A Highland Ghost for Christmas: Gambling Ghosts, #1
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About this ebook
Jilted by her fiancé, librarian Maddy Jacobson is nursing a broken heart, when her best friend gives her an early Christmas present. Intended to be a fun, psychic reading in a spooky, tea house, the gift turns out to be life changing. Maddy becomes haunted by a mischievous, Highland ghost.
Ruggedly handsome, Cullen Macfie, the Highlander, has been dead for over three centuries, and never in all those years has he been so attracted to a woman, as he is to Maddy. He falls hopelessly in love and decides to woo her.
Can there be a future for a librarian and a naughty, Highland ghost?
A Highland Ghost for Christmas is a sweet, romantic comedy guaranteed to warm the cockles of your heart, make you laugh out loud and leave you craving a man in a kilt … and shortbread, of course.
Jo-Ann Carson
Jo-Ann Carson ~ paranormal mystery and romance ~ Reports of Jo-Ann Carson’s death on a Gulf Island are greatly exaggerated or, at the very least, premature. An award-winning fiction and non-fiction author, blogger and podcaster Jo-Ann loves to tinker with words. Her latest two series the Ghost & Abby Mysteries and the Gambling Ghosts feature eccentric characters, such as a Viking ghost with existential issues, a broken-hearted Highlander and a Casanova-man-witch. At the center of each tale is a strong woman trying to make sense of life and love. A firm believer in the magic of our everyday lives, Jo-Ann loves watching sunrises and walking the beaches near her home in the Pacific Northwest. You can find her at her author website: http://www.jo-anncarson.com/. Blog/ Twitter/ Author FB/ Pod FB/ Pinterest/ Instagram / BookBub Page
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A Highland Ghost for Christmas: Gambling Ghosts, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Viking Ghost for Valentine's Day: Gambling Ghosts, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfessions of a Pirate Ghost: Gambling Ghosts, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Biker Ghost Meets His Match: Gambling Ghosts, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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A Highland Ghost for Christmas - Jo-Ann Carson
Also by Jo-Ann Carson
Gambling Ghosts
A Highland Ghost for Christmas
A Viking Ghost for Valentine's Day
Confessions of a Pirate Ghost
The Biker Ghost Meets His Match
A Highland Ghost for Christmas
Gambling Ghost Series
Jo-Ann Carson
JRT Publications
Nanaimo, B.C.
© 2016 Jo-Ann Carson Terpstra
JRT Publications
ISBN 978-0-9949556-3-0
Cover Art by Steven Novak
A Highland Ghost for Christmas is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents are the products of my imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Introduction
Dedication
1. Santa Clause is Coming . . . for Tea
2. All I Want for Christmas is . . . Maddy
3. A Wicked Holly Christmas
4. He Better Watch Out . . .
5. The Most Confusing Time of the Year
6. Peace in her World
7. Angels and Highlanders
8. Christmas in her Kitchen
9. Not so Merrily on High
10. Maddy's Hallelujah Chorus
11. Jingle Bells Rock for Coffee
12. More Rocking
13. Frosty the Snow Fight
14. It's Beginning to Look Messy
15. I'll be Home for You
16. Here Comes Santa Clause
17. Oh Come all ye Highlanders
Epilogue
Aknowledgements
A Note from Jo-Ann
About Jo-Ann Carson
An Old Fashioned Shortbread Recipe From Scotland
A Viking Ghost for Valentine's Day - First Chapter
Confessions of a Pirate Ghost - First Chapter
The Biker Ghost Meets His Match - First Chapter
Introduction
Jilted by her fiancé, librarian Maddy Jacobson is nursing a broken heart, when her best friend gives her an early Christmas present. Intended to be a fun, psychic reading in a spooky, tea house, the gift turns out to be life changing. Maddy becomes haunted by a mischievous, Highland ghost.
Ruggedly handsome, Cullen Macfie, the Highlander, has been dead for over three centuries, and never in all those years has he been so attracted to a woman, as he is to Maddy. He falls hopelessly in love and decides to woo her.
Can there be a future for a librarian and a naughty, Highland ghost?
A Highland Ghost for Christmas is a sweet, romantic comedy guaranteed to warm the cockles of your heart, make you laugh out loud and leave you craving a man in a kilt … and shortbread, of course.
Dedication
I dedicate this story to Santa’s helpers who truly make the Christmas season special. I hope you give yourself some time during the hectic holiday to curl up beside a warm fire, with a naughty beverage and read my book. May your holiday be filled with peace, love and joy.
1
Santa Clause is Coming . . . for Tea
December 19th
Madison Jacobson questioned her sanity as she followed her best friend Ellie inside the notorious tea house, which had a wicked reputation for all things supernatural. A wiry woman with piercing, blue eyes and white hair pulled into a loose knot on the top of her head stood beside the reservation desk. Her thin lips turned into a faint smile as she looked at them, over a pair of tortoise-shell, reading glasses perched precariously on her narrow, ski-jump nose. For a moment Maddy felt like a new sales item in a Christmas catalogue. Around the woman’s neck hung a magnificent, agate pendant, a talisman believed to have strong metaphysical power.
You must be my eleven,
the woman said with an exotic accent.
The smell of Earl Grey tea and freshly, baked scones mingled in the air, almost masking another odor. Maddy concentrated on the odd smell. Mold, moth balls and a whiff of cigar smoke? The hair on the nape of Maddy’s neck rose. Perhaps the ghost stories were true.
She is,
said Ellie pushing Maddy forward towards the hostess. She’s your eleven.
Maddy wondered for the hundredth time why she had agreed to come here. It hadn’t been easy for Ellie to talk her into it. She had wined her and dined her and when that didn’t work, she reminded her of their blood oath taken at the age of eight. It’s destined,
Ellie had said as she closed the deal the night before. And it’s my Christmas present to you.
It had to be the most unusual Christmas gift in the world.
Destiny, my foot. Maddy fidgeted as she looked closely at the older woman. A well-educated reference librarian at the local university, Maddy believed in facts, not destiny, psychics or any form of hocus-pocus. How anyone could believe a pile of tea leaves on the bottom of a porcelain cup could predict the future amazed her. They needed their heads checked. And haunted houses? They belonged in Halloween books.
Maddy twisted her neck to relieve tension and focused on the woman with the pendant. My friend thinks I need your help.
The woman’s eyes twinkled. Indeed you do. Follow me.
The woman led them down a narrow hallway. Faded photographs in old, wooden frames lined the walls, covered in pink flower wallpaper. Pictures of people from years and years ago, probably long forgotten. A chill started at the base of her spine and rose slowly, pushing her creep-meter off its scale. Sheesh. How long would she have to stay in this place to honor her agreement with Ellie? Maddy bit the inside of her mouth.
The woman stopped at the second doorway and turned towards them. She gestured towards it. This is Lilith’s tea room.
The old wooden floor boards creaked beneath their feet as they walked to the large table set for two in the middle of the room. Smaller tables surrounded their table, but they