The Mistletoe Countess (Fredrick & Grace Mystery, #1)

by Pepper Basham

Social engagements interfered with the most delightful bookish discoveries.

“If I said everything, I’d leave many more horrified expressions in my wake. But at times my feelings are so large, they must burst out into words. Don’t you ever have that happen?”

“I can’t say I ever shy away from a good kiss now and then.”

“God has given you a life, and you’re the only one who can decide how to write it.”

If I recall from what sermons I’ve attended to, God is known for lavishing love on His children. Grace, I believe it’s called?”

Sprinkle your very special type of joy on the shadowed parts of his world, and you will glean more than I think even you can imagine, my dear girl.”

“You hold to the same faith as I, but even more than that, your Creator holds to you. No matter where you go or what the expectations are, you are not alone. Remember who you are, and you will not only survive, but you will flourish.”

“My dear Grace, it seems that my mistaken kiss wasn’t so mistaken after all.”

Kindness is your most valiant weapon. People may fight against many things, but against kindness, they fall unprepared.’”

“My dear Lady Astley, I might terrify you if I unfurled my powers of seduction.”

“All of them are rather steadfast, aren’t they? Beneath their fumblings, at times, all of them beat with true hearts.”

She was with him. For him. Someone who believed in him despite his failings? He couldn’t wrap his mind around such sweetness.

He’d protect her. He’d protect this. With everything in him.

With or without Frederick’s attention, Grace had to find a way to live well where God had placed her. For her own heart, if nothing else. Let the dowager countess do her worst.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

God had placed her here as she was, knowing exactly what Havensbrooke and Frederick needed most. She was not a victim of cir-cumstance, and she would not kowtow to the fear.

As any heroine worth her own story, Grace claimed her future—Frederick, Havensbrooke, even her malevolent mother-in-law.

“Excellent choice, Frederick, and I simply adore her hair. Adds color in this world of colorless characters.

“Conflict can become one of the great shapers of our lives. God uses conflict to reach the deepest levels of who we are as nothing else can.

You have been placed into Frederick’s life to love and encourage him. To be his greatest asset. But you are also there to make him a better person than he was without you, and the same for him to you.

That’s what people do when they love. They mold and shape one another into bet...

“He married you, therefore you are exactly the right wife for him.”

“There’s no need to ponder the what-ifs. They steal the truth of what is.

You are soul mates by choice and will. How closely you wrap your souls around one another...

“A hero is never who he was.” Frederick looked up at her. “It’s who he becomes.”

“I’m a broken man, an aspiring hero, at best, but hopelessly flawed.”

“The only heroes worth reading about are the broken ones. They have the greatest potential because they’ve learned what it takes to be truly strong. And seeking forgiveness is certainly the act of a hero.”

Well, pirate wasn’t so bad, but she didn’t like the secret wife scenario at all. No wonder Jane was so upset.

“A tender heart is all well and good, but without wisdom it leads to folly.”

“We all live with reminders of the past, dear Frederick. We cannot escape them. There are plenty of regretful ones, I’m sure, so why not celebrate the sweet ones?

But no matter how intimidating his former life might be, she would embrace it all. All of him. The bravest of heroines love with eyes open.

“You don’t need to grieve for love anymore, Frederick. I will love you.”

God doesn’t go about placing people haphazardly into their stories. He must think you are strong enough too.”

The sunlight claps the earth, and the moonbeams kiss the sea: what are all these kissings worth, if thou kiss not me?’” “She quotes Percy Shelley to me.”

“I’m afraid, Mr. Parks, the past has an uncanny way of impacting the present, and I’ve no interest in being caught unawares.”

“If you were hoping to add the right people to your good intentions, a higher hand chose better for you than you chose for yourself.”

He’d have chosen out of duty and necessity, but God chose for his heart.

Being bound to her was one of his favorite activities.

“I collect a great deal of strength from a very different world so that I can survive this one. What do you think heaven is all about?”

He’d never known love until her. He’d been a man as untouched in his heart as Grace’s lips had been with a kiss.

“You are not ruined. We are not ruined. Havensbrooke may be your home, but it’s not your legacy. How we live, who we love, that is the true legacy. That is who you truly are.”

“As long as you draw breath, there is a chance for redemption.” Grace covered the woman’s hand. “Even for you.”

Havensbrooke held his heart and his history. A piece of him inextricably linked to the stories and soil of this earth, but he belonged to an even greater legacy. One bound to an eternal story—etched out of sacrifice and love, not stone and dirt.

Facing life as Earl of Astley gave him a temporary home, but living life as a child of God gave him an identity. A truth written on his soul.