Page 14 of The Marquis, the Minx, and the Mistletoe
Tia nodded, squeezing her friend's hand and allowing herself to feel the wash of security and relief over her skin. "Nonetheless," she said, "I do apologize for dragging a scandal to your doorstep."
"Oh, think nothing of it," Heloise said with a laugh. "This house can't seem to resist a good scandal."
Chapter 8
Early-afternoon flurries greeted Sheldon Bywater as he escaped the confines of Somerton for the broad expanse of the green. Soon, as far as the eye could see, the ground would be smooth and white as alabaster, sparkling with ice crystals that would throw the afternoon sun back into the eyes of anyone who dared admire it too directly.
After the morning he'd had, Sheldon was now well accustomed to averting his eyes from things he'd rather openly enjoy, after all. The sight of that dark-haired minx in her translucent nightgown, rushing at him from across his bedroom, had been fuel enough for indecent thoughts, and that was before she'd been knocked to the ground, revealing her long, smooth, well-shaped legs to the world.
He cleared his throat, giving his head a hard shake in the hopes that the thoughts would dislodge themselves, and followed the sound of dogs barking, their gleeful yips carrying on the backs of the snowflakes.
"Uncle Sheldon, Uncle Sheldon!" cried a young voice as little Reggie Somers spotted him on the hill, coming to a stop in his mad chase with the puppies. He stood on his toes, his wee arm waving back and forth lest he be missed.
The dogs continued to run, enjoying their game, but Reggie was joined by his cousin Callie, who stood quietly by his side as he jumped up and down, calling out to Sheldon. With what looked like rather aggressive encouragement from Reggie, Callie began to wave as well.
The two of them were only a handful of months apart in age, and had shared a bond from the very beginning, despite how starkly their temperaments contrasted. Standing together, with matching auburn hair caught in the winter breeze as a coterie of excitable mutts swarmed around them, Sheldon thought they looked like the perfect heralds of holiday cheer.
It raised his spirits, filling him with a nostalgic breath of joy, the type only children could inspire in one already stuck in the mire of adulthood. Sheldon grinned and returned their waves. He took long strides over the lawn, frozen grass crunching beneath his boots, his pace quickening as he went until he met them, scooping one child up under each of his arms into a swinging spin off the ground. They squealed in delight, and when planted safely back on earth, both embraced him around the neck with giddy pleasure.
It was only once they'd drawn back from this hug that they realized he looked different from normal. Their reactions to Sheldon without his beard might have been offensive, had Sheldon not felt much the same way, deep inside.
Reggie recoiled, his brows drawing down over his golden-brown eyes, where Callie simply contented herself with screaming in alarm, her little hands flying up to cover her mouth.
Sheldon frowned, his eyes going from the distraught children to the poorly stifled laughter coming from behind them, where Heloise's husband, Callum, had been watching the scene unfold from his seat on a felled log.
He pushed himself to his feet, dusting dirt and snow from his trousers as he continued to chuckle, his dark eyes sparkling with mirth. "It really isn't bad," he said first, stepping over to greet them. "Just startling."
He leaned down and kissed his daughter on the cheek, ruffling his nephew's hair, and sent them back to their play, reaching out to give his old comrade-in-arms a firm handshake of welcome.
"Laughlin," Sheldon replied with a defeated sigh, returning the other man's grip. "It's been a hell of a morning."
"Worse than Bordeaux?" Callum asked, referring to a particularly hellish day on the war front that the two had served together.
"Well, my arm is still in its socket for now," Sheldon admitted with a half smile and a shrug, sparing a scratch behind the ears to Echo, who had left her games to greet him, "but we'll see how the remainder of the day unfolds. Your wife is not the tender healer I had imagined her to be, by the by."
"Why in God's name would you imagine such a ridiculous thing in the first place?" Callum replied incredulously, before repeating "tender" to himself with open amusement.
"Suppose you're right at that."
"Heloise did tell me briefly what transpired this morning, but she has been with Rose and Ruthie all day, executing the serious business of Yuletide planning."
"Uncle Sheldon!" cried Reggie, skidding by the seat of his pants into the frozen sod as he pointed at his dog in the muddle of its canine siblings. "Look at Soldier! Look how high he jumps!"
"I am awed, little one," Sheldon assured the lad, just before he was engulfed in a pile of adolescent dogs, which made him squeal in glee.
"Rose has no expectation of her son returning home unsoiled," Callum put in, watching this unfold while his daughter stood patiently nearby, her hands folded over her clean blue skirt. "For that, I am grateful."
"Rose is a woman of singular patience," Sheldon said, pushing his hands into the pockets of his overcoat as the children resumed their game of chase with the dogs.
Echo looked like a giant next to her pups, even though they were nearly adults now. It confirmed Sheldon's suspicion that her illicit relationship was with one of the smaller hunting dogs in the township's kennel.
He still intended to have words with that particularly cheeky Jack Russell, even if the little demon was Reverend Halliwell’s personal favorite hunting companion.
Still, they were healthy and shiny and energetic, and he often felt a pang of guilt for being so dismissive of the idea of mutts, now seeing them in the flesh.
She was a gentle mother, yapping and snipping at the little ones in a way he hadn't seen her do since she was a puppy herself.
"I see Echo in Cleo sometimes," Callum said, his eyes following the antics on the green. "She is like a shepherd, making sure everyone is in their proper place. It reminds me of the way Echo would check the barracks at night, when we were away. I expect it will become routine for Cleo too, as our family grows."
