The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh (The Cynster Sisters Duo 2)
Page 133
“True, but he needs to appreciate what it is they do.” Devil held her gaze. “What it is you, and the other ladies, too, bring to the family.”
Seeing that appreciation writ large in his eyes, Honoria discovered she couldn’t speak, that emotion had, for just a few seconds, closed her throat.
No doubt sensing that—and that she wouldn’t approve if he discombobulated her for too long—Devil’s lips curved and he looked ahead.
Released, she drew breath, then fell in beside him as, twining her arm with his, he led her back into the crowd.
They wended their way around their guests, their family, their close friends, exchanging comments and, often, looking ahead, prognosticating on the future.
Momentarily distracted by the sight of a laughing line of younger children dancing through the crowd, they were standing at the edge of the gathering, not far from the toddlers and infants in the nursemaid’s crèche, within sight of the cricket match on the side lawn, and the group of girls now making daisy-chains nearby, when the older children returned from their walk.
Both Devil and Honoria noticed, looked.
Took in the confident strides, the energy, the inherent power.
Devil smiled, every inch the proud patriarch. “That’s our future—the future of this house, the next generation.”
“It is.” Honoria raised her head. “And they’re healthy and strong, and know the value of kinship and friendship, and . . .”
When she said nothing more, Devil tipped his head to look into her face. “And what?”
A heartbeat passed, then, lips curving, Honoria took his arm; turning him, she cast him a measuring glance. “And they’re planning.”
Predictably, he frowned and looked back at the group. “That’s good?”
She patted his arm, waited until he looked back at her to say, “It means they’re looking ahead—that they’re facing forward and seeking to shape their own futures. And, yes, that is, indeed, how it should be. How they need to be.”
Faintly disgruntled, he allowed her to steer him back into the crowd, but then murmured, “And what will our role in that future be?”
Facing forward, confident herself, Honoria smiled gently and murmured back, “Our role is to keep the foundation rock-solid, steady and sure, and otherwise . . . learn to let them go.”
She knew that the latter would find little favor with him and his peers. It would go against their ingrained instincts, but that was, indeed, the next battle they would face.
Eventually, however, the Duke of St. Ives drew in a deep breath and asked, “So by your estimation, all is well?”
And, still smiling, his duchess replied, “In my estimation, everything is exactly as it should be in our family’s world.”
Following is an excerpt from
Where the Heart Leads
The first volume in
The Casebook of Barnaby Adair
By #1 New York Times bestselling author
Stephanie Laurens
Available now from Avon Books
The second and third volumes of
The Casebook of Barnaby Adair
will be released in 2014
November 1835