With any luck, he would find healing for the pain he hid so well behind that carefree manner and laughing face.
Cassidy refolded the letters and rested her cheek on the top of Angela’s downy head. She had faith that Rowena and Quentin would find their destinies, just as she had.
Isabelle had already made her own. She and Matthew had purchased from Braden a pleasant farmhouse on the edge of Greyburn land, and were happily settled into a life of domestic bliss. Matthew was fully reconciled with his family, and the couple were frequent and welcome guests at Greyburn. The legend of the ghost of Matthias was, once again, only a legend.
And, after so many years, the doors of Greyburn had been opened to human guests—Emily Roddam and her family. There would be others to come, though not at the same time as the loups-garous. The world wasn’t quite ready for such an open meeting. But the first steps had been made.
The longest journey began with a single step. And faith.
“Mother!”
Cassidy looked up. A short little boy with madly pumping arms and legs hurled itself toward her, pale hair flying. Mikhail giggled and skidded behind Cassidy’s chair, peeping around its edge.
“Father’s chasing me, and I’m hiding!” he announced, unable to control his laughter.
She laughed in response, but already her pulse was leaping with anticipation and joy. It never failed, this sudden increase in her heartbeat whenever she knew Braden was coming.
He did not disappoint her. He strode across the lawn, making a broad show of searching for his son—pausing to sniff the air, cocking his head, scratching his chin in apparent puzzlement.
“Cassidy!” he called, his voice warm with affection. “Have you seen a young scamp of a lad running this way?”
“Not I,” Cassidy declared.
Mikhail burst into renewed laughter. Braden stiffened like a hound on the scent and crouched low. Unable to contain himself, Mikhail darted from his hiding place, and Braden caught him in midstride, swinging the boy up on his shoulder.
“I have you, you little rascal,” he said. “Shall I eat you up now, or will you spoil my dinner?”
Cassidy gazed with wonder at the two heads so close together, blond and dark. In spite of the differences in their coloring, no one could deny the resemblance between them. It had been clear to Cassidy from the first moment she saw Mikhail. Braden could not have known when he brought the boy home to England, but no one doubted that Mikhail was the earl’s true son and heir.
Swinging Mikhail in a wide arc around his shoulders, Braden planted a kiss on the boy’s forehead and set him down. Immediately Mikhail ran to Cassidy’s side. “Mother, can I hold Angela?”
From the moment of Angela’s birth, Mikhail had been fascinated by his tiny half sister, and had swiftly become a devoted brother. Whatever life Mikhail had led in Russia, it had left no permanent mark on his sunny nature. The reserve and shyness he’d shown upon his arrival had vanished with the attention and love given him by his father and new mother. Braden had set himself to making up for his neglect of the boy, and soon they became inseparable. Mikhail worshipped the ground Braden walked upon.
Cassidy carefully extended the sleeping Angela to her brother, half supporting the baby while letting Mikhail take part of her weight. Mikhail stared at the pudgy face with something very like adoration.
“My sister,” he said. “Father, come see!”
Braden came. He rested one hand on Mikhail’s shoulder and the other on Cassidy’s. He could not see his daughter with his own eyes, but ever since that day of reckoning when he and his mate had shared minds as well as bodies, he had learned to see through Cassidy’s. He knew that Angela had his mother’s raven hair and his own green eyes.
“Beautiful,” he said. But he looked directly at Cassidy, a world of love and pride in his face. “How did I come to deserve so much, my darling American ragamuffin?”
She caught his hand and kissed his knuckles. Mikhail pressed closer, and Angela yawned.
“I had so much to learn,” Braden said, gathering them all into his arms. ” But you taught me the greatest lesson of all, my beloved Cassidy. “The only Cause… is love.”