'Tis the Season to Fall in Love

By Ingrid Sloane

A steamy, Regency, romantic holiday novella…

Miss Cecelia Daw is happy to be in charge of organizing a Christmas fundraiser for children's education. Unfortunately, she has to do so with Mr. Owen Mowbray, who is a less-than-helpful co-chair. The Christmas season, combined with their smoldering attraction, weaves a spell around them from which they struggle to escape.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ingrid Sloane
• Release date: Dec 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215812556

Ingrid Sloane

Ingrid Sloane had been an avid reader of romance, particularly regency romance, for over 15 years. She writes primarily in the company of her much-beloved fur children, prefers autumn to all other seasons and likes to think she has a green thumb. She would love it if you would come say hi! instagram: @ingridsloane.writes Email: [e-mail]

Book preview

Chapter 1

London, England, 1832, two weeks before Christmas

Mr. Mowbray was so damn annoying, Cecelia thought, wrapping her cloak around herself tightly as she walked quickly home. She knew that they had agreed to a truce and could begrudgingly admit to herself that he had been putting in far more effort since then. He’d even started pulling enough weight to make up for his prior lack since he came to finally understand that the adversity between them wasn’t all fun and games on her part.

Despite this supposed armistice, he still managed to enrage her at their meeting this morning. Without consulting her, he had approved a band to play at the charity event they were organizing together, not considering that there may have already been one lined up. What was worse, the musicians he had approved were present when this misstep came to light, and she was the one put in the position to disappoint them, when Mr. Mowbray was the one making promises and agreements with people without any regard for whether or not he could follow through! As if that wasn’t frustrating enough, Lord Grant, major patron of this event and the person who strongly suggested the musicians who were originally booked, arrived during this dispute and had to be coddled at length.

All of this could have been avoided with a simple consultation with her and was information he would have already been aware of if he had been paying attention from the beginning as he should have.

It was unfortunate that the band Mr. Mowbray selected was a better choice for this event, musically speaking, so she could admire his taste, but the choice of musicians, like every other decision for this fundraiser, was tied to all of the other choices to be made and could not be considered in isolation. Even in raising funds for children’s education, the decisions were political.

When she was feeling charitable, which she was decidedly not at the present moment, despite the holiday cheer she glimpsed through the windows in people’s homes as she hurried down the street and which usually lifted her spirits, she would acknowledge that Mr. Mowbray did appear sorry. He stepped in and took the brunt of Lord Grant’s displeasure, which, she reminded herself, was only fair because it was, after all, his mistake. As she was leaving he may have tried to stop her to apologize, but by that point, she was tired and irritable and simply wanted to go home and be with her cat.

Cecelia already hadn’t been a fan of Mr. Owen Mowbray when they were partnered together as co-organizers for this Christmas charity event. Before their pairing, she did not dislike him, per se, because she didn’t know him well enough for that, but she had seen one or two incidents that made her distrustful, and this skepticism grew into a firm dislike the more she interacted with him.

In some ways, he was like a melancholic hero straight out of a novel. Or, rather, not melancholic, though he did have an air of that about him, but quiet and pensive. When he first started getting under her skin, she observed him unawares once when he was with people he was well-acquainted with. Seeing the spectacle before her, her mouth dropped open in indignation at his friendliness and warmth, in stark contrast to the tinge of hostility she could feel radiating from him whenever they interacted.

Though lately, that tense feeling between them seemed less like animosity and more like something else she didn’t want to name.

Mr. Mowbray’s quiet air of moodiness, favorable social position and elegant looks made him quite popular amongst younger women of the ton. In another life, his countenance and quiet thoughtfulness, punctuated with genuine bouts of hilarity that caused his eyes to crinkle and face to light up, would be just her type, insofar as she had a type, and her best friend Sophia was always quick to remind her of this irritating fact. But before they were officially introduced, she, and everyone else, knew that he was soon to be engaged. Since the beginning of the season, it was well known that Mr. Owen Mowbray and Miss Calla Worsley were romantically connected. Everyone expected an engagement announcement at any moment. Because of this, Cecelia never considered entertaining an attraction to him, and then their mutual animosity made the idea laughable.