Читать книгу Regency Christmas Gifts: Scarlet Ribbons / Christmas Promise / A Little Christmas - Lyn Stone - Страница 13

The next morning, after a restless night, Alex dressed and took up his crutches, intending to head for the breakfast room, but David almost ran him down in the hallway. “Father, come and watch me skate! Granny says I may on the shallow fishpond! Will you come?”

“Absolutely! Wouldn’t miss it. Do you know how it’s done?”

“Aye. I’ve skated a bit with borrowed ones, but it’s hardly ever cold enough to freeze,” he declared, grasping on to one of Alex’s crutches as was his custom.

His son thought he was helping and Alex didn’t even think of disabusing him of the notion. It was as close to holding the lad’s hand as he could get while walking together.

“Where are you off to? Aren’t you two hungry?” Michael asked as he wheeled Amalie toward the breakfast room.

“A skating expedition,” Alex explained. “Apparently it won’t wait until after we eat.”

“Come watch me!” David chirped, grinning as his grandmother also approached to accompany them.

Alex offered her a smile and said good morning, wishing they could mend fences. It did not look likely and he did understand. She would be lost without David, but then, so would he. And a boy needed a father.

Michael fetched Amalie a blanket and wrapped her against the cold, but she argued him out of the weather shield that attached to the front of the chair. Michael pushed as Alex lurched along beside her, David hanging on to his far crutch, gaily impeding his progress. Alex could not recall a time since his injury when he had felt such contentment.