Read Online Regency Christmas Gifts by Carla Kelly - Free Book Online Page B

into the sitting room she remembered. Thomas sat on
the sofa with his shoes off, stocking feet propped on a hassock,
reading his beloved Euclid, and Suzie wound a skein of yarn into a
ball. She sat down next to Thomas and looked around at the room,
which had been decorated with holly and ivy. A lace-covered table
in front of the bow window held presents, so she excused herself,
went upstairs, and came down with her few gifts, adding them to the
pile.
    She looked close at an apple on a tripod of
twigs, stuffed with—she leaned closer for a sniff—cloves. Sticking
from the top was a green sprig. She turned around to see Thomas
watching her, a smile in his eyes and his finger stuck in
Euclid.
    “ Go ahead. Pick it up,” he told her,
setting the book aside. “We’re not so much for Welsh customs, but
this one always reminds me of my childhood, what there was of it
before the war.”
    She held up the apple, enjoying the fragrance.
“What on earth is it?”
    “ Calennig ,” Suzie told her.
“Little children like Beth take them around to the neighbors, sing,
and get small candies in return for calennig .”
    “ What is it for?” Mary Ann asked.
She took another sniff.
    “ Fertility,” Thomas said, and she
set it down quickly as he started to laugh. He patted the sofa.
“Join me.”
    She did as he asked, but not as close, which
made him laugh some more. “For heaven’s sake,” she said finally,
and slid closer. She turned her attention to Suzie, who was winding
yarn again. “Are there any other Welsh customs I should know about?
Your brother is disreputable.”
    “ I know, I know,” she soothed.
“Nothing here beyond Welsh spoons and a kissing ball.” She pointed
to the mistletoe tied with red twine and hanging from the ceiling
between the sitting room and the dining room. “Our ’tween-stairs
girl is already trying to maneuver the constable’s son in here for
the kissing ball.”
    Mary Ann’s face felt hot, even though the room
was a pleasant temperature. There must be a massive change of
subject somewhere, but all she saw were a brother and sister
comfortable in their house and with each other.
    “ How did you get to sea?” she asked
Thomas.
    He put away the Euclid for good, his face
serious almost in a night and day sort of way, after his good humor
over calennig . “I owe it to my mam and Suzie,” he said, and
passed a hand across his eyes, as though it was a memory tender
even now, after probably thirty years. She had no idea how old
Thomas was.
    “ I was ten, and Da said it was time
for me to go to the pit. He mined coal in Glamorganshire, like
everyone else.”
    “ That’s young,” she said, tucking
her legs under her and leaning back. If they could be casual, so
could she. The atmosphere seemed to require it here at 34 Notte
Street.
    “ Not in a coal mine, ten isn’t
young. I was old enough to pick up the coal my father mined and put
it in his numbered basket. Two weeks I was down there from black
morning to black evening, and crying in my bed every night. Da was
angry.” He blew his sister a kiss. “What does Suzie do but conspire
with our mam. I played sick one morning. After Da gave me a
whipping and left, they scraped together a pound between them and
my aunt next door and told me to run away to sea. I
did.”
    “ That’s young, too,” she murmured.
“I suppose there is more to this story.”
    “ Aye, lass,” he told her, and
touched one of her curls that had escaped from her widow’s cap
before he realized what he was doing. “Oh, sorry. There’s more.
I’ll tell you some day, but look over there. Suzie is
yawning.”
    She turned a little to face him. “Your father
was a hard man.”
    “ I thought so at first. I may have
hated him for a while. He was a desperate man, my dear, trying to
provide for a family. I understand him now, and I certainly don’t
hate him.”
    “ Did he know of your success?” she
asked.
    “ Aye, right before he died.” He
touched her hair