11
Rayne and Ellen had their luggage packed, and a footman was summoned to carry it down to Lord Fraser’s coach.
“Are you certain you wish to leave?” Ellen asked as they stood in the entry hall, waiting for their dolmans to be brought to them.
The old Scottish manor house was full of Christmas cheer, with evergreen garlands covering the banister of the stairs and kissing boughs hung over more than one doorway. The wooden floors creaked, and the tapestries whispered with Christmas secrets. Rayne would have given anything to stay here, to embrace the magic of the holidays in a home like this, but she couldn’t face Oliver again.
“Ellen, I can’t stay,” she whispered. “Everything I believed about Lord Conway was a lie.”
She had confessed to her maid what had transpired between her and Oliv
