentioning. Her books have been translated into seventeen languages, and have won the NEC Reader’s Choice Award, the Daphne du Maurier Award, and RWA’s RITA Award.
Visit www.CarolineLinden.com for excerpts, bonus features, and to subscribe to her news.
