By Winter's Light: A Cynster Novel (Cynster Special Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

McArdle several minutes to sort through that tortuous statement, then he snorted and cast Helena a reproving glance.
    Helena laughed.
     
    * * *
    Claire saw her four charges start up the turret stairs to Annabelle’s room, then turned and quickly detoured into the corridor that led to the side door.
    Daniel, of course, followed her.
    When she tugged at the heavy wooden door, he reached around her, closed his hand about the upper latch that she’d already released, and opened the door for her.
    Letting go of the door handle, ruthlessly quelling her utterly ridiculous fluster, she inclined her head. “Thank you.” Stepping onto the stoop, she felt compelled to add, “I wanted to check the conditions.”
    His gaze touched her face, but after an instant’s pause, he, too, looked out. “Always a point to remember when up here. I think that in the south, we fall into the habit of taking the weather for granted.”
    Acknowledging the comment with a nod—it was, indeed, true—she looked out on a world of glistening white and forced her mind to focus not on her senses’ obsession but on what lay before her.
    Snow covered all the open ground, and the low temperatures of the night had frozen and crisped everything, but the cover wasn’t thick, and bare patches showed beneath the trees and larger bushes. In addition, the manor staff had already been out with brooms and shovels, and the paths had been cleared.
    “Once we get into the wood, we should be free of the snow,” Daniel said.
    She nodded. “Their boots should be enough—it doesn’t look slushy enough for pattens.”
    The air was so clear, so pure, it felt crystalline—bright, sharp, and invigorating. She drew a breath deep into her lungs, held it, then slowly exhaled. “But scarves and mittens obligatory, I should think.”
    She’d seen enough—and the temptation to stand there, with Daniel’s warmth at her back, and enjoy the strange, isolated beauty of the manor’s surrounds, somehow made more interesting through knowing that he was doing the same, was not one she should indulge. Turning, she had to wait for him to step back, then she led the way back to the stairs.
    Of course, the girls hadn’t yet come down. “They’ll be chattering in their room,” she said to Daniel as she started up the steps.
    Gaining the next floor, she paused, then glanced at him. He halted on the top step of the flight and she met his eyes—hazel with overtones of rich toffee… Eventually, she recalled what she’d been about to say. “That’s where they are.” She pointed to a door just along the corridor. “I’ll go and get my coat and meet you here—they’ll natter for as long as we let them.”
    Daniel nodded. When Claire headed toward the stairs leading to the floor above, he stepped up and turned the other way. On this level, the manor was a maze of corridors, connecting turrets and towers and the stairs that serviced them, as well as a plethora of major bedchambers and suites. “I’ll get my coat.” He glanced at her departing back. “Don’t forget your scarf and gloves.”
    She threw him a look—one he caught. He grinned and heard a small huff as she turned and vanished up the stairwell.
    The grin lingering on his lips and in his eyes, he strode for Raven’s room in the next turret along.
    Raven and Morris had already departed. While shrugging on his heavy brown overcoat, then winding a pale knitted scarf about his throat, Daniel wondered if the fact he’d been the one of the three tutors left free to accompany Claire had been lucky coincidence or deliberate assistance. He hadn’t said a word of his hopes, much less revealed his dreams, to the other men, yet both were intelligent and knew him well enough to have realized…
    Picking up his gloves, he turned to the door; he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the thought that his peers might have guessed his intentions regarding Claire, but if they had and felt moved to ease his path, he wasn’t such a