The Christmas Gift

“I make no pretensions of being anything close to an honorable man. However, as we have been joined in matrimony, I shall do my best to behave in a manner more worthy. More than that, I cannot promise.” Not exactly the words a girl longs to hear on her wedding day. Still, Countess Alyona Arkadyevna Vorontsova enters her arranged marriage with dreams of a happy family on a happy estate. Her much older husband, Count Lev Petrovich Vorontsov, enters the marriage eager for a son and heir. When children are slow in coming, things begin to fall apart. Can Alyona still find peace, and even joy, when dream after dream fades away?