Christmas in the
Cotswolds
by
Jenny Kane
(@JennyKaneAuthor)
 |
| Christmas in the Cotswolds |
A seasonal easy read romance, Christmas in the Cotswolds is Jenny Kane’s festive sequel to
Another Cup of Christmas.
(It can also be read as a stand
alone story.)
Blurb
Izzie
Spencer-Harris, owner of the Cotswold Art and Crafts Centre, is due to host the
prestigious Cotswold Choir’s annual Christmas carol concert in her beautiful
converted church. Or at least she was, until a storm smashed a hole right
through the chancel roof.
Days
from Christmas, Izzie suddenly finds herself up to her neck in DIY, with her
last dodgy workman having walked off the job. She does the only thing she
can … calls in her best friend Megan to help.
Leaving
Peggy and Scott to run Pickwicks Café in her absence, Megan heads to the
Cotswolds for Christmas. Within minutes of her arrival, she finds herself
hunting down anyone willing to take on extra work so close to Christmas. It
seems the only person available to help is Joseph Parker – a
carpenter who, while admittedly gorgeous, seems to have ulterior motives for
everything he does …
With
Izzie’s bossy mother, Lady Spencer-Harris, causing her problems
at every turn, an accident at work causing yet more delays, and the date for
the concert drawing ever nearer, it’s going to take a lot more than Mrs
Vickers’ powerful mulled wine to make sure everything is all right on the
night …
Extract
Izzie closed her
eyes and counted to ten as the door of the Cotswold Arts Centre slammed shut.
There
was no point in panicking. She simply didn’t have time for such luxuries if her
converted church was going to be ready to host a Christmas carol concert by the
renowned Cotswold Choir in nine days’ time.
Bored
of being propositioned by men who weren’t remotely interested in her until they
discovered she was a daughter of the gentry, Izzie had ejected the carpenter
through her front door before he’d quite had time to work out just how
insulting her rejection of his latest lurid suggestion was.
Now,
her hasty tongue having deprived her of a desperately needed pair of
tradesman’s hands, Izzie sat with a heavy thump onto the nearest pew. She knew
she had to find fresh help, and fast. A task that wouldn’t be easy so close to
Christmas.
‘Although,’
Izzie addressed the image of Noah, who smiled benevolently at her from his
stained-glass window, as if grateful he hadn’t been smashed to pieces by the
tree branch that had come through the top of the chancel and caused so much
seasonal inconvenience, ‘I’m damn sure I’m not asking my mother to help out ever
again!’
Reaching
for the offending package of invitations that had arrived by courier first
thing that morning, Izzie emptied it onto the table. The invitations were
supposed to have been posted by now. As soon as she’d seen them, Izzie
understood why her mother had left them to the last minute.
Unfussy,
cost-effective, and with a medieval Christmas flavour in keeping with the
spirit of the converted fourteenth-century church where the concert was to be
held. That’s what she’d asked for.
What
she’d got was decadent Victorian-style gold-edged invitations which weighed so
much, Izzie was sure that posting them alone would break the bank. And if that
wasn’t bad enough, her mother had done the one thing that she had expressively
forbidden. She’d put Izzie’s full name on the invitations.
Lady
Perdita Spencer-Harris had been unable to comprehend why her daughter didn’t
want to use the family name to help sales. She simply didn’t understand that
Izzie wanted people to come to hear the choir for its own sake, or because they
wanted to see what she’d done in her art centre; not because she was a young
and single female member of the landed gentry.
Miss Isadora Spencer-Harris
cordially invites you to a magical festive evening at
The Cotswold Arts Centre, Chipping Swinton
to hear the renowned Cotswold Choir’s
Christmas Carol Concert
Saturday 21st December
7 p.m. for 7.30 p.m. start
£25 per ticket
Refreshments provided
RSVP by 18th December to Harris Park
Wrapping
her stripy woollen scarf more tightly around her neck, Izzie breathed warm air
over her cold fingers. Deciding it wasn’t cost effective to heat the church
this late at night just for her, she gathered up the invitations, and with one
last check that the polythene sheeting would keep the rest of her chancel roof
in place overnight, Izzie headed home.
Izzie scooped up
three Christmas cards from her doormat. A smile replaced her frown as she
opened the first envelope to see a cartoon robin wishing her a Merry Christmas.
Inside, beneath the seasonal greeting, her friend Megan had written Must
meet up SOON! I’d love to see your new art centre.
‘Should
I?’ Izzie was sure her dearest friend from college would help. Megan always
helped. Izzie addressed the picture of the robin, ‘But won’t she be hugely busy
at Pickwicks café this close to Christmas?’
Switching
on her laptop, Izzie started to hunt for a replacement tradesman to help repair
her church roof. Half an hour of searching later, and her quest was looking
increasingly hopeless by the minute.
It
was no good, if she wasn’t going to be forced to ask her parents to bail her
out – which was an ‘over her dead body’ situation as far as Izzie was concerned
– she needed alternative assistance. Izzie picked up her mobile before guilt at
disturbing her friend’s life at Christmas overtook her.
‘Megan,
thank goodness you’re there! How can I put this … help!’
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Bio
With a background in history and archaeology, Jenny
Kane should really be sat in a dusty university library translating Medieval
Latin criminal records, before writing research documents that hardly anyone
would want to read. Instead, tucked away in the South West of England, Jenny
Kane writes stories with one hand, while working for a Distance Learning
Company with the other.
Jenny’s next full length novel, Abi’s House, will be published by Accent Press in 2015.
Jenny Kane is also the author of quirky children’s
picture books There’s a Cow in the Flat
(Hushpuppy, 2014) and Joe’s Letter
(Coming soon from Hushpuppy)
Keep your eye on Jenny’s blog at www.jennykane.co.uk for more details.
Twitter - @JennyKaneAuthor
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JennyKaneRomance
Jenny Kane also writes erotica as Kay Jaybee.
(www.kayjaybee.me.uk)
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I was born when we kissed; I died when we parted. I lived in your embrace while we loved..........