"Nora Roberts - Christmas at Ardmore" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts Nora)

He put the baby to bed himself, lingering over her long after she was
dreaming. "Next year," he murmured as he bent one last time to kiss
her cheek, "you'll know more of what's going on around here. It's not
just noise and people and presents. It's family and roots and it's
magic. It's one night out of the year everyone understands there's
magic in the world."

When he left her, he didn't see the faerie mobile that hung over her
crib glow and dance. Or his daughter's sleepy smile.

It was nearing midnight when Darcy drew him aside. "Get Jude, will
you, and come outside."

"Outside it's cold, in here it's warm."

She took the wassail cup from him before he could drink. "Out," she
insisted. "Front of the house." Before he could argue, she walked
away to drag Shawn from the piano.

"Easy for you to stand about in the wind," Brenna complained when
she followed Darcy outside. "In your smart fur coat. It's bloody
freezing out here."

"Is it?" Darcy smiled smugly as she rubbed her cheek against her
soft collar. "I hadn't noticed. Oh, stop complaining for five flaming
minutes, the lot of you." She tossed back her head. The sky was
clear as glass with the stars brilliant against that black sheen.

She could hear the sea, the steady heartbeat, and the music that
played inside her childhood home, another heart.


"I wanted the six of us first," she began. "We've all been part of
something special, and bigger than ourselves. That stays with
us--like this place and these people stay with us--wherever we go,
whatever we do. We have Ardmore, and the pub, and soon the
theater."

"If you're going to make a bloody speech, can't we do it by the fire?"
Shawn complained.

"Quiet, you turnip-head." Darcy huffed out a breath. "I love you all,"
she continued. "Even the baboon here. So I wanted the six of us out
here when I gave Trevor his first Christmas gift."

She turned to him. "It was outside, down the beach there where you
finally used that sharp brain of yours and asked me to marry you.
Loving each other joined our lives, once and always, and broke a
three hundred year spell. But since I don't think this lot will troop