Simply Magic

Several times during the course of Christmas Eve Susa

It was as if she had stepped into some strange dream.

Life had been so routine, so predictable, so dull, until the end of the summer. And yet there had been a certain contentment, even happiness, about the dullness.

Yesterday seemed unreal. Could she really have gone willingly to the dower house at Sidley Park with Viscount Whitleaf? Had she really gone to bed and made love with him there? Twice? The second time entirely initiated by her?

And today, were these strangers with whom she was spending almost all her time really turning so quickly into familiar, even dear, relatives? Was it possible to feel a close familial co

But her grandfather Osbourne looked so very much as her father would have looked, if he had lived so long, that she would hardly have been able to drag her eyes away from him had her grandmother not had Papa’s eyes-and if she had not insisted upon holding Susa

Grandmother and Grandfather Osbourne had no surviving children, and she was their only grandchild. Their lives must have been filled with the most terrible sadness. They had had two sons.

By ru

Her grandfather Clapton had three surviving daughters and eight grandchildren apart from Susa

She had aunts and uncles and cousins.

“How different my life would have been if I had not left Fincham in such a hurry all those years ago,” she said.

“And ours too, dearest,” her grandmother said, patting her hand.

“But would you go back now and change your life if you could?” Grandfather Clapton asked gently. “I believe our lives unfold in perfect but mysterious ways, understood clearly only by our Lord.”

“That is something you would say, Ambrose,” Grandfather Osbourne said irritably. “I have not seen much perfection in the lives of my own family, only endless mystery. And if the Almighty is responsible, I will have a quarrel to pick with him on Judgment Day.”

“I ca

Her grandmother patted her hand.

“Teaching is all very well,” Grandfather Osbourne said, “for a lady with no family or for a lady whose family has only slender means. I am not an enormously wealthy man, Susa

Her grandmother smoothed a hand over hers, and Susa

“I think, Clarence,” she said, “Susa

“I daresay it would not be me, Sadie,” Grandfather Osbourne said with a bark of laughter. “But a viscount. That is aiming high, though not impossibly high. We have a perfectly respectable lineage. And so does Ambrose.”

“And you were a colonel,” Grandmother Osbourne reminded him.

“Hmm,” her grandfather said. “I shall have to find out what that young man’s intentions are.”

Susa

“Oh, Grandfather,” she said, “please do not say anything to him.”

She was blushing, she realized. She was also laughing. Her grandfather had known her for less than twenty-four hours, and already he was trying to take charge of her life.

Could it possibly be less than twenty-four hours? She already loved them, all three of them. How absurd!

How indescribably wonderful!

She had just realized something, though. They must not know about Viscountess Whitleaf’s part in the death of her father. They had not reacted in any way to his name.

They were not alone together all day, the four of them. Lady Markham, Theodore, Edith, and Mr. Morley were all tactful enough to remain in the background most of the time, but they all came together at mealtimes, and after luncheon Susa

“And of course,” Edith said, “I want you to see him at his very best.”

They stayed up there talking for longer than an hour after admiring the baby and handing him from one to the other and coaxing smiles from him. Susa

It was during that hour and a bit, Susa

She also discovered that during the visit her two grandfathers had gone off to the library with Viscount Whitleaf while the others had visited in the drawing room. Neither of them volunteered any further information-about who had initiated the private meeting or what the topic of conversation had been. And Susa

He was gone by the time she came downstairs.

But she would see him at the ball, she thought, with a heart that tried to sink and soar at the same time, leaving her feeling horribly confused and not a little upset.

She must not begin thinking that an impossibility might after all be possible.

It was Peter who had asked to speak privately with the two elderly gentlemen who were staying at Fincham. While he was disappointed to learn on his arrival that Susa