Isabel lit up with excitement. “He’s here?” she gasped. “Open the door, Papa!”
Douglas shrugged with uncertainty. “I did not know if you were ready to see him yet,” he said. Then he waved a hand ather eager sisters. “Back away. Let this moment be between your sister and her intended. Go—back up the stairs.”
He made a sweeping motion toward the staircase, prompting Aurelia and Matilda to grab Beatrice by the hand and pull her along. They rushed back up the stairs just as Douglas opened the door.
Marcus was standing in the doorway.
Big and blond, like all of the d’Vants, Marcus smiled when he saw Isabel, but his focus moved to Douglas standing by the open door.
“Good day to you, my lord,” he greeted Douglas. “I hope my appearance is welcome. I simply could not wait to see Isabel. May I?”
Douglas smiled at the young man he’d grown fond of. “Of course you are welcome, Marcus,” he said, indicating for him to enter. “Isabel has been waiting for you. Had you not come to us, I am sure she would have gone to you.”
“Papa!” Isabel scolded. “Do not say such things!”
Douglas shrugged. “It is true,” he said. “You want to see him as badly as he wants to see you.”
“But you are not supposed to say it!”
She frowned at him until Marcus filled her field of vision. Then she could not see or hear anything else but him. With a smile at two young people very much in love, Douglas shut the door and quietly made his way to the stairs. He was just heading up when he caught sight of his wife and children at the top of the steps.
All of them.
He silently motioned for them to back up so they would not be seen by the couple in the entry.
“Back,” he muttered at them as he reached the top of the steps. “Those two want to be alone, so let them be alone.”
Mira, her blonde hair wound up attractively on the top of her head, had a three-year-old on her hip but strained to catch a glimpse of her eldest daughter and the woman’s betrothed.
“I really must go down, Douglas,” she said. “Marcus’ parents have arrived and I should greet them.”
Douglas shook his head. “Nick and Dallas are escorting them to the hall,” he said. “It will take a few minutes, so we can wait. Let Izzy and Marcus greet one another after such a long separation.”
Mira snorted. “Long separation,” she scoffed. “It has only been a week.”
“Back when you and I were courting, a week of separation was like a year.”
Mira laughed softly in agreement, remembering well those days. On her hip, the Monster of Axminster stirred and rubbed his blue eyes sleepily.
“I want apple, Papa,” Atlas said. “Apple!”
Mira lifted an eyebrow to support her child’s request. “You cannot keep us trapped up here, Douglas,” she said. “Iz and Marcus can go into the solar, but we must be able to use the entry.”
The children behind her were in agreement. Douglas looked at his brood—the older girls Aurelia, Matilda, and Beatrice were followed by the younger girls, Alessia, Madeleine, and Rosamund. Rosamund had red hair, the color of molten metal, but the others were blonde. An entire family of blonds. Mostly, anyway. Even Atlas, when he would let them wash his hair, had a bright shade of blond.
Such a beautiful family.
And they were all his.
Reluctantly, Douglas stood aside, letting the younger girls down the stairs. Aurelia took Atlas from her mother and headed down the steps, followed by Matilda and Beatrice. That leftDouglas and Mira standing at the top, watching Isabel become offended at the sight of her siblings invading her moment with Marcus. She dragged the young man into the solar, and when Madeleine and Rosamund tried to follow, she slammed the door in their faces. But that only lasted a moment because Marcus opened it again and kindly let them in.
That brought chuckles from Douglas and Mira.
“Marcus is like his father,” Mira said. “He is kind to everyone, a gentle giant whom the world adores. Iz is a fortunate young woman.”
Douglas nodded, putting an arm around his wife’s shoulders and pulling her against him for a sweet kiss.
“She is,” he said. “I was thinking the other day how much she reminds me of her namesake and how much Marcus reminds me of Eric sometimes. Quiet, tolerant of her spirited nature.”
