Sylvie had laughed and then asked demurely, ‘What makes you think that he’s the one keeping me in bed? I love him so much, Mollie,’ she’d added seriously, ‘and it’s all thanks to you that we’re together.’
‘Well, don’t try to repay me by naming this after me,’ Mollie had warned her as she’d gently patted Sylvie’s still flat stomach.
Sylvie had stared at her.
‘You know? But how...? I...’
‘I saw the colour you turned at breakfast the other morning,’ Mollie had told her wryly. ‘And besides... Well, let’s just say that Ran has that certain look about him. He loves you so much, Sylvie.’
Involuntarily Sylvie’s glance now went to her new husband, her heart starting to thud heavily. Much as she loved her family, right now the only person she wanted was Ran. Quietly she made her way towards where he was talking with Alex, linking her arm through his as she suggested softly, ‘Let’s go home, Ran...’
* * *
‘I really think that Haverton is my favourite of all our buildings,’ Lloyd confessed to Sylvie as they both stood together in the ante-chamber to the small family chapel where Sylvie and Ran’s baby son and Lloyd’s godson had just been christened.
‘You say that about every one of them,’ Sylvie teased, but Lloyd shook his head.
‘No, Haverton is special,’ he insisted. ‘You’ve done a fine job here, Sylvie. Are you sure I can’t tempt you to come back to work for me? There’s a palace I’ve seen in Spain...’
‘No.’ Laughing, Sylvie shook her head. ‘I have another project to occupy me now,’ she reminded him, looking lovingly towards her son, who was being cradled by his father.
The work on Haverton had been finished just in time for Rory’s christening. The official opening of the house to the public was scheduled for the end of the month.
Ran hadn’t put any pressure on her to make her project on Haverton the last one. She wanted to be with Rory and, of course, with Ran. Maybe in years to come she might pick up her career again, although she doubted it. She was the Trust’s official caretaker for Haverton, and looking after the house and its grounds was going to prove more than stimulating enough.
Already, even before the house officially opened, she had bookings for a string of weddings, carrying right through the coming year, never mind the conferences and private parties who had expressed interest in hiring the house. It was extremely satisfying to know that simply on the interest that had already been shown in the house her costings indicated that it would earn enough to pay for its own upkeep.
‘Even if you had managed to run away from me,’ Ran had told her only the previous night, ‘sooner or later I would have seen Rory, and once I had I would have known that he was mine and then...’
‘And then...?’ Sylvie had demanded challengingly.
‘And then I would have remembered how he came into being and then somehow I’d have found a way to become a part of his life— and yours,’ Ran had told her quietly.
‘Because he’s your son?’ she had asked him.
‘Because you’re my woman...my love...’ Ran had corrected her.
Sometimes, even now, she couldn’t believe how lucky she had been, how wonderful her life was. Living at the Rectory was fulfilling part of her childhood dream—the house so closely mirrored the secret home she’d used to create for herself. But it wasn’t, of course, her home, wonderful though it was, that made her feel that she had been so especially blessed... She looked tenderly at Ran.