Eve Devon - Christmas at the Little Clock House on the Green - An enchanting and warm-hearted romance full of Christmas cheer

A division of HarperCollins Publishers

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Harper Impulse an imprint of

HarperColl‌insPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Harper Impulse 2017

Copyright © Eve Devon 2017

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2017

Cover images © Shutterstock.com

Eve Devon asserts the moral right

to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are

the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is

entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International

and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

By payment of the required fees, you have been granted

the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access

and read the text of this e-book on screen.

No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted,

downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or

stored in or introduced into any information storage and

retrieval system, in any form or by any means,

whether electronic or mechanical, now known or

hereinafter invented, without the express

written permission of HarperCollins.

ISBN: 9780008211059

Ebook Edition © September 2017

Version 2017-10-02

For Dad. For teaching your children that the world is full of amazing places and that life is for living.

‘If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad’ – Jane Austen

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page A division of HarperCollins Publishers www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright Harper Impulse an imprint of HarperColl‌insPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by Harper Impulse 2017 Copyright © Eve Devon 2017 Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2017 Cover images © Shutterstock.com Eve Devon asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. ISBN: 9780008211059 Ebook Edition © September 2017 Version 2017-10-02

Dedication For Dad. For teaching your children that the world is full of amazing places and that life is for living.

Epigraph ‘If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad’ – Jane Austen

Chapter 1: The Grandfather of All Clock-Ups

Chapter 2: Crouching Dragon, Hidden Bartender

Chapter 3: Pity and Pitiful

Chapter 4: Think Positivi-Tea

Chapter 5: Geeks Bearing GIFs

Chapter 6: Season’s Greetings

Chapter 7: Making Cow Eyes

Chapter 8: The Art of Conversation

Chapter 9: And the Fairy-Light Dawns…

Chapter 10: Grand Designs

Chapter 11: Heart of Glass

Chapter 12: Mince Pies on the Prize

Chapter 13: The Holly (wood), and The Knightley

Chapter 14: Lights, Camera, Action: Scything!

Chapter 15: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Chapter 16: Sleigh-Bells Ring, Are You Listening?

Chapter 17: Snow Way, Snow How

Chapter 18: A Knightley at Pemberley

Chapter 19: Moving Im-PEDI-ments

Chapter 20: Christmas Cocktails at The Clock House

Chapter 21: Bar Hygge, Bah Humbug!

Chapter 22: The Bauble’s in Your Court

Chapter 23: Nightly Haul

Chapter 24: Tour of the Roses

Chapter 25: Deck The Halls, Not Your Family

Chapter 26: Village of Stars

Chapter 27: Dashing Through The Snow…

Chapter 28: Mistletoe and Whine

Chapter 29: Pitch Perfect

Chapter 30: Miss Emma’s Feeling for Snow

Chapter 31: Readers, I Drunk-Texted Him

Chapter 32: Driving Home for Christmas

Chapter 33: Keep Calm & Jingle on

Chapter 34: ’Twas the Night Before Opening and All Through The Clock House

Chapter 35: Opening Night Fever

Chapter 36: Badly Done, Jake!

Chapter 37: Trying Hard Not to Show It

Chapter 38: Christmas Eve

Chapter 39: A Winter’s Tale

Chapter 40: On Christmas Day in the Morning

Chapter 41: The Ghost of Christmas Future

Chapter 42: A Blue, Blue, Blue Christmas

Chapter 43: The Show Must Go on

Chapter 44: The Big Finale!

Author Letter

Acknowledgements

Also by Eve Devon

About the Author

About HarperImpulse

About the Publisher

Kate

Kate Somersby upended the contents of her handbag over her desk and watched the hundred or so fluorescent pink post-its flutter to the surface like confetti.

Any moment now she was going to get to grips with the bullet journaling system her cousin, Juliet, raved about.

Yep … any moment now, she thought, staring down at all the vitally-important, equal-priority To Do notes that had come to her in the early hours of the morning.

In the meantime, she reasoned, her portable, flexible filing system was practically the same thing only without all the pretty panda stickers.

Shoving the roll of stickers and the actual bullet journal Juliet had gifted her into the top desk drawer, Kate pulled out her chair and plonked herself down.

It completely boggled her mind to think that a few months ago she’d been working abroad, pretending she was okay with living out of a suitcase, and now she was back in her home village of Whispers Wood, the proud owner of The Clock House and on schedule to get it open for business before Christmas. Of course, it immediately un-boggled when she thought about the insane number of hours everyone was putting in to keep them on course and ensure it was going to happen.

Hopefully by the end of the week, Juliet would have her hair-dressing stations in place for Hair @ The Clock House.

Daniel, Kate’s boyfriend, had nearly finished setting up Hive @ The Clock House, the co-working space he was going to manage, and all the treatment beds, pedi-chairs and nail station tables were arriving today for Beauty @ The Clock House, the day spa that had been her and her twin, Bea’s, dream for so long.

What do you think, Bea? Is this how you pictured all of this when we used to dream about opening our day spa in this building?

A swirl of excitement ran head-first into the wall of sorrow that was acknowledgement of Bea’s death and bounced backwards in confusion. She felt the conflict inside her like a cramp and tried to breathe through it.