Bridget flushed with pride. “I was quite an actress in my youth.”
“And you haven’t lost your touch, old girl.”
She arched a brow. “But you said yourself you would need the test results for the Courts.”
He shook his head. “I can do whatever I please with my fortune. I have no need of a court of law. My heart knows the truth. And now I have even more than I’d hoped for. The son I always wanted, desperately in love with the one I know to be my own.” His eyes twinkled with humor. “Oh, I chose wisely. She’s the only one good enough for Ross. The only one he’d have trusted enough with that fragile, damaged heart of his. And Ross is the only one who deserves a lass with such goodness, such decency. Each of them deserved to find the best possible soul mate.”
The old woman wiped a tear from her eye. “They do make a perfect couple.”
He chuckled. “That they do. And together they’ll give me such a beautiful family to carry on this legacy. I’d say my estate, my town, and my world will be in very good hands when I leave it.”
As he followed the housekeeper from the room, the envelope and its precious documents turned dazzling white, sending out a spray of glittering sparks that had the hounds backing away.
Cullen turned. Instead of burning to ash, the paper’s edges curled up into the shape of a perfect heart. For long moments it gleamed red hot, as though alive and pulsing, before it shot straight up the chimney.
The old man smiled. A magician, was he? Maybe. Maybe not. But one thing was certain. He was a man who’d spent a lifetime seeking perfect love. And wasn’t it grand that now, after all this time, it was right here in this very place?
He couldn’t wait to see this old lodge filled to the rafters with love and laughter. And babies. Oh now, there was a fine plan indeed.
The thought had him laughing like a loon and rubbing his hands in anticipation of everything that the fine, bright future was about to bring to all of them.
