A Christmas Cotillion
By Ellie Thomas
1/5
()
About this ebook
Although he’d rather remain at home alone for the festive season, this year he’s accompanying his cousin Freddy to a Christmas country house party. Freddie seems to be constantly falling in love and, on this occasion, he is infatuated with a young lady called Belinda. Jonathan is asked by Freddy’s anxious mother to accompany him to the house party to keep an eye on the situation, in case the young lady turns out to be an unsuitable choice.
Despite this inauspicious beginning, Jonathan catches the eye of Nick, the handsome son of a local well-to-do farmer, who is a constant presence at the holiday entertainments. Nick is intrigued by Jonathan’s kindness and also by the sadness he hides from public view.
The initial attraction between the men seems to be mutual, but can Nick break through Jonathan’s defences and teach him to love again?
Read more from Ellie Thomas
A Tricky Situation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Midwinter Night's Magic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Christmas Cotillion Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Marriage for Three Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShore Leave Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lucky John Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeld Close to My Heart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnother Chance for Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Festive Gathering at Chelsea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwelve Letters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Christmas Below Stairs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Thrill of the Chase Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Touch of Spice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPantaloons and Petticoats Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLucky in Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Trick of the Light Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComing of Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Summer Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Monk's Lair Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Christmas Engagement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Way Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spice of Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to A Christmas Cotillion
Related ebooks
One Summer Night Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Another Chance for Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrecious Possession Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAxbridge: Morcia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Thrill of the Chase Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sniper vs. Spotter: Hitman vs. Hitman, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Gentleman's Agreement Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Violet’s Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Buried With Him: Unquiet Spirits, #0 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Marriage for Three Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Night with the Knight of the Burning Pestle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Christmas Engagement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTies That Bind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdrian's Librarian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Locked in the Moment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House With A Thousand Stairs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Contingency Plan Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Midwinter Marriage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThicker Than Water: Shadownotes, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCon Sangre: The Book of New Life, I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Christmas Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Wish Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spectacular Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSimon and the Christmas Spirit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Taking Flight: Celtic Myths Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNocturnal Confession: Damon Snow, #4 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Holiday Spirit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Treasure Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Port in a Storm Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Away in a Manger: Poplar Ridge Ranch, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Royalty Romance For You
To Love and to Loathe: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5To Have and to Hoax: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Years to Sin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bred By The King In Public: Dominant King Erotic History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Simply Sinful Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These Old Shades Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dancing at Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simply Wicked Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scales and Sensibility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Pleasure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Swoon and to Spar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fallen Angel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Marry and to Meddle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Bit of Rough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Smallest Man: the most uplifting book of the year Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil’s Submission Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Matchmaker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simply Sexual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bound To Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cold-Hearted Rake: The Ravenels, Book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King of Libertines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Submitting to the Marquess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Ivy Hill Christmas: A Tales from Ivy Hill Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wild Irish Girl: Lady Sydney Morgan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMake Me Love You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bargain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unlaced Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Lady's Code of Misconduct Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for A Christmas Cotillion
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
A Christmas Cotillion - Ellie Thomas
Chapter 1
What on earth am I doing here? Jonathan Cavendish, Esquire wondered for the twentieth time that day, while he maintained a pleasant social smile for the bespectacled older gentleman talking to him.
He knew there was no real reason why he shouldn’t be enjoying himself. He and the other guests were three days into a two-week visit to Abbeyfield House in Northamptonshire for Christmas. His hosts, the Grant family, were numerous and gregarious and as providers of hospitality, both generous and unpretentious.
As a result, the invited company was varied and convivial. He should be relaxing and embracing the agreeably unsophisticated entertainment like his fellow guests, and on the surface, he was doing exactly that; being a good sport, joining in the seasonal fun and games, making congenial conversation with the young and not so young of the party, both male and female. All the same, some inner, deeper part of him could not or would not allow him to let down his guard and unbend.
He’d had to be persuaded on two fronts to leave his much less welcoming home for the Christmas period. Must be something to do with being lord of the manor, he thought with a sardonic grin, as his noble domain was merely a tumbledown farmhouse surrounded by lands that had gone to seed.
At least, that’s how it had been five years previously when he had inherited the property from an elderly uncle. Nowadays, after a great deal of hard work, the main house was restored, or at least weatherproofed, and the land was starting to break even. His man of business, or less pretentiously and more realistically, farm manager, had encouraged him to accept this invitation.
You haven’t had any time away in these past years, except trips to town to negotiate with the bank,
he’d said. Jonathan had guessed that his steward needed a break from him more than anything and was looking forward to a full fortnight without Jonathan driving him almost as hard as he did himself.
You can’t keep working all hours like this. You’ll make yourself ill,
he’d added, surprisingly firmly. It was this genuine concern for his well-being that really made Jonathan pause.
This appeal was coupled with another persuasive force, due entirely to his cousin Freddy. Jonathan flicked a glance over the company to see that young man’s fair head bobbing about amongst the youthful dancers. Freddy had declared himself to be madly in love. This was nothing new, as the romantically-inclined young man had made similar declarations on a semi-regular basis. This time, however, he was seriously thinking of making a proposal of marriage to the object of his affections.
So, his mother, Jonathan’s Aunt Matilda, had pleaded that Jonathan accompany Freddy to these festivities to which both Freddy and the young lady had been invited, so he could supervise the progress of this romance.
Not that I don’t trust Freddy’s judgement,
Aunt Matilda had said dubiously, but it would set my mind at ease if you were there to keep an eye on him.
As head of the family, he would have felt grudgingly obliged to find someone suitable to chaperone his feckless but charming young cousin. But his aunt’s appeal to his better nature was very hard to resist and he was very fond of her. As a widow with numerous children, she depended on and deferred to his opinion with open gratitude.
He was only thirty but he often felt almost twice his age, with so many people reliant on him. Perhaps this was why he could not quite let go, even in this happy, celebratory atmosphere, while making an apparently considered response to the white-haired elderly man with his long hair tied back in an old-fashioned queue.
The chat he was idly taking a part in widened to include another gentleman and Jonathan was no longer really required. Looking about, he spotted a young lady, sitting on her own looking a little sad for she was lacking a dancing partner. As he took her arm and they joined the fray, and receiving a delighted smile, he thought of Freddy’s current inamorata, Belinda.
Steering his animated partner through the familiar patterns of a country dance, Jonathan mused on that other young woman. During the journey together, Freddy had eulogised on her sterling qualities. An angel sent down from heaven and a flaxen Venus were some of the epithets on her loveliness. Jonathan was amused, rather than taken in by this enthusiasm, especially since he had heard enraptured utterings on a similar theme about Freddy’s previous amours.
Nevertheless, some of this high-flown praise must have rubbed off on him, as when he met Belinda, he