For Christmas, Forever: The Yuletide Engagement / The Doctor's Christmas Bride / Snowbound Reunion

‘NOT a word,’ Ellie cautioned Toby when he looked up from reading the Saturday newspaper as she came into the kitchen, dressed warmly for going out, needing only to pull her coat on when the time came. ‘Not one word, Toby,’ she repeated as he continued to look at her. ‘You aren’t my favourite person at the moment,’ she added, and dropped down onto one of the kitchen chairs to wait.

Toby returned her gaze with too-innocent blue eyes. ‘I can’t imagine why you’re in such a bad mood, sis.’ He shrugged unconcernedly. ‘You know how you love shopping.’

Ordinarily she did. But today wasn’t ordinary. As Toby very well knew.

She glared across the table at her brother. ‘I think working for Patrick is having a bad effect on you,’ she muttered bad-temperedly. ‘You’re becoming as sneaky as he is!’

Toby chuckled softly. ‘You forgot “underhand”, “secretive”, and—"manipulative", wasn’t it?’ he prompted lightly.

They were all the names she had called her brother this morning, after he had asked her how the previous evening had gone!

‘You forgot “too clever for your own good”,’ she reminded him heavily, but her mood began to thaw slightly. ‘You really should have told me, Toby.’ She shook her head disgustedly.

‘But then you wouldn’t have gone to the dinner last night. At least, not with Patrick,’ he reasoned. ‘And that would have been a pity.’

Ellie eyed him suspiciously. ‘Why?’

‘Hey, look, Ellie, in case you’ve forgotten Patrick and I are two of the good guys,’ Toby pointed out protestingly. ‘Gareth is the bad guy—remember?’

Oh, yes, she remembered. She also remembered that look of triumph on Gareth’s face the previous evening when George had stood up to announce the younger man’s engagement to his daughter, Sarah.

‘He doesn’t deserve Sarah, Ellie—let alone you!’ Patrick had muttered disgustedly at her side.

Which was why, when the Delacorte family—and Ellie—had all been chatting together at the end of the evening, Patrick had been only to happy to suggest that Ellie accompany Sarah the following day, when she shopped for a new dress to wear to the party tomorrow evening!

‘Ellie has just been complaining that she has nothing to wear either,’ Patrick had told his young cousin happily.

Ellie glared up at him; she might have said something along those lines, but as Patrick must know only too well Sarah was the last person she wanted to go shopping with.

‘I don’t mind coming with you, Sarah,’ Gareth put in—rather hastily, it seemed to Ellie. A brief glance at Patrick, his expression knowingly satisfied, showed her that he thought so too.

‘It’s very sweet of you, darling.’ Sarah gave her new fiancé ‘s arm a grateful hug, the emerald and diamond engagement ring twinkling brightly on her left hand. ‘But you know how you hate shopping. Besides, I want the dress I’m wearing tomorrow evening to be a surprise.’

‘I thought it was the wedding dress I wasn’t supposed to see until the day?’ Gareth frowned.

‘It is, silly.’ Sarah laughed huskily. ‘I just—wait and see,’ she dismissed excitedly, before turning to Ellie. ‘I think it would be lovely for the two of us to go shopping together tomorrow, don’t you?’

It was obvious from Sarah’s completely confident expression that she didn’t expect Ellie to refuse. And, with Patrick looking at Ellie with the same expectation, what choice did she have? Absolutely none.

Which was why she was sitting here now, dressed warmly in jeans and a thick sweater, waiting for Sarah to pick her up so they could drive into town together.

‘I remember,’ she answered Toby heavily. ‘Until Patrick told me last night I had no idea how worried George and Mary are by the relationship.’ She shook her head.

‘Strange how these things come around in circles, isn’t it?’ Toby said ruefully. ‘Your dastardly exboyfriend engaged to Patrick’s cousin,’ he explained, at Ellie’s questioning look.

Ellie winced at having Gareth described as her exboyfriend; she just wanted to forget she had ever known him. Which was impossible in the present situation.

Although she had felt slightly warmed by Patrick’s comment last night—‘He doesn’t deserve Sarah, Ellie—let alone you!’ Quite what he had meant by that she wasn’t sure, but again it had sounded as if there might be a compliment in there somewhere.

A compliment she would be wise to ignore, if she had any sense. And, after her recent disappointment over Gareth, she ought to have a lot of sense!

Except…

She had felt quite shy as Patrick had driven her home last night, wondering exactly how they were going to say goodnight to each other. Not that they had been out on a genuine date or anything—even less so than she had initially realised!—but Patrick had kissed her earlier in the evening.

She hadn’t known whether to be disappointed or relieved when, having walked her to the door, he’d bent to kiss her lightly on the cheek before telling her he would call for her at eight o’clock the following evening.

‘There’s no point in getting there too early,’ he had added grimly.

‘None at all,’ she agreed with a grimace.

‘And don’t worry about the shopping expedition with Sarah tomorrow,’ he told her with a grin. ‘Just be yourself and nothing can go wrong.’

Which was okay for Patrick to say—but Ellie did not relish the thought of having to listen to several hours of Sarah telling her how wonderful Gareth was. It promised to be a very trying afternoon.

‘Buy something blue, Ellie,’ Patrick had added huskily. ‘The same blue as your eyes.’

Once again Ellie felt warmed by the fact that he had even noticed what colour her eyes were!

‘Oh, and by the way—’ he turned before getting into his car ‘—Anne and Thomas are my parents; Teresa’s my younger sister.’

Oh, great. She was going to meet all of Patrick’s family tomorrow evening, too.

‘That dress is perfect on you, Ellie,’ Sarah told her admiringly as Ellie came out of the changing room.

It might be, but a brief glance at the label whilst in the changing room had shown Ellie that the price was perfect too—for bankrupting her!

She should have known the other woman would want to go to a designer shop for her own outfit. In fact, Sarah had already picked out a gown—an emeraldgreen sheath that perfectly matched the emerald in her engagement ring—and had only returned to try the dress on after alterations.

The dress she had persuaded Ellie to try on was indeed the blue that Patrick had suggested, its material pure silk, with a fitted, mandarin-style collar and short sleeves.

‘With your dark hair swept up like it was last night, and some kohl around your eyes, you’ll look positively exotic, Ellie,’ Sarah enthused.

The gown was beautiful, it was also more glamorous than anything Ellie had ever worn before. Dared she buy it?

‘Patrick is going to be bowled over when he sees you in this,’ Sarah added encouragingly.

She wasn’t sure she wanted Patrick ‘bowled over’ when he saw her. Where could any relationship between the two of them ever go? Nowhere, came the resounding answer. And yet a part of her so wanted the dress—if only to see if she could bowl Patrick over…!

‘Why don’t you think about it while the two of us have a cup of coffee?’ Sarah proposed as she saw Ellie’s uncertainty.

‘Good idea,’ Ellie accepted with a certain amount of relief.

Although she wasn’t so sure it had been a good idea once the two women were seated in a coffee-shop further down the street and the conversation naturally turned to Sarah’s engagement!

‘It was all a bit—sudden, wasn’t it?’ Ellie suggested lightly as she stirred sweetener into her coffee.

‘Mmm,’ Sarah acknowledged thoughtfully. ‘I’ve quite enjoyed this last year—the modelling and having my photograph on the cover of magazines but you know, Ellie, it’s a very lonely sort of life too. I missed my friends, the family,’ she added wistfully. ‘Most of all the family. Marriage, the possibility of having my own family, suddenly seemed the right option.’