Ultimate Nyssa Glass, H. Burke [cat reading book .TXT] 📗

her. She slammed the door in his face and ran.

Chapter Nine

Nyssa’s heart pounded painfully when she reached the end of the block. The trolley was nowhere in sight.

“What am I going to do?” she whispered. The shops with their cheerful customers seemed to mock her. So many gifts, none good enough for Ellis. She’d sunk everything into this plan, hurt Ellis’s feelings to pull it off, and now she had nothing to show for it. Worried that Henri would pursue her before the trolley arrived, she turned the corner to walk home.

“So, so, so stupid. Ellis saw right through him. Why couldn’t I?” She kicked at a cobblestone. Tears smarted her eyes, and the world blurred.

Nothing for Ellis. No tree. No present. No explanation other than that he had been right and she had been wrong. Could things have gone worse? Tomorrow was Christmas. How would she ever face Ellis?

A rich, warm smell tickled her nose. Coffee. Coffee and cinnamon. The memory of her mother’s kitchen overwhelmed her, and she followed the odor into a small coffee house.

Candles and sprigs of holly decked circular, marble-topped tables. Behind the counter, a blonde woman in a hairnet and white apron manned a complicated chromed machine that steamed and hissed.

“Is that a boiler?” Nyssa asked.

“An espresso machine. Imported from Italia.” The woman smiled. “Have you ever had espresso before?”

Nyssa shook her head. “Mostly a tea drinker.”

The woman nodded. “Most from New Taured are. If this is your first, and because of the holiday, I can make this one on the house.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Nyssa brought out her satchel. “I can pay.”

“No, no, it’s my Christmas gift to you as a new customer. And trust me, once you’ve had one, you will be back for more.” The woman winked.

The wink made Nyssa think of Henri. She winced but sat at one of the tables. A grinding noise rose from behind the counter, and the smell of coffee sharpened. The woman’s movements made Nyssa think of a mythical alchemist at work. She tapped at the dark powder with a pestle then attached the handled filter to the shining machine.

“You’re from the continent too?” Nyssa asked. Blondes weren’t common in San Azula.

“My mother is from New Taured, my father from Italia. They met here on holiday, fell in love, and stayed rather than decide which of their homelands to return to.” The woman brought out a tin pitcher filled with milk. A hiss of steam rose from the espresso machine. “My name’s Bianca.”

“Nyssa.”

Bianca finished behind the counter and paraded out a china cup. Cinnamon lay sprinkled atop a layer of frothed milk.

“Thank you,” Nyssa said, taking the warm cup between her hands. She cast her gaze around the small dining area. In the corner, spangled with silver tinsel and paper snowflakes, stood a sapling palm tree. “What’s that?” She nodded towards it.

Bianca’s cheeks reddened. “Oh that. Well, my mother always had a Christmas tree growing up in New Taured, but imported conifers are so expensive that we’ve always had to make do with local flora. One year I decked out a pineapple.” She giggled. “But you work with what you have, you know? It’s the traditions you make, not how things look to other people. Even if someone offered me a ten foot fir, all green and fresh, I think I’d still want the tropical plants I grew up with.”

Nyssa sipped her coffee. It coated her tongue, warm, rich, and creamy. “This is excellent. I definitely will be back.”

“I knew you would.” Bianca grinned.

When Nyssa finished her drink and started towards home again, Bianca’s words kept running through her head.

Work with what you have … the traditions you make …

Deep in thought, she walked past several trolley stops, and by the time she made her way back home, the sun dipped behind the buildings. The shop was dark and empty, but she unlocked the door and stepped in. She turned up the gas lamp.

Ellis had apparently been examining his treasures from the delivery. Large metal gears—some a foot in diameter—springs, and clockwork stood in stacks or strewn about the floor. All the pieces gleamed like new, some yellow bronze, some even chrome, obviously meant more for show pieces than heavy machinery. Ellis had sorted them by size, the gears of the broadest circumference on the bottom, leading up to the smaller ones on top, making several of the stacks vaguely conical in shape. Nyssa tilted her head.

Work with what I have …

She snatched up as many of the gears as she could carry, and made her way out of the shop and down the hall. A light shone under Ellis’s door, so she lightened her steps and crept past, up to the sitting room where she’d strewn most of their decorations.

Tomorrow is Christmas. I need to work quickly.

Chapter Ten

Ellis lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. His clock read five a.m. Too early to be up, even on Christmas. When a child, he would’ve rushed to see what Father Christmas had left under the tree, but after the last few days, he wasn’t sure what awaited him. More fights with Nyssa? Would she like what he’d made her or would she be able to tell it was a hasty fix of the original broken gift?

Well, at least Theo would be happy. Ellis would put on a cheerful exterior for him, no matter what the day did or didn’t have in store for the adults.

His argument with Nyssa still stung, and her avoiding him so completely, being out all afternoon on Christmas Eve, did little to reassure him. He’d drawn a line in the sand, and in spite of her promise of fidelity, he felt empty inside. A happy Christmas would be downright impossible if he couldn’t find a way to reconcile with her.

Sitting up against the headboard, he prayed. Dear Lord, all I want for Christmas is for things to go back to how they were with Nyssa,