Christmas Revels V – Four Regency Novellas by Hannah Meredith, Anna D. Allen, Kate Parker, and Louis
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    • Jul 11, 2018
    • 9 min read

Christmas Revels V – Four Regency Novellas by Hannah Meredith, Anna D. Allen, Kate Parker, and Louis


Title: Christmas Revels V – Four Regency Novellas

Author: Hannah Meredith, Anna D. Allen, Kate Parker, and Louisa Cornell

Genre: Historical Romance

Book Blurb:

Mr. Hunt’s Christmas Caller – After his anticipated betrothal falls apart, Matthias Hunt wants nothing to do with Christmas festivities. Yet, when quiet, demure Constance Blackwell unexpectedly gives him a piece of her mind, he wonders why he never considered her. Delivering gifts for her aunt, Constance dreads facing Mr. Hunt in the wake of her hasty words. After years of secretly loving her neighbor, she can hardly expect a Christmas miracle... until the weather changes.

The Christmas Gamble – In exchange for her guardian's gambling debts, Lizzie Hancock is pledged to marry the Earl of Stonebrook, a man she's never met. When she arrives for the Christmas wedding, the bridegroom is missing, the servants are secretive, and a prodigal brother has returned. Could Lizzie gain everything she desires—if she's willing to gamble on love?

The Gnome and the Christmas Star – The Earl of Marle has an uncanny ability to judge political candidates, but he’s a failure in matters of the heart. After years spent caring for her late husband, the Dowager Viscountess Lyndon fiercely clings to her new independence. An unlikely meeting offers them both a second chance at happiness, but a Christmas miracle is needed to claim it.

A Perfectly Ridiculous Christmas – Valerian, Viscount Keynsham will do anything to ensure his best friend's marriage to a wealthy heiress, including claim the man's three young Creole daughters as his own. Lady Catherine Chastleton needs a manageable husband to claim her inheritance. As the children try to keep their stories straight, Christmas will be anything but manageable.

Excerpt:

FOUR STORIES – FOUR MEETINGS

MR. HUNT’S CHRISTMAS CALLER by Anna D. Allen

Baffled by her behavior, Matthias felt as if she were snubbing him, something he knew Miss Blackwell would never do. She even managed to put up with Mrs. Lancaster. Clearly, something was amiss.

“Miss Blackwell,” he called after her, “have I offended you in some way?”

She abruptly stopped and turned to face him, her face conveying shock over the suggestion.

“No,” she said, adamant. But then her brow creased, and she seemed to reconsider. When she spoke again, it was with a determined voice, “Well, yes, if you must know.” She took two steps toward him, and her words came at him fast and steady. “It grieves me to see you so injured by Miss Merryweather, but you were not engaged. Everyone knew you asked her to be your wife and that she asked that you allow her to think about it. Quite prudent with most proposals. A man can be all charm and kindness while pursuing a lady, but once he has her, once there is no way to escape, he reveals his true self, for good or ill. So I understand a lady wishing to think on marriage before accepting a man.”

She took a deep breath, and Matthias thought he saw fear—or was it anger?—in her eyes, while he felt his own heart pounding fiercely for some inexplicable reason. “But with you?” she continued, “I’ve seen you happy, kind, and gentle. I’ve seen you full of anger. I’ve seen you at work in the fields on good days and bad, through deluge and drought. I’ve seen you at your worst. And any lady who would not say yes to you in the space of a heartbeat is not worth the having.”

And then she gasped at her own words, a horrified look on her face. Before Matthias could even fully comprehend all she’d said, she turned and ran back to the house. He stood there, stunned, her words echoing in his head. Polite, demure, shy Miss Blackwell who rarely raised her voice in his experience had given him a thorough dressing down.

THE CHRISTMAS GAMBLE by Kate Parker

The man in the hallway took off his top hat, gloves, scarf, and heavy coat as if he belonged there. “Is George here?” he asked Jenkins.

“George, sir?” Jenkins asked.

“George Waters. My brother. Is he here? I’m Gabriel Waters. You must be new since I left England. Where is he?” The stranger glanced around the entrance hall, examining it as if for any changes. He appeared to be just past thirty, fit, and, judging from the laugh lines on his smiling face, with an easygoing manner.

