One Snowy Regency Christmas: A Regency Christmas Carol / Snowbound with the Notorious Rake

‘So I have been told,’ Joseph said with bitterness. ‘Yet I have spent a portion of this day seeing to the wants of others, with no chance of personal gain likely to come of it.’

‘No gain at all?’

He remembered the way he had phrased his offer to Barbara, as an effort to keep her father safely at home. ‘Very little gain. The majority of the good done will benefit others. After last night’s visitor, I made a change in my plans and invited Miss Barbara Lampett back to the manor house. There is my proof that I have learned something and rendered tonight’s lesson unnecessary. I am making an effort to help the daughter of my enemy.’ He gave a wave of his hand. ‘And so you may depart.’

‘Well, thank you, Yer Lordship,’ the ghost said with a sarcastic bob of his head. ‘But for your information it is I who will set the time of my departure, and not you. Before I can complete my final journey I have been called back for one task alone to make up for the carelessness of my end. I mean to do the job properly. When I leave here you will be well and rightly schooled.’

The ghost shuddered for a moment, as though uncomfortable in his surroundings. ‘I’d have thought that if called to haunt I could have taken to the road, just as I did in life. Instead they sent me to this dreary place, colder than a moor in December.’

Again Joseph was annoyed that his spiritual visitor seemed less than satisfied with surroundings it had taken him half a lifetime to afford. ‘This is the finest house in twenty miles, as you should know. The fire is lit, as are the candles. There is tea on the hob and brandy in the flask. Or perhaps you would like a shawl, like an old woman?’

Tom snorted. ‘As if I could take pleasure in such, here on the other side. I am quite beyond feelings such as that.’ He shuddered again. ‘But I can see things you cannot. There is a cold coming off you like mist from a bog.’

He raised a finger to point at Joseph. In an instant the friendly driver was gone, and before him Joseph saw only a tormented spirit with a dire warning.

Then Tom smiled. ‘But I have been set to warm you up a bit. A hopeless task that is like to be. Now, come on. We haven’t got all night.’ The ghost reached out a hand. ‘Tonight you will walk with me, and if you are lucky you will learn to see the world as others do. At the least you will see what you are missing when you cannot take your nose from the account books and your feet from the factory floor. You will learn what people think of you. It should do you a world of good. Now, take my hand.’

Joseph’s mind warred with itself, but the battle was shorter than it had been on the previous two nights. Whether real or imagined, Tom would not leave until he was ready to. And Joseph did not like being afraid of men—in this world or the next. So he reached out and grabbed the hand that was offered to him.

To touch it was even worse than touching Sir Cedric the previous night. Old Tom’s hand was large and doughy, and thick with calluses from handling the reins. But it was freezing cold—like iron lying on the ground in December. The instant Joseph touched it his own fingers went as numb as if they’d died on his hand. And this, more than anything else, made him believe. His father might have been a memory, and Sir Cedric a walking dream. But in his wildest imaginings, he’d have conjured nothing like the feel of this.

He withdrew quickly, and after a stern look from the ghost adjusted his grip to take the spectre by the coat-sleeve instead. That was cold as well, but not unbearably so.

‘The first stop is not far,’ the ghost assured him, as though aware of his discomfort. ‘Just beneath you, as a matter of fact.’ Then they seemed to sink through the floorboards until they stood in the first parlour.

Though he’d thought that she had gone home with her parents, he found Anne sitting in a chair by the fire and weeping as though her heart would break.

‘There, there,’ he said awkwardly, reaching out a hand to comfort her.

‘Have you not yet learned what a pointless gesture that would be?’ Old Tom asked. ‘While you are with me she will not notice you.’

‘Perhaps she will.’ Joseph reached out to pat her shoulder, only to feel his hand pass through her as though she was smoke. He looked helplessly at the ghost. ‘Last night, it was not always so,’ Joseph argued, remembering the young Barbara.

‘And tonight it is,’ Old Tom said.

Behind them, the door opened. Though he needn’t have bothered, Joseph stepped to the side to allow a man to enter the room.

Robert Breton glanced into the hall, as though eager to know that he was not observed, and then shut the door behind him and went quickly to the seated woman and took her hand.

‘Bob?’ Joseph knew then that he must indeed be invisible, for never had he seen such a look on his friend’s face—nor was he likely to. The gaze he favoured Anne with was more than one of sympathy to her plight. It had tenderness, frustration and—dared he think it?—love.

On seeing him there, Anne let her tears burst fresh, like a sudden shower, and her shoulders shook with the effort of silence.

‘Tell him,’ Breton said. ‘I have confronted him on the subject. He will not break off at this late date for your sake. He fears for your reputation even more than you do. If you do not end it for yourself, it is quite hopeless. I will not speak if you say nothing, no matter how much I might wish to. I have said more than enough already. You must be the strong one, Anne.’

‘And I never was,’ she answered, not looking up. ‘Perhaps if Mary was here …’

‘Then the lot would have fallen to her. Or it might never have occurred at all. But it does not matter,’ Breton said firmly. ‘She is dead and gone, much as no one wishes to acknowledge the fact. You cannot rely on her for help. You must be the one to speak, Anne.’

‘Speak what? And to whom? To your father? To me?’ Joseph took his place on her other side, as though he could make himself heard to the woman through proximity. But she said no more and, realising the futility of it, he looked up at the ghost. ‘What do you want? I will give it to you, if I can. I am not totally without a heart, you know.’

‘I think you can guess what she wants,’ the ghost said. ‘And why she does nothing about it.’

‘It is not as if I am forcing the union on her. She agreed to it. And what does Bob have to do with any of it?’

‘Not a thing, I expect, if it all goes according to your plan. He is a gentleman, is he not?’

‘But he is a man first,’ Joseph said. ‘If he wants the girl for himself, then why does he not say something?’

The coachman laughed in response. ‘You make it all sound quite simple. I envy you, living in a world as you do—where there are no doubts and everyone speaks their mind. The woman he loves has chosen another. He has been bested by a richer man. He will step out of the way like a gentleman.’

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