The Christmas Heiress

By M.L. Ruscsak

Taken in as an infant, a life of servitude is all that she has ever known. 

Each day the price to buy her freedom growing as her basic needs are met. 

But with the help of a spirit... a ghost...

Will she receive a Christmas miracle that will change her life before dinner is served? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trient Press
• Release date: May 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781953975423

Book preview

Chapter One

The snow fell from beyond her bedroom window. Fine powder resting on the sill, clinging to the cold stained glass. Wisps of wind bringing the individual flakes from the slumbering ground to the air once more. Shuddering from the cold that was seeping into her room, Anika pulled her thick blanket tighter around her shoulders.

Her room was simple. It had all that she really needed. A plain wooden bed where her thin mattress rested. A single dresser to hold her meager belongings. But it was her writing desk where she always found comfort. Here was the single place for her to truly be free.

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This was her only place to be herself rather than a servant that none ever remembered.

A deep sigh and her eyes lightly closed hiding their frost blue color from the world once more.

Tomorrow she would tuck away the decorations from the harvest festivities. Each one needing to be wrapped and placed in their crates. The crates themselves... dragged up the three flights of stairs to the attic. Upon each trip, up would only yield a larger crate of decorations that would need to be hailed down to the servant’s parlor. Then each crate opened, their contents cleaned or dusted depending on if it was made of glass or feathers.

But that was tomorrow. Tonight, was all hers.

Candlelight flickered. A cold, dead wind blew past her toppling over her candle. The candle being snuffed out just a heartbeat before it touched the papers. Just before....

A whispered laugh. Disembodied and hollow.

It was a voice she knew. And for all that she knew... it was a voice that didn’t really exist. Couldn’t exist.

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Still, she turned knowing he would be standing in her doorway.

Golden eyes forever watching her. His hair as disheveled today as it had been in life. Or at least that was her assumption.

Relighting her candle, she hissed low and quiet, You could have caught the table on fire.

Slowly he crossed the room, his cold aurora filling the space between them. Hardly.

His voice was fluid as always. His name... His true name Anika didn’t know. But his face... handsomely chiseled. Lips that might have been soft and warm. If he wasn’t already dead, he would have been a fine catch for any gentry lady. Certainly, he wouldn’t have been wasting his time with a simple house servant. Or more to the point would be wasting his time on her.

Don’t you have something else to do besides making my dormer colder than the weather outside?

I could go make a mess in the kitchen... But... He shrugged and turned to leave. His foot posed to take a step through the closed door. Yet he lingered giving her time to respond.

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Either I would be blamed for it or made to clean it up. Yes, she could see why he didn’t bother. He knew her better than anyone.