Undercover Duke
Page 29
When Thorn eyed her askance, everyone else laughed.
“Where is Juncker, anyway?” Vanessa asked. “He was invited.”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Sheridan said. “He couldn’t come until closer to Christmas.”
Vanessa narrowed her gaze on her husband.
Sheridan lifted his hands. “I swear! He won’t be here until next week.”
Grey approached to stare down at the table. “What is all this, anyway?”
“We’re making kissing boughs,” Olivia said as she returned to take her seat at the table. “Vanessa wants them everywhere.”
“Good idea,” Thorn said, and came over to sit next to his wife. “I’m all for the kissing boughs. So how does this work?”
“You’re going to make a kissing bough,” Vanessa’s mother-in-law said skeptically.
“Why not?”
The other men looked at each other. Grey said, “Why not, indeed?”
Then they all crowded in around the table with their wives and started picking up sprigs and wire and ribbon. They were short a chair, so Vanessa rose and said, “I have some hostess matters I must take care of anyway.”
Besides, she could feel the tears gathering in her eyes, and she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of the others. She hurried from the room but didn’t get very far down the hall before Sheridan came out after her.
“Vanessa, are you all right?” he asked when he caught her blotting her eyes with her handkerchief.
“I’m fine,” she managed to get out through her tears. She came back to where he was standing just outside the drawing room. She looked inside. “It’s just so beautiful. I’ve never had a family like this.”
“And now you do,” he said, smiling as he took her hand in his.
She blotted her eyes some more. “You don’t mind having to endure Mama for my sake?”
“Not a bit. You’re worth it.”
They stood a moment, absorbing the scene.
“You were right, you know,” he went on. “Depriving oneself of love to avoid pain is indeed like refusing to ride for fear of falling off. Some things are just worth whatever pain or discomfort they give. Because what they offer is better than we can imagine.”
And as he slipped his arm about her waist, she smiled at her new family.
Definitely better.
Available now from
Available now from
Available now from
FIND YOUR HEART’S DESIRE . . .
VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.headlineeternal.com
FIND US ON FACEBOOK: facebook.com/eternalromance
CONNECT WITH US ON TWITTER: @eternal_books
FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @headlineeternal
EMAIL US: eternalromance@headline.co.uk