Before The Snow Falls | Holiday Novella

The Loved

New York City, New York

1867

One, two, three, four...

Nora was brushing through her long, thick hair as she sat at her dressing table. She thought that perhaps if her mind was preoccupied with the counting of the strokes, she could push the worries of Felix from her head.

However, it seemed that her brain was extraordinarily proficient at multitasking.

Eleven, twelve, thirteen...

The image of Felix sitting across the table from her at dinner kept flashing through Nora's mind. Her mother had asked the poor man question after question, and he had answered each one in good grace. There was no way that he would agree to spend an entire week here...was there?

Eighteen, nineteen, twenty...

A little thrill coursed through her at the thought of getting to see Felix on Christmas—of getting to spend her favorite day with her favorite person. Maybe if Felix stayed the week, Nora would actually get a chance to talk to him without her mother lurking around.

Twenty-six, twenty-seven...

She knew they needed to speak to each other. The last time Nora had seen Felix before today, she had barely been wearing any clothes, clad only in her thin chemise. She grew heated just thinking about it.

Nora had been in her bedchamber at her aunt and uncle's home in Hertford, hiding from the dinner party downstairs. She just hadn't been able to eat the damn soup anymore, not with the way that her eyes kept catching on Felix's.

If she was honest with herself, Nora knew she had panicked. Because it was at that moment, as she was sipping soup from her spoon, that Nora had realized that she loved him. Felix Graham.

The whole summer, her heart had been tugging her toward him, and then with one look at dinner, it stopped altogether. Beneath the devilish facade, Felix was the most caring and thoughtful person she had ever met. The hours they had spent together every day flashed by in a minute, and now Nora knew why.

She had tried to run away from it all, but Felix merely followed her, walking into the bedchamber as she'd been trying to pry that blasted dress off so she could breathe. All of the servants had been busy attending to dinner, and Nora hadn't wished to cause any more commotion than she already had. So without another immediate option, Nora had allowed Felix to unlace her dress...and then her stays.

She'd just wanted to take a deep breath.

Forty-five...

And then, in her fluster at being so close to him, Nora's undone clothes had fallen to the ground, forgotten.

Felix's gaze had turned dark then. She'd known the look, seen it on his face once or twice before in previous summers when he'd flirted with other women. But Nora couldn't be like those other women, who Felix would kiss and forget about.

So when he'd leaned in toward her that night, when he'd cupped her face in his hand, when he'd been about to brush his lips against hers, Nora ran again. And this time, she didn't stop...until reaching the shores of America.

Forty-one, forty-two, forty-three...

Cooper barked abruptly, causing Nora to drop her brush behind her. She swiveled to look for where it fell to.

"Cooper! You made me lose count," she scolded in the dog's general direction before bending to pick up her lost item.

Once she had retrieved it, Nora sat up. And screamed. "My lord!"