Sometimes a secret can mend broken hearts. Alice Dountry spends Christmas with her sister, Marian, after her father suffers an attack of gout. Their neighbor, the gruff, bad-tempered Earl of Hawkinge, is at odds with the world and has refused Marian’s invitation to Christmas dinner. When Alice chats with him over the garden wall she suspects something deeper lies beneath his humbug opinion of Christmas. Hawkinge and his grandson, Hugh Gifford, no longer speak. Alice writes to Hugh but must keep it a secret from her sister. When the handsome Lord Gifford arrives, there is an immediate spark between them. But Lord Hawkinge is barely civil to his grandson. And Marian and her husband argue over the letter. Alone in London, Hugh’s estrangement from his grandfather seems to cut even deeper at Christmas. The earl judged him unfairly when he sent him packing a year ago after an incident at university, and Hugh has no intention of going cap in hand to beg for forgiveness. But when a letter arrives from a nosey old neighbor urging him to come as his grandfather is lonely, Hugh boards the stage to Kent. He is stunned to find the letter writer is no interfering widow. Alice Dountry might look like an angel, but she very much has her feet on the ground. If a man wished to marry her he would have to measure up. She is soon to go to London for the Season. A husband is in the cards, and, most regrettably, it cannot be him. (Note: This story was first published as part of the Dragonblade Publishing Boxed set, O Night Divine, December 2020)