Evidently deciding that question didn’t deserve an answer, Trick came over her and crushed his mouth to hers.He crushed his body to hers, too.Kendra wrapped her arms around him in an effort to pull him even closer.She twined her fingers in the hair on the nape of his neck and kissed him back with all the passion she’d been saving up the past two months.His hands went everywhere, stroking her into a frenzy.
Just as he inserted a knee between hers, the door opened again.Again!They bolted upright and clothed themselves once more.
“Da!”their daughter Diana cried, running in.“Elspeth said you’re home!”
“That I am, sweetheart,” Trick said, reaching to return her hug.
Kendra said nothing.She didn’t have any words in her.
“I’m so glad to see you, Da.”Diana’s green eyes sparkled, matching her ruffled emerald dress.She was petite with dark red hair like Kendra’s.Still mute, Kendra was trying not to wish her away.“What time will we be leaving for Lakefield?”
“Straight after breakfast.”
“Oh, good.Breakfast is starting now.”
“We’ll be down in a minute.Close the door on your way out, will you?”
Trick waited until Diana left before daring to meet Kendra’s eyes.“I suppose I cannot wish this one away, either?”
“She’s only sixteen.You cannot wish her married at sixteen.”
“And I wouldn’t wish her away anyway,” he said with an exaggerated sigh.
“Of course you wouldn’t.What kind of parent would that make you?”Kendra launched herself at him.
“Ooof!”He laughed, and then their mouths were sealed together and they were fighting with their sashes again.
Some time passed.Three or four minutes?Ten?Kendra wasn’t sure—all she knew was a haze of long-denied passion.All she knew was her dear husband’s mouth and his hands and his body—
Until the thirteen-year-old twins walked in, forcing the two of them to bolt upright yet again.
“Diana told us you were in here,” Castor said.“Why aren’t you at breakfast?
“We’re all waiting,” Pollux added.
The boys were identical, with golden hair like Trick’s and eyes greener than Kendra’s.Thanks to their mother’s love of mythology, Castor, Pollux, and Diana all bore names of Roman gods.But the twins preferred to be called Cas and Pol.“Pronounced like Paul the Apostle,” Pollux informed anyone who would listen.
Trick had once confided that he understood his son’s feelings.Having been called an unusual name all his life, he sympathized with Pol’s desire for a more normal one.
“I’m so glad to see you’re both feeling better,” he said now, since the twins’ illness in October had kept the family from accompanying him to Scotland.
“But we’re missing breakfast!”Cas said again.“Won’t you come down to the dining room?We can’t leave for Christmas till we’ve eaten.”
“We’ll be down in a minute,” Trick said for the third time.“Run along.”
The twins left the door open.Which was just as well.
“I suppose we’d best go down to breakfast,” Kendra said with a heartfelt sigh.
Trick’s sigh was even more elaborate.“Bloody hell, I suppose you’re right.”
Six
Colin
On the road to Lakefield House
IN ALL OFhis years, Colin Chase couldn’t remember a Christmas as vexing as this one.
