#1 NYT-bestselling author Stephanie Laurens brings you a heartwarming tale of a long-ago country-village Christmas, a grandmother, three eager grandchildren, one moody teenage granddaughter, an earnest young lady, a gentleman in hiding, and an elusive book of Christmas carols.
Therese, Lady Osbaldestone, and her household are quietly delighted when her younger daughterโs three children, Jamie, George, and Lottie, insist on returning to Thereseโs house, Hartington Manor in the village Little Moseley, to spend the three weeks leading up to Christmas participating in the villageโs traditional events.
Then out of the blue, one of Thereseโs older granddaughters, Melissa, arrives on the doorstep. Her mother, Thereseโs older daughter, begs Therese to take Melissa in until the family gathering at Christmasโotherwise, Melissa has nowhere else to go.
Despite having no experience dealing with moody, reticent teenagers like Melissa, Therese welcomes Melissa warmly. The younger children are happy to include their cousin in their plansโand despite her initial aloofness, Melissa discovers sheโs not too old to enjoy the simple delights of a village Christmas.
The previous year, Therese learned the trick to keeping her unexpected guests out of mischief. She casts around and discovers that the new organist, who plays superbly, has a strange failing. He requires the written music in front of him before he can play a piece, and the churchโs book of Christmas carols has gone missing.
Therese immediately volunteers the services of her grandchildren, who are only too happy to fling themselves into the search to find the missing book of carols. Its disappearance threatens one of the villageโs most-valued Christmas traditionsโthe Carol Serviceโyet as the book has always been freely loaned within the village, no one imagines that it wonโt be found with a little application.
But as Thereseโs intrepid four follow the trail of the book from house to house, the mystery of where the book has vanished to only deepens. Then the organist hears the children singing and invites them to form a special guest choir. The children love singing, and provided they find the book in time, theyโll be able to put on an extra-special service for the village.
While the urgency and their desire to find the missing book escalates, the childrenโbeing Thereseโs grandchildrenโget distracted by the potential for romance that buds, burgeons, and blooms before them.
Yet as Christmas nears, the questions remain: Will the four unravel the twisted trail of the missing book in time to save the villageโs Carol Service? And will they succeed in nudging the organist and the harpist theyโve found to play alongside him into seizing the happy-ever-after that hovers before the pairโs noses?
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