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

where I am from, people are judged on their own merits, good or bad. One’s actions, good or bad, do not reflect on every member of the family. I find that notion absurd, really.” He looked curiously at Eireanne. “Is that why they want you in London? To remove you from scandal here?”
    “Ah, London,” she said with playful cheer. “My family—and especially Grandmamma—believes the only way to redeem our good name and my future is to have me marry a titled man. There are very few of them in Ireland, and even fewer that would have me. London, however, apparently is teeming with titled men in search of scandalized debutantes to wed.” She laughed. “There you have it, Mr. Bristol. I am the great hope to restore honor to this family, and once I finish school, I will reside in Declan’s house in Mayfair.”
    “I see,” Mr. Bristol said and slipped his hand around hers as if they’d been familiar. “Tell me about this school of yours. What do you study?”
    She laughed. “Oh, so many things,” she said, her voice playfully grand. “Pianoforte and embroidery. And one mustn’t forget the proper way to address letters and how to seat a table of twenty-four.”
    “Good Lord,” Mr. Bristol said. “There will be no end to your talents, Miss O’Conner!”
    “I’ve not even mentioned poise and walking.”
    “Thank heaven you are learning to walk, ” he said with jocular admiration.
    “You are envious, I think,” she said. “Walking is not merely stomping about as you might have imagined, Mr. Bristol. One must glide, aye? It does not do for a lady to skip or walk briskly, and God help her if she develops a limp.”
    Mr. Bristol laughed and lightly squeezed her hand. A shiver of delight raced up Eireanne’s spine. “What of riding?” he asked. “Do ladies ride, or must they always be conveyed?”
    “Oh, they may ride,” she agreed. “But quietly, and without gallop.”
    He laughed heartily.
    “Where were you schooled, Mr. Bristol? Do they teach students the proper way to walk in America?”
    “Regrettably, I have not received proper walking instruction. Our schooling is a bit different, really. We are not segregated, as seems to be the practice here. I have a sister, Sarah,” he said. “She was schooled alongside me and others in a small schoolhouse in the river valley where we live, until I went away to attend college in New Jersey.”
    The notion of a girl being educated alongside boys was fascinating to Eireanne. She couldn’t imagine it. “What did your sister learn?”
    “Sarah? To read and write, of course. Arithmetic. Geography. She’s fascinated with maps.”
    Eireanne tried to imagine herself in a schoolroom with boys. Studying maps. It sounded divine to her. But then again, she’d been educated in the nursery at Ballynaheath by a succession of tutors. Alone.
    They’d reached the cliffs, and Mr. Bristol let go of her hand and walked to the edge, staring out over the sea. “It’s an extraordinary view,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You are fortunate to have had this vista all your life.”
    “Yes,” Eireanne agreed as she watched seagulls bobbing on the water’s surface below. “It can be rather lonely at times. It almost feels as if you are the last person in the world up here, does it not? Yet I would not trade places with anyone.”
    “Not even for the diversion of a larger society?” he asked, glancing at her over his shoulder.
    She shook her head. “My family is here. My memories are here. My life has been played out on this stage. Do you feel that way about New York?”
    “In a manner of speaking,” he said. “My family roots me, as well. But they each have their lives and I have mine. I miss them dearly, but I do not believe I could be tethered.”
    “Tethered!” Eireanne said, and shifted her gaze to the sea. “This isn’t tethered, sir. This is freedom.”
    Mr. Bristol didn’t say anything to that. When she glanced at him, she found him