Read Online The Christmas Secret by Julia London - Free Book Online Page A

“A woman knows these things.”
    “Aha,” he said, as if he’d heard that before. “Then as you are a woman, you must know that a gentleman could not possibly make your acquaintance and not instantly esteem you.”
    Eireanne blushed all the way to her roots. She smiled a little sheepishly. “That is very kind, sir, but it is hardly true. The heart is a fickle thing, is it not? Particularly an Irish one.”
    “I don’t believe you,” he said congenially. “If an Irish man’s heart is fickle to you, he must be mad.”
    Eireanne couldn’t help giggling. “You know as well as I that there is more to esteem than attraction to this person or that.”
    “Such as?” he asked, nudging her playfully with his shoulder as they resumed their walk.
    “Such as . . . other considerations,” she said, beginning to feel a wee bit uneasy.
    “You must mean the size of the man’s purse.”
    “I do not!” she exclaimed, but she saw his eyes twinkling with gaiety. He was teasing her.
    “The size of a man’s family?”
    She laughed. “No.”
    “Then what?”
    “Something like . . . a name,” she said carefully.
    “I rather like your name. Erin. It has a softness to it.”
    “Eireanne,” she smilingly corrected him.
    “A perfectly fine name,” he said. “But I think you mean something else entirely. Is there something about your name I do not understand?”
    “Oh, Mr. Bristol, it is an old story—”
    “One I should very much like to hear.”
    Eireanne sighed. Normally, she wouldn’t speak of it, but there was something about Mr. Bristol that invited trust. “I mean only that . . . my brother has seen his share of adventure,” she said. “Well, some might call it adventure, but others have called it debauchery.”
    Henry chuckled. “Is that why everyone is so keen to see you whisked away to London? So that you are away from all the debauchery?”
    It went something like that, but Eireanne debated on how much to tell him. Her hesitation earned her a more pointed look from Mr. Bristol. “Actually,” she said, believing she could trust him, “years ago, we suffered a tragedy here at Ballynaheath. A girl was assaulted. When she was found, she was so ashamed by what had happened to her that she leaped to her death from the cliffs.”
    That clearly startled Mr. Bristol. “Good God,” he muttered.
    “Unfortunately, there were those who blamed my brother for it.”
    “Donnelly? Why?”
    “They said it was his estate. Or they believed he should have organized a search party sooner than he did, even when he’d been led to believe she was with her friends.”
    Mr. Bristol’s expression was solemn. “Such a tragedy,” he said, and glanced to the trees a moment. “Yet I do not see what it has to do with you.”
    “Oh.” She waved her hand as if it had been a trifling matter, instead of the thing that had consumed her life for as long as it had. “Scandal is the one thing that is not tolerated in a match. If anyone had been foolish enough to court me after that incident, their families would have warned them away.” At Mr. Bristol’s puzzled look, she said, “To court me would have been to court scandal, and once the breath of scandal has touched a family, surely more scandal will follow.” She sighed wearily. “Unfortunately, one or two scandals did indeed follow,” she said, thinking the better of telling him how Declan and Keira had come to be married. “And I must add that it does not help matters that we practice the Catholic faith. Catholicism is vilified in English society and even in some parts of Irish society.”
    Mr. Bristol breathed in deeply and glanced away from her for a long moment before releasing that breath. “That,” he said at last, “is not only ridiculous but entirely shortsighted on the part of your entire country.”
    Eireanne couldn’t help but laugh. “Do you not have such scandals in New York?”
    “I wouldn’t go as far as to say that,” he said. “But