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A season of confetti and whirlwind romances!
You are cordially invited to attend the Huntingdon-Cross summer weddings.
Celebrate the shotgun marriage of Daisy Huntingdon-Cross and Sebastian Beresford
in
Expecting the Earl’s Baby by Jessica Gilmore Save the date: on sale April 2015
Raise a glass to Rose Huntingdon-Cross and Will Carter as they finally tie the knot
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A Bride for the Runaway Groom by Scarlet Wilson Save the date: on sale May 2015
Join us in celebrating Violet Huntingdon-Cross and Tom Buckley’s star-studded wedding day
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Falling for the Bridesmaid by Sophie Pembroke Save the date: on sale June 2015
Expecting the Earl’s Baby
Jessica Gilmore
An ex au-pair, bookseller, marketing manager and sea-front trader, JESSICA GILMORE now works for an environmental charity in York. Married with one daughter, one fluffy dog and two dog-loathing cats, she spends her time avoiding housework and can usually be found with her nose in a book. Jessica writes emotional romance with a hint of humour, a splash of sunshine and a great deal of delicious food—and equally delicious heroes.
For Carla
A book about sisters, for my sister
Love Jessica x
Contents
‘OH, NO!’
Daisy Huntingdon-Cross skidded to a halt on the icy surface and regarded her car with dismay.
No, dismay was for a dropped coffee or spilling red wine on a white T-shirt. Her chest began to thump as panic escalated. This, Daisy thought as she stared at the wall of snow surrounding her suddenly flimsy-seeming tyres, this was a catastrophe.
The snow, which had fallen all afternoon and evening, might have made a picturesque background for the wedding photos she had spent the past twelve hours taking, but it had begun to drift—and right now it was packed in tightly around her tyres. Her lovely, bright, quirky little city car, perfect for zooming around London in, was, she was rapidly realising, horribly vulnerable in heavy snow and icy conditions.
Daisy carefully shifted her heavy bag to her other shoulder and looked around. It was the only car in the car park.
In fact, she was the only person in the car park. No, scratch that, she was possibly the only person in the whole castle. A shiver ran down her spine, not entirely as a result of the increasing cold and the snow seeping through her very inadequate brogues. Hawksley Castle was a wonderfully romantic venue in daylight and when it was lit up at night. But when you were standing underneath the parapets, the great tower a craggy, shadowy silhouette looming above you and the only light a tepid glow from the lamp at the edge of the car park it wasn’t so much romantic, more the setting for every horror film she had ever seen.
‘Just don’t go running into the woods.’ She cast a nervous glance over her shoulder. The whole situation was bad enough without introducing the supernatural into it.
Besides it was Valentine’s Day. Surely the only ghosts abroad today had to be those of lovers past?
Daisy shivered again as her feet made the painful transition from wet and cold to freezing. She stamped them with as much vigour as she could muster as she thought furiously.
Why had she stayed behind to photograph the departing guests, all happily packed into mini-buses at the castle gates and whisked off to the local village where hot toddies and roaring fires awaited them? She could have left three hours ago, after the first dance and long before the snow had changed from soft flakes
