Claiming His Christmas Bride. Carole MortimerЧитать онлайн книгу.
Sam told her hastily. ‘I think it’s all this domesticity that’s gone to her head and infused her with this desire to matchmake for you,’ he added affectionately. ‘She wants everyone to be as happy as we are.’
Molly blinked dazedly. ‘Yes, but—’
‘Crys assures me that David and Gideon are both extremely eligible men,’ her stepbrother teased.
‘They may be—’ her voice rose slightly ‘—but David was only recently widowed. And as for Gideon—I don’t happen to—’
‘Not a word to Crys about any of this, Molly,’ Sam warned softly as plates were put on the table. ‘She won’t be very happy with me if she knows I’ve said anything to you.’
‘But—’
‘I’ll put Peter in his cradle and then we can all have breakfast.’ He spoke normally as he bent to take Peter and crossed the room to put him in the cradle that stood in the corner of the kitchen.
Molly stared after him, totally bewildered by their conversation.
What did he mean, Crys was matchmaking between her and David or Gideon? She wasn’t due to start working with David until the end of January, and after today she hoped never to meet Gideon Webber ever again, so exactly when was this matchmaking supposed to take place?
She had a definite feeling she wasn’t going to like the answer to that question.
CHAPTER THREE
‘EVERYONE had enough to eat?’ Crys prompted happily half an hour later.
Half an hour during which Molly’s bewilderment hadn’t lessened in the least. She knew that Crys was happier now than she had ever been, and that this second marriage to Sam was her whole life, but it certainly hadn’t occurred to Molly that her best friend might decide it was high time that she found such happiness—to the point that she had already picked out two eligible men for her to look over as prospective husband material.
David Strong and Gideon Webber, of all people…
David was one of the nicest men Molly had ever met, and instantly put one at ease, but he was still suffering badly from the unexpected death of his wife. Molly was very much looking forward to working with him, but she knew he certainly wasn’t on the look-out for another woman in his life in the near future.
As for Gideon Webber…!
The only consolation to her own aversion to such an idea was that, much as he obviously loved Crys, Molly knew Gideon Webber would be furious at the very idea of being matched with her.
‘There’s a good reason behind my wife’s desire to make sure you’re all well fed,’ Sam remarked dryly after they had all assured Crys they couldn’t eat another thing.
Crys grinned unrepentantly. ‘With all the excitement and preparation for the christening we haven’t had time to put up our Christmas decorations yet,’ she explained. ‘Sam has some telephone calls to return in his study this morning and so I thought the four of us might have some fun putting up the decorations.’
‘No problem,’ David assured instantly.
‘Glad to help,’ Gideon added lightly.
Molly was so disturbed by this added delay to the two men leaving that she didn’t say anything.
‘You haven’t heard where the decorations are yet,’ Sam warned them wryly.
David chuckled, shaking his head as he looked at Crys. ‘Your wife has the ability to charm the birds out of the trees, Sam,’ he drawled affectionately.
‘Or the decorations out of the attic?’ Sam suggested ruefully.
‘That, too,’ Gideon acknowledged dryly as he joined in the teasing conversation.
It made Molly feel more out of things than ever; this Christmas holiday simply wasn’t working out in the way that she had thought it would.
‘How about you, Molly?’ Sam turned to her as he, not unusually, seemed to sense some of her confusion. The two of them had always been closer than blood brother and sister. ‘I was going to take Peter in with me this morning, but if you would rather look after him than help with the decorations…?’
She would rather do anything else other than spend the morning in Gideon Webber’s company.
But even as she opened her mouth to accept Sam’s let-out she found her gaze caught and held by Gideon’s taunting one. Delicate colour rose in her cheeks and she knew he was aware, and obviously enjoying, her discomfort in his presence.
Her mouth set stubbornly and her eyes flashed before she turned to smile at Sam. ‘Thanks for the offer, but you know how I’ve always loved putting up Christmas decorations.’ And how little chance she had had to do so during her years in America.
It simply hadn’t seemed worth the effort to put up Christmas decorations in her apartment these last few years, when there had been only herself to see them. She had been looking forward to being involved in all aspects of this family Christmas, including putting up the decorations, and she wasn’t going to let Gideon Webber’s presence ruin that for her.
‘I certainly do.’ Sam ruffled her hair affectionately. ‘When she was younger she used to insist the decorations went up in November and didn’t come down until February!’ he confided in the others.
The colour deepened in Molly’s cheeks, and she carefully avoided looking in Gideon’s direction this time, sure those dark blue eyes would be filled with mockery. ‘I’m not quite that bad any more.’ She grimaced self-consciously. ‘But I have always loved Christmas,’ she admitted ruefully.
‘Nothing wrong with that,’ David assured her approvingly.
‘Nothing at all,’ Gideon agreed huskily.
Molly looked up at him sharply, expecting to see the normal derision in his gaze, but instead she found him looking at her quizzically, his thoughts unreadable. What now? she wondered frowningly.
Gideon gave a mocking inclination of his head. ‘I’ve always thought that anyone who likes Christmas can’t be all bad,’ he drawled challengingly.
Brown eyes warred with dark blue for several long seconds before Molly broke the gaze to look at the other three people in the room; Crys still smiled warmly, David and Sam were busy clearing the table of the debris from breakfast.
Was she, Molly, the only one who could hear the deliberate insult behind Gideon’s words? Probably, she acknowledged—no one else seemed aware of Gideon’s antagonism towards her.
She turned back to him, chin raised as she met that challenge. ‘What are your own feelings towards Christmas?’
They might have been the only two people in the room as they faced each other tensely.
Gideon’s mouth quirked humourlessly. ‘What do you think?’
He really didn’t want to know what she was thinking about him right now.
‘I have no idea,’ she answered honestly. Trying to fathom the workings of Gideon could take a lifetime—and she really didn’t have two minutes of her time to waste on the hateful man.
He grinned at her. ‘I’ve always loved Christmas, too,’ he told her mockingly.
It wasn’t his words that disarmed her, but that grin. It transformed his whole face until he was boyish and charming. Two things she had never before associated with the arrogantly haughty Gideon Webber.
‘Good,’ she finally managed to answer inadequately.
The grin spread to the warmth of his dark blue eyes. ‘Not what you expected to hear, was it?’ he guessed shrewdly.
If there was one thing she had learnt about this man in the last twenty-four hours, it was never to expect the expected from him; he