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Christmas at Carriage Hill
Celebrate the holidays with this magical Swift River Valley novella from New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers
When fashion designer Alexandra Rankin Hunt is asked to create the dresses for Olivia Frost’s Christmas wedding in tiny Knights Bridge, Massachusetts, she jumps at the chance. She’s certain she’ll never get to design one for herself—not with her history of falling for the wrong men. Ian Mabry, the sexy fighter pilot whose bravery reminded her of her beloved great-grandfather, was the worst yet.
To Alexandra’s surprise, Ian is also at Carriage Hill, Olivia’s picturesque country inn. And if anyone can charm his way into a wedding, it’s him. Ian wants more than an invitation—he’s determined to find a way back into Alexandra’s life.
Don’t miss Echo Lake, the next novel in Carla Neggers’ unforgettable Swift River Valley series.
Christmas at Carriage Hill
Carla Neggers
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoy this story, whether you’re new to my Swift River Valley series or have read it from the beginning, when Olivia Frost and Dylan McCaffrey meet in Secrets of the Lost Summer. A Christmas Eve wedding is perfect for them!
I’ve long been enchanted with the idea of Christmas weddings, perhaps because my own parents were married a few days before Christmas. My father was a Dutch sailor working on a farm near my mother’s small Florida Panhandle home when they met. They went to New Orleans for their honeymoon, and a few years later moved to rural Massachusetts just before I was born. They had two little kids (five more to come!) and packed everything they owned into their car.
Of course, that’s the short version of their story!
The classic little Massachusetts town where I grew up is the inspiration for Knights Bridge, which Alexandra Rankin Hunt, an up-and-coming English dress designer, never heard of until she discovers that her great-grandfather was also Dylan’s grandfather, an RAF pilot who died early in World War II. Alexandra has a fiery relationship with a fighter pilot of her own...and his unexpected arrival in Knights Bridge brings us Christmas at Carriage Hill.
Happy Christmas!
Carla
www.CarlaNeggers.com
Dedication
To the memory of my godmother and English aunt, Lily
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
Title Page
Dear Reader
Dedication
One
Two
A Recipe for English Scones
Three
Four
A Recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts
Five
A Recipe for Mulled Wine
About the Author
Copyright
One
Alexandra Rankin Hunt hoped—fervently—that a Christmas wedding in the small New England village of Knights Bridge would be the perfect diversion and would put her latest mistake behind her. It had been three months, three weeks and—she glanced at her bedside clock—two hours since she’d met, and then fallen in and out of love with said mistake.
Out of love was still a work in progress, but she was determined to return to England after Christmas a new woman.
She sat on the edge of her bed and picked up a copy of her favorite photograph of her great-grandfather. She’d never met Philip Rankin. He was killed early in World War II during the Battle of Britain. The photograph was the only one she knew of with him in his Royal Air Force uniform. He was smiling his rakish smile. It was just a few weeks before his combat death, but she couldn’t detect a hint of fear or overconfidence in him. By then, he’d fallen in love with Grace Webster, a young American woman facing eviction from the only home she’d ever known in order to make way for a massive reservoir. Until a few months ago, only Philip and Grace had known of their love affair late in the summer of 1938. Grace had created a secret hideaway as her family prepared to leave their doomed small town for Knights Bridge, another small town in western Massachusetts. Injured and on the run, Philip had taken refuge in her hideaway. He’d just “stolen” jewels in Boston—from his brother-in-law, a difficult man who’d tried to claim them after his sister, Philip’s wife, had died. Philip had been determined to get the jewels back to his daughter.
And he did, Alexandra thought with a smile—it had just taken decades.
Philip had returned to England and gone to war, never to return. Grace had stayed in America. She was in her nineties now, a retired schoolteacher who had never married.
Sun streamed through the windows of Alexandra’s flat above her dress shop on one of the prettiest streets in one of the most charming villages in the Cotswolds, an area in the countryside east of London known for its scenic beauty. She’d moved there in August, abandoning London for a different life. A new life. A life she’d hoped would bring her romantic love and happiness—or at least stop bringing her the wrong man.
