Page 36 of Hold a Candle

Add two more glum but resigned faces. “Aye, sir,” they chorused together.

Then Darro hunkered down on his haunches in front of his recalcitrant children and held them in a stern gaze. “We will talk after supper in my study about the dangers of running around alone with no supervision, taking things that don’t belong to ye, and deliberately misunderstanding instructions from yer sitters. Make sure ye don’t give Dal and Luca the slip again, or ye won’t enjoy our discussion at all. Do ye ken me?”

Corey’s blue eyes watered and Delilah’s were suspiciously cloudy. “Aye, Uncle Darro,” they repeated dutifully.

Darro stepped outside the door to watch the four retreating figures and listen to their conversation. Angus joined him. “What are ye doing?” he asked.

“Just listen and watch,” Darro whispered.

“I’m sorry, Dal,” Corey said earnestly, staring up at the young man holding his hand.

“And I’m sorry too, Luca,” Delilah added. “We didn’t mean to get ye in trouble.”

“I have a sister, so I’m used to it,” Luca replied kindly, ruffling Delilah’s hair with affection.

Dal picked up Corey and gave him a hug. “Ye are a rascal for sure, but I hope I have a lad just like ye someday.” He tickled Corey’s stomach and he giggled. Their voices faded off as they went out the wide-open front door and headed towards the house.

“Something ye taught me, Angus,” Darro said simply as he turned back into the office.

“How so?” Angus replied, a twinkle in his eye as he picked up his biccie stash and returned it to the drawer.

“Remember when ye asked that new wrangler dad hired to ride me around the corral when I was around Corey’s age years ago?”

“Ah, ye remember that, eh?”

“I remember what ye said when he let me fall off, and then laughed at me and yanked me back up, almost pulling my arm out of its socket.”

Angus nodded. “The lad was angry because he didn’t hire on to babysit, as he said when he tried to justify his actions.”

“It was what ye said to him that stuck with me,” Darro explained. “Ye said that any man worth his salt would always be gentle with the old, the young, and women, no matter how angry they were. And then ye fired him on the spot.”

Angus gulped back his Adam’s apple and Darro could tell he was moved. “Yer dad was a hard man, Darro, but he lived by those words, as did his father before him. It showed in the way they conducted business. Ye could never mistake Whipcord for a gentle man, though. When punishment was due, he dished it out with a firm hand, but he never mistreated anyone or anything unfairly. Not even an animal. It was a refining process by which he weeded out employees of low character.”

“Aye, it would seem so,” Darro mused, propping his feet up on his desk. “This opportunity was too good to pass up. Not when Dal seems bent on setting his sights on Ainsley,” he added with a chuckle.

Angus snorted. “She’ll be home for the holidays, let’s see how much success he has in gaining her interest then. That girl is a handful.”

“My sister has always been a handful. But if by chance he should succeed in gaining her affections, it’s nice to know that Dal likes kids,” he added, his eyes twinkling. “And Luca seems a good lad as well. Neither young man appeared to begrudge their time to stand guard in front of the bedroom doors for a while.”

Angus roared with laughter. “Ye are a sneaky lad, Darro, I have ta admit.”

“I had good teachers,” he drawled, then joined in the laughter until the phone rang in his pocket. It was Whitey, Neamh’s beekeeper. “Hiya, Whitey.”

“Boss, there’s some man on a black motorcycle off-roading along the trees in the back pasture where my honey hives are. I stepped behind a tree so he didn’t see me, but it looks like he’s headed towards the house.”

“Red alert status, Whitey,” Darro announced and hung up the phone as his feet hit the floor. “We have an intruder on a black motorcycle, Angus.”

Angus hit the floor running, bellowing for Henry. “Red alert, Henry! Gather the lads, we got company on a black motorcycle!”

Darro grabbed his vest with his weapon and headed for the homestead to alert Dal and Luca and to put the kids in the saferoom. Lucerne was driving around the circle drive when he waved her urgently forward. She met him at the flagstone walkway.

“Red alert, honey. Let’s get you and the kids into the safe room.” He pulled on her arm a bit to hurry her forward.

Lucerne grabbed his arm. “Wait, honey. Ye know I can’t move that fast right now, I’m as big as a cow with this pregnancy,” she complained, panting.

Darro simply swept her up in his strong arms and strode briskly forward. “I’ll get ye there faster.”

“I’m too heavy,” she protested.

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