The By Request Collection. Kate Hardy

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      Whatever Flora had been expecting, it wasn’t this. ‘You did? I thought you didn’t know where they were?’

      ‘I didn’t. Only since you mentioned them the idea was niggling away at the back of my mind. You were right, there had to be someone out there. And then I remembered, when I was a little boy I used to see my grandmother sometimes—and I wrote to her a lot. I remembered enough of her address to be able to track her down.’

      ‘What it is to have a photographic memory.’

      ‘Turns out it comes in useful.’

      ‘So.’ Flora felt unaccountably shy. ‘What was she like? Did you meet her?’

      To her surprise Alex laughed. ‘Nothing like I expected, very chic, rather cool and very lovely. You’ll like her, Flora. And it was as if all the missing pieces just slotted together. She had answers and photos and she knew.’

      ‘Knew what?’

      His voice broke. ‘That my mother loved me. She didn’t kill herself because she hated me. She killed herself because she thought she was letting me down. It was her illness that was to blame, not me.’

      Tears burned the backs of her eyes, her throat. How could he have lived all these years believing it was his fault? How could his father have allowed him to? All awkwardness, all restraint disappeared as Flora reached over to grab his hand, her fingers enfolding his. ‘Of course it was—and of course she loved you. How could she not have?’

      ‘She hung on for two years after I was born, terrified and so unhappy, but she tried. She really tried. If she’d got help it would all have been so different but she was in denial and my father thought that she was weak. He didn’t want her talking to anyone but him.’

      ‘If anyone’s to blame he is. For all of it. For your mother, for taking your stepmother’s side, for allowing you to leave home.’

      ‘I think I know that now. The stupid thing is I have spent my whole life wishing I had a family and a home and yet I had one all along.’

      Flora looked down at the counter. ‘With your grandmother.’

      ‘No.’ His voice softened. ‘With you.’

      She looked up, startled at his words. Her eyes locked onto his and her pulse began to thump at the look in his eyes. It was more than the desire she had enjoyed over the last week, more than the candid friendship of the last twenty years. It was new, unknown and so intense she could barely breathe. ‘I’m glad you know that. No matter what happened with you and me your home is here...’

      ‘I know that but that’s not what I mean. I mean that wherever you are, Flora, that’s where I belong. London, Kent, Bali, Austria. My house, your room or a tent in the pouring rain. I could lose everything tomorrow and as long as you were with me I wouldn’t mind. You...’ His voice cracked. ‘You make every day an adventure, Flora, and I was too blind or too scared to see it before.’

      The blood was rushing in her ears and she had to grip the counter tightly, afraid that she might fall without its solid support. ‘Me?’

      ‘I think I’ve always known it—from the very first day when you helped me make a den. Remember? I was running away but I wasn’t scared because I’d found someone to be with. But I didn’t want to face it. I didn’t want to taint you. My father said I ruined everything and everyone I touched and, oh, Flora, I didn’t want to ruin you.’

      ‘You won’t, you couldn’t.’

      ‘When I asked you to marry me I was a fool. I thought I meant those things, those sensible reasons, the list of positives, but really I was a coward. I was too afraid to tell you what I really meant. I wanted to tell you that you were the most beautiful woman in the ballroom, that I couldn’t take my eyes off you all night, that you were my best friend and that I loved you and didn’t want to spend a single second of my life away from you. That’s what I should have said.’

      Flora blinked hard, willing the tears not to fall. ‘It’s a little more convincing than storage.’

      ‘If I’d told you all this then, would you have said yes?’

      She nodded, unable to get the words out.

      ‘And...’ he stepped around the counter so that he was right next to her, turning her unresisting body so that she faced him, cupping her face in his hands and looking down at her, tenderness in his eyes ‘...if I ask you now?’

      Flora smiled up at him, her voice scarcely more than a whisper. ‘Why don’t you ask me and see?’

      Laughter flashed in his eyes as he took her hand in his. ‘No flash mobs, no rings in ice cream, no sonnets. Just you and me, Flora. Just like it’s always been.’

      She nodded, her chest so swollen with happiness she thought she might drift away.

      ‘Flora Prosperine Buckingham, would you do me the incredible honour of being my best friend, my companion, my lover, my confidante and my partner in adventure every day for the rest of my life?’

      ‘I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend my life with.’ Flora looked at him, at the ruddy, disordered curls, the freckles, the long-lashed eyes, and her heart turned over with love. ‘Of course I’ll marry you. I think I fell in love with you too, that day in the lane. You were so determined and so brave. I just wanted to make it all better.’

      ‘You did, you do. It just took me far too long to notice.’

      ‘Look.’ She pointed upwards to the beam overhead. ‘Mistletoe.’

      ‘I don’t need mistletoe to tell me to kiss you, not any more.’ Alex leaned forward and brushed her mouth with his. ‘Merry Christmas, Flora.’

      ‘Merry Christmas, Alex.’ She could finally say the words she had been holding in for so long. ‘I love you.’

      He looked over at the grandfather clock in the corner. ‘We still have ninety minutes before the household’s allowed to get up. Can you think of any way to spend it?’

      Flora rose onto her tiptoes and allowed herself to kiss him properly, deeply, lovingly. Her fiancé, her man, her best friend. ‘I’m sure we can think of something...’

      * * * * *

       The Prince’s Christmas Vow

      Jennifer Faye

      Secretly married...to a prince!

      Zoe Sarris hasn’t seen Crown Prince Demetrius Castanavo since their secret elopement. So she’s shocked when he requests her interior design services. She’s only just pieced her broken heart back together, and seeing Demetrius—as gorgeous and guarded as ever—threatens to shatter it all over again...

      However, the shocking news that they are actually still married changes everything. Especially when Demetrius reveals he wants his princess back...preferably in time for Christmas!

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