Free By Winter's Light: A Cynster Novel (Cynster Special Book 2) by Stephanie Laurens Page A

finishing these decorations.”
    The others smiled back.
    They fell to with a will, and the next half hour sped by.
    Daniel halted beside Claire and surveyed the results of the girls’—and theirs and the footmen’s—labors. “I will own to being astounded at just how much four schoolgirls can achieve.”
    “ If they set their minds to it,” Claire returned. “In this instance, they’ve seemed well-nigh driven, and I have to admit that the result is quite amazing.”
    Previously rather bare, the Great Hall now stood ready for the festivities, garlanded with holly and festooned with fir, with pinecones and candles arranged on all the mantelpieces and down the center of the long tables. The fires had been built up in all four fireplaces; warmth pervaded the room, and the dancing flames bathed the scene with a cheery glow.
    Watching the four girls pirouetting in the center of the huge room, their faces alight with unabashed delight at the transformation they had wrought, Daniel murmured, “They’ve been inspired.”
    He was feeling inspired, too, but by sudden, unsettling uncertainty. He looked at Claire and found her consulting the small watch pinned to her collar.
    “Heavens! It’s just after midday. Where has the morning gone?” She raised her gaze and looked at the girls, not at him. “Girls! Come along—it’s time to wash and get ready for luncheon.”
    Daniel hovered as, in true governessly fashion, Claire gathered the girls, had them collect their coats, hats, gloves, and scarfs, and herded them out of the Great Hall…all without looking at him.
    Not once.
    He’d thought they were getting along well, that her resistance, whatever it sprang from, was waning, fading, yet as soon as they’d entered the Great Hall, something had changed.
    She’d pulled back, retreated, and suddenly there was a certain distance between them, one he wasn’t sure he should attempt to reach across…perhaps her sudden buttoning-up was because of the three observers on the dais.
    Regardless, concern over her unexpected retreat had collided with another realization—that although their respective families were supposed to remain at the manor until the second day of the new year, he couldn’t count on either her family or his not being called away earlier. Although the dowager had made the journey north, none of the others of her generation had felt strong enough to risk it. What if one of those others—Celia or Martin Cynster, for example—were taken ill? Or what if there was some investment crisis and Rupert Cynster took his family back to London? Or if Alasdair was called to assist with some antiquity and removed his family either back to Devon or somewhere else?
    Such incidents had been known to occur. Which meant Daniel could only count on him and Claire being there, together at the manor, until the day after St. Stephen’s Day. It was unlikely they would move before then, but more to the point, it was unlikely that any news from the outside world would reach their employers to summon them elsewhere before then.
    So in the matter of his campaign to convince Claire to throw her lot in with his, he could count on having the rest of Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day and St. Stephen’s Day, but no longer.
    Two days and an evening.
    The driving need to ensure that she’d instituted the sudden distance between them purely for social appearances, that it was a smokescreen and nothing more, drove him to dog Claire’s heels and follow her into the manor’s front hall.
    Chattering and laughing, the girls started up the curving stairs. In their wake, Claire was about to set foot on the first tread when Daniel caught her hand.
    “Come out to the front porch for a moment.” Without further explanation, he drew her toward the front door. “I want to speak with you.”
    Claire’s feet seemed to move of their own volition. Speak with her? Her heart started to thud. She should resist—make some glib excuse…before she had time