It hadn’t worked out that way, but it wasn’t the fault of the village she’d chosen.
“It’s my own fault,” she said under her breath.
She had wanted instant results, but she now knew she couldn’t snap her fingers and change the things about herself that continued to land her romantic life in scalding water. It wasn’t just that the wrong sort of man was drawn to her. She was drawn to the wrong sort of man.
An RAF wing commander? What had she been thinking?
The only fighter pilot she needed in her life was her great-grandfather, a World War II hero she had never known.
She realized she was hungry and put on her coat, a lovely, simple gray cashmere with no buttons, just an easy tie. She’d designed and made it herself, but dresses were her specialty. Although she was getting a name for herself, she’d been flattered when Olivia Frost had asked her to design the dresses for her Christmas Eve wedding to wealthy Dylan McCaffrey—Alexandra’s second cousin. Or some sort of cousin. Earlier that year, he had discovered that his father, Duncan McCaffrey, was Grace and Philip’s son, placed in the loving hands of a couple who’d adopted him as an infant. Grace hadn’t seen him again for more than seventy years, until shortly before his death two years before. He’d been a businessman and adventurer, marrying late, and now his only son—Grace’s grandson—was marrying a woman from Knights Bridge.
Alexandra had already packed Olivia’s wedding dress for the flight to Boston. She loved designing and sewing wedding dresses. That wouldn’t change even if she never would have one of her own.
RAF officer Ian Mabry, a thorough rake of a man, was her last mistake.
She went down the narrow stairs to her shop—it was more a design studio, really—and locked up as she headed out. Her street was off the village’s main thoroughfare but nonetheless lined with shops and restaurants, the buildings constructed of the honey-colored limestone that signified a traditional Cotswolds village. Despite the sunshine, the air was brisk, although not as cold as it would be in New England. She’d packed warm layers for her trip.
Because Ian was not in town and his family had no idea of the havoc he’d wreaked on her life, Alexandra decided on lunch at the corner pub the Mabrys owned. She slipped into a cozy wooden booth under the pub’s low, beamed ceilings and ordered soup—a lovely-sounding leek and potato—and tea. A few shopkeepers wandered in, but it was early yet. She loved the pub’s relaxed, unhurried atmosphere. She supposed she shouldn’t berate herself for having succumbed to Ian’s charms when he’d waited on her on one of her first nights in town. She’d been tired from moving and had been second-guessing the wisdom of leaving London. All her friends who’d helped with the move had gone home, with promises to visit soon and often. She’d felt alone but in a good way. It was positive, healthy.
And she’d thought Ian was a local man who managed his family’s thriving pub.
Wrong. So wrong.
Now, of course, she noticed the framed photograph behind the bar of Ian in his fighter pilot uniform. His smile was without fear and decidedly, at least in her estimation, cocky.
From August through early November, she’d thought him the most exciting, charming, endearing and thoroughly desirable man she’d ever met. A manly man. Sexy. Self-confident. Not without flaws, but she’d missed the danger signs. The ambition. The single-mindedness. The need to put himself and his work first, ahead of everything else.
He’d said he’d seen the same in her. “You don’t want a quiet Cotswolds life, Alex. You want London. You want the applause.”
She’d told him in no uncertain terms what she didn’t want was him to tell her what she wanted.
Everything had unraveled quickly after that delightful little conversation.
Her soup arrived, steaming and delicious, with warm wholemeal bread and local butter. She was enjoying herself despite the assault of bad memories when she became aware of someone sliding into the booth across from her.
She looked up and saw it was Ian.
“Hello, Alex,” he said.
“You’re not here,” she said, determinedly slathering butter on her bread. “I’m making you up. I’m sure people are staring at me because I’m talking to myself.”
“I hear you’re flying to Boston tomorrow.”
