The First Snow of Winter: Winterbourne, #3

By Joanna Chambers

A Winterbourne prequel story

 

1814: Captain Sam Alderton returns to England from the continent with his life in tatters. Maimed and directionless, the last thing he wants to do is spend Christmas with his family and their close friends, the Huxleys—especially Jasper Huxley, who he almost kissed five years before. 

 

Sam plans to avoid the festivities, but when the first snow of winter arrives, and he and Jasper are trapped alone together at Alderton Hall, they find themselves revisiting old traditions and painful memories together—and discovering that things may not have been quite as either of them thought five years earlier.

 

 

This story previously appeared in the Gifts For The Season anthology

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joanna Chambers
• Release date: Feb 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781999672034

Joanna Chambers

Joanna Chambers always wanted to write. In between studying, finding a proper grown up job, getting married and having kids, she spent many hours staring at blank sheets of paper and chewing pens. That changed when she rediscovered her love of romance and found her muse. Joanna's muse likes red wine, coffee and won't let Joanna clean the house or watch television. Connect with Joanna: Newsletter Website: www.joannachambers.com Facebook  Facebook author page Twitter: @ChambersJoanna Goodreads

Book preview

The First Snow of Winter

The First Snow of Winter

A Winterbourne story

Joanna Chambers

The First Snow of Winter

Copyright © 2020 Joanna Chambers

Cover art: Natasha Snow

Published by Joanna Chambers

ISBN: 978-1-9996720-3-4

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or business establishments or organisations is completely coincidental.

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The First Snow of Winter

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Christmas Eve, 1814

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Captain Sam Alderton returns to England from the continent with his life in tatters. Maimed and directionless, the last thing he wants to do is spend Christmas with his family and their close friends, the Huxleys—especially Jasper Huxley, who he almost kissed five years before.

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Sam plans to avoid the festivities, but when the first snow of winter arrives, and he and Jasper are trapped alone together at Alderton Hall, they find themselves revisiting old traditions and painful memories together—and discovering that things may not have been quite as either of them thought five years earlier.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Thank you, dear reader

Also by Joanna Chambers

1

Sam

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5th December 1814

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If the Huxleys are coming for Christmas, Sam said, then I give you fair warning: I intend to decamp.

"Decamp? Lady Alderton exclaimed. She set down the delicate china teapot she’d been pouring from and fixed him with a horrified look. Samuel, you are no longer in Portugal! Genteel persons do not decamp. She blinked. Or camp, for that matter."

Sam sighed wearily. As I am sure you are well aware, I was speaking figuratively. I won’t be setting up a tent, but I will go to Little Wolkham and take a room at the White Hare for the duration.

Little Wolkham, the nearest town, was a dozen miles distant.

"But why? Lady Alderton demanded, sounding genuinely perplexed. It’s only your Aunt Augusta!"

"It’s not only Augusta, Sam said patiently, deliberately leaving off the honorific because Augusta Huxley was not his real aunt, only his mother’s best friend. It’s Augusta, Sir Ralph, Violet, Jasper, and the twins. And Bertha."

That’s Great-Aunt Bertha to you, Lady Alderton corrected.

I am not related to her, Sam pointed out.

As good as, Lady Alderton replied with a vague wave of her hand. Augusta is my dearest friend, and her mother was practically a grandmother to you when you were a boy!

Sam snorted. Bertha was the least grandmotherly person imaginable. Unless one was thinking of Lucretia Borgia’s grandmother, perhaps. Or Caligula’s.

What was true was that the rest of the Huxley clan were as near to family as could be. Sam’s mother, Lydia, and Augusta Huxley had met at a young ladies’ seminary in Bath when they were fourteen and immediately become the best of friends. After the seminary, they had spent two giddy London seasons together, attending all the same balls and assemblies and ultimately marrying within a month of one another.

Lydia had married the very eligible Earl of Alderton, while Augusta had snared Sir Ralph Huxley. Despite settling down over sixty miles apart, Lydia and Augusta had continued to faithfully write to one another and visited each other regularly enough that their husbands and children also, in good time, became firm friends.

When Sam was a boy, the two families were in the habit of visiting one another at least two or three times each year. There would usually be a short visit over the spring, a longer one in late summer, and a third over Christmas. However, as the children had grown into adulthood, the visits had gradually become less frequent, till only the Christmas one remained.

The last time Sam had been present at one of the Alderton-Huxley parties had been fully five years ago. It had been Sam’s last Christmas in England—he’d been due to sail