Читать книгу Christmas Wishes Part 1 - Линн Грэхем, Elizabeth Rolls - Страница 37

Epilogue

Twelfth Night

Supper was over, the household had retired for the night and Ash stood, his arm about Maddy, watching the fire blazing in the hearth of the hall. The remnant of the Yule log had been removed and quenched. It was set safely aside to light next Christmas. Yet the fire still burned—and deep inside him, where it counted, there was still a light burning.

This Christmas, their first together, might be over, but he knew that the candle lit within him would always be there. Waiting, hopeful, even if he could never quite tell Maddy. They had made a bargain to save her home from Montfort. Despite everything, he was not entirely sure she would wish to alter that bargain, and her heart had not been part of it.

‘Ash?’

‘Yes, sweetheart?’

‘I was thinking that it hasn’t all been quite as convenient as we intended,’ she said.

He snorted. ‘I’ll admit I didn’t count on Montfort’s lunacy.’ His gut twisted. ‘Or yours, for that matter,’ he growled. ‘Losing you would have been damnably inconvenient!’

Fear still choked him every time he remembered Maddy facing Montfort’s pistol for him. If he hadn’t already known what it was he felt for her, that shattering instant would have done the trick.

‘Is love inconvenient, Ash?’

Everything stilled inside him except the hopeful candle that leaped and shouted in joy. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said at last, choosing his words carefully. ‘I’ve been finding it rather painful, not sure if it’s unrequited or not. But no, on the whole it’s not inconvenient.’

She turned in his arms, witch-green eyes staring up at him in shock. ‘You’re finding it painful?’ she demanded. ‘But I’m—’

To his absolute horror, the bright eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh, Lord! Don’t cry, Maddy.’

‘I’m not crying.’ She sniffed. ‘I was telling you that I love you, and—’

‘I thought you were telling me love was inconvenient?’ he said.

‘It is,’ she muttered. ‘But every time you make love to me I keep nearly telling you, so—’ She broke off as he grabbed her wrist and towed her unceremoniously across the hall. ‘Where are we going?’

‘Bed,’ he told her. ‘I believe you have something to tell me?’

The smile on her face nearly undid him. ‘Oh, I do,’ she assured him. ‘Am I going to have lots of opportunities to say it?’

‘Plenty,’ he assured her.

* * * * *

Read on for an extract from THE WRONG COWBOY by Lauri Robinson.