She sighed. She hadn’t conjured him up. He was there, all muscle, ego, good looks and that over-the-top masculinity she had found irresistible from the moment she’d laid eyes on him—a surefire warning she had foolishly not heeded. She noted his military-cropped tawny hair. His clear gray-blue eyes. His cleft chin. His smile.
His hands.
Dear heaven, Ian Mabry’s hands...
She set her bread back on its plate. “Yes, I am flying to Boston. I don’t need you to fly me there, if that’s what you’re wondering.” She immediately regretted her snippy tone, not because he didn’t deserve it, but because she didn’t want him to think she was anything but neutral where he was concerned. “I’m attending a wedding outside Boston.”
“Olivia Frost and Dylan McCaffrey’s wedding.”
“Mmm.”
He’d met them when they were in England in October. “How did Olivia’s dress come out?” Ian asked mildly.
Alexandra raised her gaze to him. Wing Commander Ian Mabry asking about one of her dress designs? Seriously?
“You were working on it when I was in town last,” he added.
Heat flooded her cheeks. She could try to blame the fire, the soup, the tea, but he would know better. His slight grin—that sexy, wry grin—told her she would never get away with it. She’d had the pattern pieces for Olivia’s dress on her bed when Ian had...
“Yes, I was.”
She left it at that. She needed to be the up-and-coming London designer who had relocated to the beautiful, upscale Cotswolds and had full command of her life. She did not need to be another of Ian Mabry’s conquests. She refused to let him think she was still pining for him, because she wasn’t. Not a bit.
“Did you ever find that—what was it that went astray?” he asked. “A bit of the sleeve, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was, and I did find it, thank you.”
“We did mess up the place.”
The place being her bed. Alexandra grabbed her bread. “I’m in a bit of a hurry, Ian. I leave for London in thirty minutes.”
“How are you getting to London?”
She hadn’t bought her own car yet. Of course he would know that. She waved a hand. “I’m taking the train.”
“Alone?”
“Yes, of course.” The snippiness again, and again she regretted it. “I’m staying with friends tonight.” Actually, she was staying with her grandmother—Philip Rankin’s daughter, a proud woman who would be relieved that Alexandra had come to her senses regarding her RAF pilot. “I have a lot of friends,” she added crisply.
“You’re still getting to know people here,” he said. “You’ve been busy with your work, but it takes time to make new friends. It will happen.”
Alexandra realized she wanted to throw something at him. She truly did. If he hadn’t rattled her by reminding her of scattering pattern pieces on her floor while simultaneously disrobing her, she might have gone ahead and pitched a chunk of bread at him. With his reflexes, he’d have ducked, and she’d have felt like a fool. Good that she’d let the impulse wash over her.
“How long will you be away?” he asked her.
Long enough to get over you, I hope. “A week, unless I change my mind,” she said coolly.
“And stay longer or come home sooner?”
“Either. How long are you at home?”
“Awhile,” he said, rising.
“Then you’ll be gone before I return?”
He sauntered off without answering—pretending not to have heard her—and dipped behind the bar, then disappeared into the kitchen. Alexandra finished her lunch. She would fly to Boston tomorrow and spend a couple of nights there before heading to Knights Bridge. This would be her first Christmas away from England, but it would be wonderful—and a positive, healthy way to get herself out of her post-Ian funk.
He returned with more bread. “You didn’t have to go to the trouble,” she said.
He grinned. “You’re never more trouble than I can handle, Alex.”
He was gone again before she could respond. He went back behind the bar, greeting another patron with that sexy voice and amiable manner.
Everyone liked Ian Mabry.
A week away wouldn’t be nearly enough to get over him, but it would be a solid start. In the meantime, extra butter on her bread would help. She lifted a warm hunk of bread and glanced up, her eyes accidentally connecting with Ian’s.
Another grin, a sexy wink.
He wouldn’t believe she hadn’t been sneaking a look at him. Never. He was that sure of himself. That sure she was still under his spell.
