Read Online It Happened One Christmas by Kaitlin O'Riley - Free Book Online

Quel dommage que tu ais perdu une pareille opportunité. You have been handed opportunities your father could never give you. But no, you spurned making your debut for this simple solicitor. This Henry Brooks. You never gave yourself a chance to meet someone special, and you settled on the first man who came along.”
    Her stomach formed a tight knot, and still Lisette blinked back the tears. She did not wish to cry in front of her. “That is not true, Mother, and you know it.”
    Her mother sighed heavily. “You still have not said that you love him. That you are happy to marry him.”
    â€œOf course I am.” Wasn’t she? She thought of her aching desire to kiss Quinton Roxbury on the train yesterday and the cold disappointment that flooded her at the news of his upcoming nuptials. A confused pang of guilt washed over her.
    â€œYou do not seem happy, ma chérie . Do not marry him if you do not love him enough. Life is too short to waste by marrying the wrong man, my darling. I know the truth of that all too well. S’il y a une chose à retenir . . . tire une leçon de mes erreurs! Learn from my mistakes if nothing else.”
    A sudden knock at the front door drew their attention. “Who could be calling on such a blustery afternoon?” Lisette asked, grateful for the timely interruption. She had had all she could take of this conversation. A deep breath helped to calm her, but still her mother’s words spun around her like a spider’s web and she could not brush them off.
    â€œMrs. Wheeler said she would stop by to see you and say hello. I told her you were coming,” her mother explained, settling back into the divan, and placing the lavender pillow back over her eyes. “Fannie will get the door.”
    Lisette remained rooted to her chair, relieved that, for the time being, her mother seemed to have dropped the subject of her marriage to Henry.
    What her mother thought about her feelings for Henry bothered her more than she cared to admit. It surprised her to realize that.
    In spite of what anyone thought, she did love Henry. She had always loved Henry, for they knew each other as children and had been friends. His father used to bring him into the bookshop from time to time and he would play with her and her sisters. They started out as playmates but things between them changed as they grew older.
    When she was sixteen, she had been helping in the bookshop with her father one afternoon. Henry had come in looking for law books and Lisette had been sent to fetch them. When she returned with the books, Henry was waiting for her, his warm smile melting her heart. She was drawn in by his good looks and quiet manner. He visited the store regularly when he knew Lisette would be there, and they spoke of their families and his interest in the law. Her sisters teased her relentlessly before Henry eventually gathered enough courage to ask her to a local dance, which was about the same time that Colette met Lucien.
    It had all happened naturally and easily between Lisette and Henry. Very proper and calm. They just began spending time together. Henry’s mother approved of her and encouraged the match. Henry had just always been there, a fixture in her life. With sandy hair and gray eyes. No, there had been nothing extraordinary about their courtship, unlike Colette and Lucien’s tumultuous path to marriage. And there had been nothing outrageous to attribute to it like her sister Juliette’s shipboard romance with the American, Captain Fleming.
    She and Henry had simply met and knew they would get along well together.
    And that was exactly how Lisette liked it. She didn’t want all the attention and the fuss and heartache.
    Still, it stung to suddenly discover that her mother did not approve of her choice of Henry as her husband after all these years.
    Fannie entered the parlor, her round face beaming with excitement. “Miss Lisette, there’s a