Deilingh was the epitome of everything a country house should be, with all the eccentricities one might expect from a country squire whose estate had been standing for a hundred years. Thick, darkly-stained wooden beams hung in the rafters, intricate carvings adorned the walls, and faded tapestries hung about, spots of wear beginning to show. The decor was comfortable and the arrangements well managed, despite the almost wild air of it all. It was clean, it was orderly, and seemed to extend in each direction as far as the eye could see.

He wondered faintly if the servants shared the dining room with the family all the time or if that was simply for the harvest celebrations. Not that it mattered, nor was it even his business. They could do as they liked here, and it was exactly that sort of thinking that could get him into trouble, well-intended or not.

Old habits were rather difficult to break, but he had spent the better part of seven months breaking all sorts of things once considered habit about himself.

How to prove such a change to anyone was equally as difficult.

How fortunate for him that he had the opportunity to begin the process with Elinor Asheley.

He was extremely tempted to cross himself for good measure as he proceeded down to the main part of the house.

As filled as the house had been with people when he’d arrived, and as bustling as it had seemed, now it was almost eerily silent, at least in the main entry. Not a single person, family, servant, or guest, could be seen. A house of this magnitude, and he was the lone individual in the vicinity?

Bizarre.

Perhaps Elinor had warned them all off, and they’d fled for their morality, abandoning him to an unfamiliar estate for Christmas alone.

He would not have put it past her.

A sudden burst of childish laughter suddenly reached his ears, and, intrigued, he headed towards the sound.

One of the drawing rooms had apparently been taken over by any and all festive greenery that could be had, and a pair of girls seemed more inclined to deck themselves in the greenery than do anything productive with it, and therein lay the source of the giggles.

He smiled as one of them began twirling while the other wrapped her in ribbon to accompany the evergreen bough draped across her, and he glanced around the rest of the room.

His breath froze in his chest, seizing up rather painfully.

The girls were not alone in the room. Also seated within were three grown women he didn’t know, along with Mr. Partlowe, Mrs. Partlowe, and Elinor Asheley herself.

All of whom stared at him.

And he stared back.

Not knowing what else to do, he bowed a bit awkwardly. “Forgive my intrusion,” he said, somehow managing to sound less awkward than he felt. “I heard the girls’ laughter.”

Mrs. Partlowe smiled with a degree of friendliness, while her sister seemed to grow even colder. Mr. Partlowe could not have cared less and returned his attention to the greenery before him.