“I’m afraid the earl isn’t home. He’s gone to London on business,” Jenkins told him as a footman took his outerwear.

“I just came from there. We must have passed on the road.” The man turned twinkling brown eyes on Lizzie. “Hello. I’m Gabriel Waters, at your service.” He gave her a deep bow.

She curtsied in return. “Elizabeth Hancock, the Earl of Stonebrook’s fiancée.”

“My brother is well-blessed. His taste is outstanding.”

He gave her such a wide smile that she blurted out, “I’ve never met your brother. My guardian, Lord Grambling, arranged our betrothal.”

“Then my brother is lucky to have a friend in you, my lord.” The stranger held out his hand.

Lord Grambling shook it. “Nice of you to say. Do you play cards?”

THE GNOME AND THE CHRISTMAS STAR by Hannah Meredith

Duncan and Amelia stood in the broad doorway. As soon as the steps were dropped, a hatless brown-haired young man swung out the door, his right hand grasping the side bar, He gracefully pivoted to face the open carriage door, showing his left side and a jacket sleeve that had been pinned up to end above the elbow. The young man then extended his right hand to help a petite woman descend.

At first, all Duncan could see was the top of the dark blue hood that covered her head. But when she was securely on the ground, she looked up toward the door—and Duncan’s breath caught in his throat. A face, which could have been used as the model for the fairies in the illustrated books he’d read to his children years before, now stared up at him. Blonde almost white hair nestled inside a circle of red fox. Her face was a delicate heart shape, her eyes a surprising dark blue that matched her cape.

“If this is the mother, she is certainly not sixty,” Amelia said softly.

Duncan gave a quick nod of agreement, and then his face broke into a smile and he walked partway down the steps in the rain, extending his hand.

A PERFECTLY RIDICULOUS CHRISTMAS by Louisa Cornell

Apparently, the festivities had started without her. The room was, for lack of a better word, a shambles. As were its occupants. Lord Thynne knelt on the floor gathering broken crockery. Another gentleman, a clergyman by his mode of dress, armed with a large handkerchief, dabbed at the tears of a girl of five or six years of age. Two more girls, no more than ten years of age, held the crying child’s hands and spoke to her in hushed tones. Sisters, perhaps? All three had the ebony hair, dark eyes, and honeyed caramel skin of exotic places Catherine had often dreamt of visiting.

Beyond a few overturned benches and chairs stood the last man she expected to see in such mayhem. “Good afternoon, Lady Catherine.” Lord Valerian Keynsham executed an obscenely crisp and elegant bow. Quite a feat as he held at arm’s length a large orange tabby cat— a cat covered in what smelled very like a hearty beef stew.

“Good afternoon, my lord.” She gave the room a slow perusal. “Am I interrupting something?”

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What I love most about the holiday season:

ANNA – The food. No, seriously. Christmas Eve is all this Scandinavian seafood, like a mini Smörgåsbord with smoked salmon, crab salad, pickled herring, and so much more. Dinner on Christmas Day is a variation of the traditional British roast with all the trimmings. Only time we eat beef during the whole year. This is usually when people discover, yes, I do eat meat!

KATE – Christmas Carols. My parents used to sing duets and it wasn't until they ended in two different places did they realize they were singing two different songs. I inherited my musical talent from them. Bono and Tom Petty sound the same to me. But I can sing along with Christmas Carols and 1) no one complains if I go off key and 2) I know the words, I love to sing them, and they bring back happy memories. Nothing is more joyous than a full-throated version of O Come All Ye Faithful or Angels We Have Heard On High.

HANNAH – The gathering of family. Like many American families, mine has become spread out across many states. Christmas is the one time of year when we all make an effort to be in one place at the same time. Regardless of where we meet, the result is a multigenerational mélange—crowded, chaotic, often messy, and altogether wonderful.

LOUISA – Decorating the trees. Yes, that is trees plural. I have collected so many ornaments on my travels I decorate several themed trees—one of shoes, one of teddy bears, one of dogs and cats for my furkids, and one of ornaments from all over the world. I love decorating my mother's tree as well because she still has ornaments from my childhood and taking them out to decorate always brings back such wonderful memories!

