Free Ana Seymour by Father for Keeps Page A

disappear. “Thank you,” she said, then looked around the empty hall. They’d been there for several minutes and no one had come to welcome them. “Did your parents know we were arriving this evening?”
    Sean looked ill at ease. “Yes, I wired them. But I believe they had a supper to attend tonight. Some sort of opera gala. There will be time enough for you to meet them in the morning.”
    It was certainly not the kind of welcome a family visitor would receive back at Sheridan House, but, Kate reminded herself, she was in a different world now. She’d have to get used to the way Sean’s people did things, and she’d have to learn not to be quick to judge the new ways until she’d given them a try. She smiled more broadly. “I daresay they’ll find me amore pleasant sight after a good night’s sleep anyway.”
    Sean nodded. “Do you want to wake Caroline to feed her?”
    Kate looked down at the sleeping child. “She’s so exhausted, I think she’ll sleep right through the night if you want to take her basket up to our room.”
    Sean looked surprised. “She’ll have her own nursery, Kate. She doesn’t have to sleep in your room anymore.”
    Kate hesitated. “But I don’t mind having her there.”
    “Nonsense. This house is huge. There’s no reason for everyone to sleep all cramped together like…ah…well, there’s no reason to be all crowded.”
    Most of the time the crowding together at Sheridan House had felt cozy rather than burdensome, but Kate didn’t want to start an argument. She had slept in the same room with Caroline since her birth, and she would have enjoyed the comfort of being near her on their first night in this vast strange new home, but she supposed that it was reasonable that Sean would want some privacy with his wife. “If you take her basket to the nursery then, I’ll put her down.”
    Caroline stirred in her arms as if suddenly aware in her sleep that her life was about to change. Kate rocked her back into oblivion.
    “We don’t need the basket anymore,” Sean said. “There’s a crib all ready for her up there.”
    “Oh. Well, that’s very nice,” Kate said, casting a glance at the discarded straw basket and following Sean upstairs.
    Wall sconces lit the entire length of the endless staircase They seemed to glow all by themselves. Noticing her glances at them, Sean said, “Gasworks. It goes through the house to all the light fixtures. Uses a fortune in coal.”
    Kate nodded as if she understood what he was saying, but in reality the bright lights seemed to be a product of magic. And then, as they rounded the curve of the stairs, a small figure appeared who could very well be the wizard who’d produced the effect. Or some kind of benevolent gnome.
    “Nonny,” Sean cried, and took the remaining stairs two at a time to enfold the creature in a giant hug.
    By now Kate could see that it was not a gnome but rather a small woman wrapped in a quilted plaid night robe and wearing a matching pointed nightcap. By the light of the sconces her eyes danced merrily as she looked down the stairs at Kate and said, “Ah, Sean, you’ve brought us an angel…two of them from what I can see, one grown and one wee.”
    Sean turned toward Kate, his arm still around the old woman’s shoulders. “This is my grandmother, Kate. Bridget Flaherty.”
    “How do you do, Mrs. Flaherty?” Kate murmured, mounting the last couple steps to stand directly in front of her.
    “My child, you’re to call me Nonny, like my grandson does. I’m your granny, too, now, from what Sean writes.”
    Her voice was so warm and cheerful it gave the same effect as stepping into a comforting hot bath.Kate relaxed her shoulders and gave a genuine smile. “Thank you, Nonny.”
    Nonny bent toward the baby. “What a precious little love. With the Flaherty black curls, no mistaking that. She’s the picture of yourself as a wee one, Sean.”
    Kate could literally feel her heart lightemng with the woman’s