The Captain's Christmas Family. Deborah Hale

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      A battle of wills during a season of blessings...

      Napoleon himself never gave Captain Gideon Radcliffe as much trouble as Miss Marian Murray. The fiercely protective governess won’t rest until she gains permission for the daughters of his late cousin to stay on at Gideon’s newly inherited estate. He agrees to let Cissy and Dolly remain at Knightley Park for Christmas. But by springtime they—and Marian—must go.

      Marian is prepared to believe the captain a tyrant. The truth is far more complicated. Gideon is a kind yet solitary man who sees the navy as his only sanctuary. Can Marian’s unwavering faith, and the children’s Christmas cheer, convince him he’s found safe harbor at last?

      “You’ve probably spent most of your life moving from one place to another. So perhaps you can’t understand why a child who’s lost her mother and father would want to stay in a familiar place around people she’s used to.”

      “I understand better than you suppose, Miss Murray.” Captain Radcliffe spoke so softly, Marian wondered if she had only imagined his words.

      “You do?”

      He replied with a slow nod, a distant gaze and a pensive murmur that seemed to come from some well-hidden place inside him. “I was ten years old when I was set to sea after my mother died.”

      The wistful hush of his voice slid beneath Marian’s bristling defenses. Her heart went out to that wee boy.

      “I shall delay contacting Lady Villiers until January.” Captain Radcliffe sounded resigned to his decision. “That will allow the children to spend Christmas in the country. After that, the New Year is a time for new beginnings.”

      “Thank you, sir.”

      As she hurried back to the nursery, Marian thanked God, too, for granting this reprieve. Perhaps her earlier prayers had been heard

      after all.

      DEBORAH HALE

      After a decade of tracing her ancestors to their roots in Georgian-era Britain, Golden Heart winner Deborah Hale turned to historical romance writing as a way to blend her love of the past with her desire to spin a good love story. Deborah lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, between the historic British garrison town of Halifax and the romantic Annapolis Valley of Longfellow’s Evangeline. With four children (including twins), Deborah calls writing her “sanity retention mechanism.” On good days, she likes to think it’s working.

      Deborah invites you to visit her personal website at www.deborahhale.com, or find out more about her at www.Harlequin.com.

      The Captain’s Christmas Family

      Deborah Hale

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Thy will be done…

      —Matthew 6:10

      For Gloria Jackson and in memory of Rev. David Jackson, who both made worship the kind of joyful, uplifting experience it was meant to be.

      Contents

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Chapter Sixteen

       Epilogue

       Dear Reader

       Questions for Discussion

      Chapter One

      Nottinghamshire, England 1814

      “He’s coming, Miss Murray!” A breathless housemaid burst into the nursery without even a knock of warning.

       The book Marian Murray had been reading to her two young pupils slid from her slack fingers and down her skirts to land on the carpet with a soft thud. A tingling chill crept down her back that had nothing to do with the gray drizzle outside. The moment she’d been dreading for weeks had arrived at last…in spite of her prayers.

       A new prayer formed in her thoughts now, as she strove to compose herself for the children’s sake. She hoped it would do better at gaining divine attention. Please, Lord, don’t let him be as bad as I fear and don’t let him send the girls away!

       Unaware of her governess’s distress, Dolly Radcliffe leapt up, her plump young features alight with excitement. “Who’s coming, Martha? Are we to have company?”

       The housemaid shook her head. “Not company, miss. It’s the new master—Captain Radcliffe. Mr. Culpepper sent me to fetch ye so we can give him a proper welcome to Knightley Park.”

       “Tell Mr. Culpepper the girls and I will be down directly,” Marian replied in a Scottish burr that all her years in England had done little to soften.

       Forcing her limbs to cooperate, she rose from the settee and scooped up the fallen book, smoothing its wrinkled pages.

       “New master?” Dolly’s small nose wrinkled. “I thought Mr. Culpepper was master of the house now.”

       “Don’t be silly.” Cissy Radcliffe rolled her wide blue-gray eyes at her younger sister’s ignorance. “Mr. Culpepper is only a servant. Knightley Park belongs to Captain Radcliffe now by en…en… Oh, what’s that word again, Miss Marian?”

       “Entail, dear.” Marian plumped the bow of Cissy’s blue satin sash, wishing she had time to control Dolly’s baby-fine fair hair with a liberal application of sugar water. “Come along now, we don’t want to keep the captain waiting.”

       Likely the new master would insist on the sort of strict order and discipline he’d kept aboard his ship. It would not do for her and the girls to make a bad impression by being tardy.

       “What is entail?” asked Dolly, as Marian took both girls by the hands and led them out into the east wing hallway.

       Marian stifled an impatient sigh. Ordinarily, she encouraged the children’s endless questions, but at the moment she did not feel equal to explaining the legalities of inheritance