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Author Biography:

ANNA D. ALLEN

Anna D. Allen is essentially half-Finnish and half-Southern, which means she has no sense of humor and will shoot you for wearing white shoes after Labor Day… unless you are attending a wedding and happen to be the bride. She holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts in Language and Literature. She is a recipient of the Writers of the Future award and a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, but she also has a great passion for Regency Romances. It is generally acknowledged that she spends way too much time with the dead and her mind got lost somewhere in the 19th Century.

Along with her contributions to the five Christmas Revels Regency anthologies, her available works include the Regency Romance novel Miss Pritchard’s Happy, Wanton Christmas (and the Consequences Thereof); the Regency Romance novelette “A Christmas Wager;” the novel Charles Waverly and the Deadly African Safari; and three short story collections: Mrs. Hewitt's Barbeque, Lake People, and Lady de Kiernan’s Headache; as well as some boring scholarly stuff about dead people. She is currently writing a Victorian mystery novel, which she freely admits is Holmes and Watson fanfiction... but then, Sir Arthur was writing Edgar Allan Poe fanfiction, so Anna is in good company.

KATE PARKER

Kate Parker considers herself the most fortunate of people, with a loving family and a profession she adores. After many years of commuting in horrible traffic, she now only needs to walk across the house to her office to begin a new day plotting murder and mayhem. After work she simply has to remember not to poison anyone with dinner. That part is easy—it’s the unburned and tasty part she has trouble with.

This past year, Kate began a new series, the Milliner Mysteries, with The Killing at Kaldaire House. A young milliner in Edwardian London, Emily is trying to raise the money to send her younger, deaf brother to school. When her aristocratic customers don’t pay her for their hats, she uses the skills taught her by her father’s larcenous family to encourage them to honor their debts—with disastrous results.

Next up will be the fourth in the Deadly Series, Deadly Deception, in which our intrepid reporter, Olivia, finds herself caught between rival spies as Hitler menaces Europe.

HANNAH MEREDITH

Because Hannah Meredith’s father was a career military officer, her early life was a somewhat gypsy existence. She’d attended eight different schools in different locations by the time she graduated from high school. She learned early on that friends she made in books could be packed up and taken with her.

She continued to add to the number of these portable friends as she attended college, received two degrees in English, married her high school sweetheart, had a family, taught at the high school and college level, and had a successful real estate career. During all this time, she continued moving as her husband’s job required.

She and her husband of over fifty years have now retired in a charming North Carolina town. Hannah’s book friends have come with her and live in a multitude of bulging bookcases and on assorted electronic devices. It is unsurprising, however, that new characters about whom no one has written have popped up in her mind. She is now trying to write their stories in the hope that she will create friends that others will want to pack up and take with them.

Under another name, Hannah sold over a dozen speculative fiction short stories to major Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines. She now concentrates on historical romance. She currently has five romances available: Kestrel, Indentured Hearts, Kaleidoscope, A Dangerous Indiscretion, and Song of the Nightpiper, a fantasy romance which is a 2018 RITA® Finalist and a 2018 PRISM Finalist. Hannah’s novellas have also appeared in the four previous Christmas Revels anthologies.

LOUISA CORNELL

Louisa Cornell is a retired opera singer living in LA (Lower Alabama) who cannot remember a time she wasn’t writing or telling stories. Anglophile, student of Regency England, historical romance author—she escaped Walmart to write historical romance and hasn’t looked back. A two-time Golden Heart finalist, three-time Daphne du Maurier winner, and four-time Royal Ascot winner—she is a member of RWA, Southern Magic RWA, and the Beau Monde Chapter of RWA.

Her first published work, the novella A Perfectly Dreadful Christmas in the anthology Christmas Revels, won the 2015 Holt Medallion for Excellence in Romance Fiction. Her first full-length published novel, Lost in Love, was a Golden Heart finalist. She recently released Stealing Minerva, the introductory novella in her The Many Brides of Lord Creighton series. Her first novella for Scarsdale Publishing, A Lady’s Book of Love, was released in May. A Perfectly Ridiculous Christmas is her fourth novella in the Christmas Revels Anthologies.

Louisa lives off a dirt road on five acres in the middle of nowhere with a Chihuahua so bad he is banned from vet clinics in two counties, several very nice dogs, and a cat who thinks she is a Great Dane and terminates vermin with extreme prejudice.

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