Alexandra sighed and picked up her knife.
Lots of extra butter might help.
* * *
“Are you sure you want to make this trip, Alexandra?”
It was early evening in London, and Philippa Rankin Hunt was skeptical if not worried. Alexandra smiled at her elegant, silver-haired grandmother. “It’ll be wonderful.”
Philippa looked unconvinced. She’d had Alexandra join her in the living room of her Mayfair apartment and, over tea, tell her about her trip to New England. More than seventy years ago, her father, Philip Rankin, had gone to Boston in pursuit of the Ashworth jewels, appropriated by his brother-in-law but intended for Philippa, the only child of his deceased sister and her fighter-pilot husband. The jewels were stolen from Charles Ashworth’s Boston hotel and presumed lost until a few months ago, when Dylan and Olivia had returned them to Philippa, now an elderly woman. She was still digesting the fact that her uncle—whom she’d never liked—had been even more of a bastard than she’d realized, the Ashworth jewels had been rediscovered and Dylan, a wealthy former professional hockey player, was, in fact, her nephew, her father’s grandson by the young woman he’d left behind in America at the start of World War II.
It was a lot for Philippa, whose idea of an adventure was seeing the first rose of the season blossom at her country home. She’d been invited to Olivia and Dylan’s wedding but decided the trip was a bit much for her.
“I checked the forecast,” she said. “It’s cold in Boston. There’s a winter storm brewing. A nor’easter, they call it.”
Alexandra waved a hand. “It’s December in New England, Gran. Of course it’s cold with a chance of snow. I would love for Dylan and Olivia to have snow on the ground for their wedding. Wouldn’t that be picturesque?”
“A white Christmas is one thing. A blizzard is another.” Her grandmother set her teacup—Wedgwood she’d inherited from the Ashworths—on its saucer. “Olivia and Dylan can afford to have their wedding anywhere. Destination weddings are popular these days. Why not Nassau? Why Knights Bridge, Massachusetts?”
“It’s Olivia’s hometown. It’s what she wants.”
“Then it’s as it should be.”
“I’ll have a fabulous time, Gran. I’ve been working hard. I’m due for a bit of a break.”
Her grandmother eyed her with open suspicion. “You have that jilted-by-a-man look, Alexandra.”
“What if I did the jilting? Would it be the same look?”
“Did you do the jilting?”
“I’ve been so busy with work and Olivia and Dylan’s wedding, how would I find time for jilting or being jilted?” Alexandra sprang to her feet. She didn’t want to outright lie to her grandmother, so best to change the subject. “Come, Gran. Let’s go see some Christmas lights and have a nice, quiet dinner together. You can tell me again about your father—my great-grandfather, the jewel thief.”
“He wasn’t a jewel thief,” Philippa said, rising, steady on her feet. “He was merely seeing to my mother’s wishes after her untimely death.”
“Philip was a rake of a man, don’t you think?”
“I think nothing of the kind.”
Alexandra suppressed a smile as she hooked her arm into her grandmother’s. “Your mother wasn’t supposed to fall for him, but she did. The lovely Lady Helena. You can tell me about her, too. Have you ever fallen for a rake, Gran?”
She sniffed. “Your great-grandfather was a war hero. He wasn’t a ‘rake.’ And if you keep this up, Alexandra, I’ll drive you to Heathrow right now and you can sleep on the floor there.”
“Oh, so you have fallen for the wrong man,” Alexandra said with a delighted laugh. “I want to hear all over a bottle of good wine.”
Her grandmother reached for her wool coat, scarf and gloves. The feigned outrage was gone and she had a twinkle in her eyes. “Who said he was the wrong man?”
Two
Boston was cold, and snowy...and perfect. Alexandra was pleased with her decision to make the trip. She spent two days on her own in the city seeing the sights, wandering in and out of shops of all kinds and organizing her work on Olivia’s wedding and bridesmaids’ dresses. On her third day in Boston—December 22, two days before the wedding—she was reasonably recovered from jet lag and keen to get to Knights Bridge.
