Catherine Coulter: Lyons Gate

“Thank God you still have all your teeth,” Aunt Melissande had said, and poked her husband in the ribs. He then kissed her hard on her mouth and the younger generation turned red to their eyebrows.

Jason heard a horse whinny, fancied it was his father’s huge bay thoroughbred stallion, Caliper, who was going to be bred with Miss Matilda out of Charles Grandison’s stud in two days. Lyon ’s Gate flourished. They’d won races, their reputation as a stud was growing. As for Lord Grimsby, he’d asked Jason to take Lamplighter, to train him, run him, and breed him, and all the winnings would be his. Lamplighter had won the Beckshire race a month before.

Jason closed his eyes, content for the moment to breathe in the scent of fresh grass along with his twins and his wife when he looked up to see his father and mother, Uncle Ryder and Aunt Sophie come out of the Hall. Soon the grounds would be overrun with Sherbrookes, even Aunt Sinjun and Uncle Colin from Scotland and Meggie and Thomas from Ireland, Meggie bringing three racing cats for the big cat race next week at the McCaulty racetrack, and their three boys, who helped train the cats.

Hallie said, “Jason, I need you as a father. Alec is hungry, again,” she added quite unnecessarily.

Jason set up an umbrella to give his wife privacy, then picked up his daughter, grinned like a fool when she blew bubbles up at him, and watched Hallie feed Alec. She looked totally absorbed, crooning to the babe as he suckled frantically. Nesta rooted around Jason’s chest to find a breast, and he laughed. “You’ll have to wait, sweetheart, your mama’s busy with your brother now.”

Nesta wailed.

“Uncle Jason!”

“Uncle Jason!”

Douglas and Everett raced across the lawn toward him, dirty, rumpled, grins splitting their beloved little faces. No waltzing for them anymore; they were too old for that. Since Uncle Jason was holding Nesta, they didn’t leap on him, but he could tell they wanted to, badly.

“We went fishing in the pond,” Everett said.

“What did you catch?”

“Just a toad and a load of dirt,” Douglas said. “Don’t tell Mama, she’ll tan us.”

“She told us to stay clean for at least an hour. What time is it, Uncle Jason?”

“Nearly time for luncheon.”

“It’s nearly an hour, Everett. We’re safe. Mama won’t yell at us.”

“How about your papa?”

“He’ll throw us in the air and call us filthy grubs,” Everett said. “Do you want to play with us now, Uncle Jason? Douglas has a new cannon that we need to fire.”

“Be patient,” Jason said. “Your cousins need their luncheon first. Ah, I see your grandmother coming over. She’ll beg me to let her play with Nesta. Then we’ll go fire that cannon, maybe then I’ll take the two of you to the pond and toss you in.”

Alex came down on her knees, her arms out. Jason kissed his tiny daughter’s forehead and handed her to his mother. “Ah, my precious little sweetheart. You’re hungry, aren’t you, lovie, and here’s your stoat of a brother taking all the lunch. That’s right, you just suck on my knuckles.” She smiled over at her son, saw that Everett and Douglas were fidgeting. “I heard your uncle tell you to be patient, boys. You may have him in five minutes. Good. Now, Jason, I suppose I’m the one to tell you. Petrie has proposed to Martha. When she confided to Hollis, he told her she’d be far better off marrying him than Petrie, that even though he was approaching his golden years, he wouldn’t drive her as distracted as that codshead would.”

“What did Martha say?” Hallie asked, looking up.

“I believe after she tucked the blanket lovingly around Hollis’s legs, she told him that even though she preferred him to Petrie, she couldn’t marry him since she wanted children. She fancied that even though Hollis was surely superior to the codsbreath, she doubted even he would still be on this earth to greet his grandchildren, something she believed very important. She then assured Hollis that Petrie was no different from a racing horse or a racing cat. With a nibble of trout, a bucket of oats, or a smidgeon of a kiss, she could work miracles. Oh, dear, I see Mother-in-law. She’s still walking, can you believe that? She can even push Hollis’s chair, and believe me, it makes him furious. He even yelled at her once, and do you know what? She laughed, told him since he’d waited on her his whole life, she could at least push him about a bit now.” Alex smiled, kissed Nesta’s tiny mouth. “Hallie, your aunt Arielle is so pleased you named your daughter after your mother, even though you never knew her. She said that counts.”

“Papa got tears in his eyes when I told him her name,” Hallie said. “It’s odd. He didn’t have a single tear when we told him we’d named Alec after him. I saw Angela pushing Hollis’s chair too.”

Jason was stretched out on his back, Douglas and Everett on top of him, holding him down, jabbering the same twin talk he and James had spoken as boys. He didn’t understand them. He wondered what sort of torture they were thinking up for him once they’d fired the cannon and headed to the pond.

He smiled over at his wife, who was kissing the sleeping Alec’s forehead, a bit of milk dribbling down his chin.

Hallie looked over at him, grinned at Douglas and Everett, who were trying to pull his boots off.

“Next,” she called out.