“Chocolate, Mr. Morgan?” Lavinia’s gaze was speculative. “You’ve certainly upped the ante.”
Cadoc cleared his throat. “You’ve all hospitably welcomed me into your home today. I thought it only fitting to show my appreciation. I’ve brought enough oranges that everyone shall have a slice, and perhaps we can enjoy the warm chocolate after the game of hide and seek I’ve been told is imminent.”
“On that note,” the physician brother-in-law spoke up. “Your Aunt Fran and I would like to remind you that rushing through your meal can cause indigestion.”
The eldest child, who’d remained quiet until now, finally spoke up. “I’ve tried to explain how indecorous their constant interruption and rowdy behavior is.”
“Clementine, thank you for striving to be an example to your younger sisters,” Araminta said.
Cadoc found it amusing that she didn’t praise the girl for her sentiments, but merely acknowledged the purity of her motives. Apparently, the girl’s commentary struck her stepmother as sanctimonious. Cadoc’s older brother Griffin had often adopted the very same attitude toward his younger siblings, and he found it gratingly familiar.
“I’d like to share what I’m thankful for,” he said.
“And we’d all love to hear it,” Jess sarcastically muttered under her breath.
He set his hand on her knee beneath the table and locked his gaze on her profile. “I am thankful for microscopes. And ladders. And cloakrooms. And icy roads.”
Jess’s muscle clenched beneath his touch as he finished his list. She stubbornly refused to look at him. Because his words rang with conviction.
“That is a very strange list, Mr. Morgan, and appears to have perturbed my sister,” observed Emily. “If I were to use deductive reasoning, I’d conjecture that your list is a private joke between you.”
Cadoc watched Jess’s fingers tighten around her fork. “Yes. Mr. Morgan thinks to poke me up. What he doesn’t realize,” she lifted her head from her contemplation of her plate and scowled fiercely in his direction, “is that I grew up with six sisters and am not easily embarrassed.”
“It wasn’t my intention to embarrass you Miss Wainwright.”
Emily and Lavinia’s gazes were flying back and forth between them with undisguised delight.
“Will you go next, little sister?” Lavinia asked.
Jess’s mouth thinned and she let her hand loose itself from its death grip on her fork. “I am thankful for the opportunity to share my knowledge of the natural world with my students. I am thankful I’m sharing company with my family over the holidays.”
When she seemed unwilling to offer up more, her sister Gertrude broke in. “I shall share mine.”
“Nothing about me, dragonfly? Or the way I made you shatter in my library? I’m quite offended by the omission,” he murmured from the side of his mouth.
“Those aren’t the kind of things one expresses gratitude for when they’re ensconced at the family table,” she whispered back as she shifted in her seat and lifted his hand from her knee.
“Perhaps you can find another way to express your gratitude.”
“You’re impossible,” she scoffed.
“To ignore, yes,” he confidently retorted.
“Ugh.”
Her exasperation made him inwardly chuckle. He planned to gain an irrefutable upper hand during the game of hide and seek.
A half an hour after the meal had ended, when all of the adults were replete before the fire and nursing their mugs of mulled wine, St. Simon relented.
“Girls, if you'd like to play your game of hide and seek, you’ll have to draw straws to determine the seeker.” He’d pulled four pieces of straw from his pocket and held them in his fist.
“Does that mean the short straw is for the finder, papa?” Asked the youngest.
“Yes, Claire. Whoever draws the shortest straw must draw the other players from their hiding places.”
Claire chose first, and held her piece of straw to her chest with an earnest expression. Once they’d all chosen, Thaddeus said, “Now show me what you’ve drawn. Flat across the palm of your hand.”
All four girls obediently opened their hands.