Dylan sent a car for her. The driver was a man who looked to be in his late twenties. His casual attire of jeans and a worn canvas jacket was a bit different from the black suits of Alexandra’s usual drivers in London and various European cities, but she didn’t object. She climbed into the backseat with murmured thanks.
“No problem,” he said.
And that was that. He was pleasant but obviously not one to engage in conversation. That was fine with her since it left her to enjoy the blissful drive west. The day was clear and bright and the scenery as beautiful as she imagined a New England winter would be. The nor’easter had fizzled, or blown out to sea. Something. She knew her grandmother would be watching the forecast. Philippa had managed to wriggle out of providing details about her rake of a man, but Alexandra hadn’t pressed her, fearing her grandmother would want details about her rake of a man. Alexandra had enjoyed their evening together in London before her departure the next day. Her grandmother was unconvinced that her only granddaughter’s move to the country was in the best interests of her career. Philippa had been out to the Cotswolds with Alexandra’s parents, but they hadn’t met Ian. He’d been off flying fighter jets or drinking with his pilot buddies. Alexandra didn’t know, didn’t ask, didn’t care.
Well, at least she didn’t know and didn’t ask.
Not caring would take time.
Lost in thought, she wasn’t aware the car had turned off the main road until it hit a bump and she noticed an open field blanketed with snow glistening under the cloudless blue sky. She breathed in deeply, transfixed as the road wound into the small village of Knights Bridge. She took in the oval-shaped village green, surrounded by mostly nineteenth-century homes, a library, town offices, a handful of shops. Children and a few adults were ice-skating on a seasonal rink on one end of the green, a picturesque sight that conjured up simple pleasures and pushed her worries and doubts to the back of her mind.
This will be a wonderful week. I won’t think about Ian at all.
Alexandra settled into her seat as the car turned onto a back road. In a few minutes, they passed what had to be the house and “barn” Dylan and Olivia were building on the site of Grace Webster’s former house, a structure too far gone to save from demolition. The new buildings seemed to spring naturally from the rural surroundings. The house wasn’t too close to the barn, which, Alexandra knew, would serve as the headquarters for Dylan’s new ventures—adventure travel and the occasional entrepreneurial boot camp. Dylan might have ended up in Knights Bridge because of his grandparents—and his treasure-hunter father—but he was wealthy because of his own hard work and his friendship with Noah Kendrick, a high-tech genius. They had forged an incredibly successful business partnership, transforming Noah’s fledgling NAK, Inc., into a profitable enterprise. Noah, whom Alexandra had yet to meet, was serving as Dylan’s best man.
This, Alexandra thought, was where Grace Webster—Philip Rankin’s last love—had moved as a young woman, pregnant with their child, not knowing if her RAF pilot would ever return to her. Decades later, Duncan McCaffrey had traced his birth mother to Knights Bridge and bought her crumbling house when she moved into an assisted-living facility. Duncan had died suddenly, leaving his only son, Dylan, in the dark about Grace and Knights Bridge. Two years later, Dylan had arrived in Knights Bridge himself to sort out what was behind his father’s mysterious purchase of a property in the out-of-the-way little Massachusetts town. In the process, he fell in love with his Knights Bridge neighbor, Olivia Frost.
Funny how life turns out, Alexandra thought as her driver continued down the narrow road to a classic center-chimney house with creamy clapboards and a cheerful blue front door. A hand-painted sign decorated with a cluster of blossoming chives announced they had arrived at The Farm at Carriage Hill. She knew from Olivia and Dylan it was the last house on the road, which had once led into the Swift River Valley towns but now dead-ended at a gate leading into the reservoir watershed and ultimately to the reservoir itself. The house was situated among established gardens and mature shade trees, their branches bare and gray with winter, and tall evergreens drooping with snow. Across snow-covered fields a hill—Carriage Hill, presumably—rose against the blue sky.
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