Nora Roberts - Birthright

Nora Roberts

HOT ICE
SACRED SINS
BRAZEN VIRTUE
SWEET REVENGE
PUBLIC SECRETS
GENUINE LIES
CARNAL INNOCENCE
DIVINE EVIL
HONEST ILLUSIONS
PRIVATE SCANDALS
HIDDEN RICHES
TRUE BETRAYALS
MONTANA SKYSANCTUARY
HOMEPORT
THE REEF
RIVERS END
CAROLINA MOON
THE VILLA
MIDNIGHT BAYOU
THREE FATES
BIRTHRIGHT

Anthologies

FROM THE HEART
A LITTLE MAGIC

The Once Upon Series (with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman)

ONCE UPON A CASTLE
ONCE UPON A STAR
ONCE UPON A DREAM
ONCE UPON A ROSE
ONCE UPON A KISS
ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT

Series

The Key Trilogy

THE KEY OF LIGHT
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE
THE KEY OF VALOR

The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

JEWELS OF THE SUN
TEARS OF THE MOON
HEART OF THE SEA

The Chesapeake Bay Saga

SEA SWEPT
RISING TIDES
INNER HARBOR
CHESAPEAKE BLUE

Three Sisters Island Trilogy

DANCE UPON THE AIR
HEAVEN AND EARTH
FACE THE FIRE

The Born In Trilogy

BORN IN FIRE
BORN IN ICE
BORN IN SHAME

The Dream Trilogy

DARING TO DREAM
HOLDING THE DREAM
FINDING THE DREAM

Nora Roberts & J. D. Robb

REMEMBER WHEN

J. D. Robb

NAKED IN DEATH
GLORY IN DEATH
IMMORTAL IN DEATH
RAPTURE IN DEATH
CEREMONY IN DEATH
VENGEANCE IN DEATH
HOLIDAY IN DEATH
CONSPIRACY IN DEATH
LOYALTY IN DEATH
WITNESS IN DEATH
JUDGMENT IN DEATH
BETRAYAL IN DEATH
SEDUCTION IN DEATH
REUNION IN DEATH
PURITY IN DEATH
PORTRAIT IN DEATH
IMITATION IN DEATH

Anthologies

SILENT NIGHT
(with Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, and Claire Cross)

OUT OF THIS WORLD
(with Laurell K. Hamilton, Susan Krinard, and Maggie Shayne)

Also available...

THE OFFICIAL NORA ROBERTS COMPANION
(edited by Denise Little and Laura Hayden)

For my darling Kayla, the new light in my life. My wishes for you are too many to count, so Ill just wish you love. Everything magic and everything real, everything that matters springs from that.

And he who gives a child a treat

Makes joy-bells ring in Heavens street,

But he who gives a child a home

Builds palaces in Kingdom come,

And she who gives a baby birth

Brings Savior Christ again to Earth.

JOHN MASEFIELD

Know thyself.

INSCRIBED ON THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI

D ECEMBER 12, 1974

D ouglas Edward Cullen had to pee. Nerves, excitement and the Coke hed had as part of his reward lunch at McDonalds for being good while Mama shopped combined to fill his three-year-old bladder to bursting.

He danced, in exquisite torture, from the toe of one of his red Keds to the other.

His heart was pounding so hard he thought if he didnt yell really loud or run as fast as he could, he might explode.

He loved when stuff exploded on TV.

But Mama had told him he had to be good. If little boys werent good Santa would put coal in their stocking instead of toys. He wasnt sure what coal was, but he knew he wanted toys. So he only yelled and ran in his mind like his daddy had taught him to do when it was really, really important to keep still.

The big snowman beside him grinned and was even fatter than Douglass aunt Lucy. He didnt know what snowmen ate, but this one had to eat a lot.

The bright red nose of Rudolph, his very favorite reindeer, blinked on and off until Douglass eyes were dazzled. He tried to entertain himself by counting the red dots that swam in front of his eyes, the way the Count counted on Sesame Street.

One, two, three! Three red dots! Ha ha ha ha ha!

But it made him feel a little bit sick.

The mall was full of noise, the blasts of Christmas music that added to his impatience, the shouts of other children, the crying of babies.

He knew all about crying babies now that he had a little sister. When babies cried you were supposed to pick them up and walk around with them singing songs, or sit with them in the rocking chair and pat them on the back till they burped.

Babies could burp right out loud and nobody made them say scuze me. Because, dummy, babies couldnt talk!

But Jessica wasnt crying now. She was sleeping in the stroller and looked like a doll baby in her red dress with the white frilly junk on it.

Thats what Grandma called Jessica. Her little doll baby. But sometimes Jessie cried and cried and her face got all red and scrunched up. Nothing would stop her from crying, not the singing or the walking or the rocking chair.

Douglas didnt think she looked much like a doll baby then. She looked mean and mad. When that happened, Mama got too tired to play with him. She was never too tired to play with him before Jessica got in her belly.

Sometimes he didnt like having a little sister who cried and pooped in her pants and made Mama too tired to play.

But most of the time it was okay. He liked to look at her and watch the way she kicked her legs. And when she grabbed his finger, really tight, it made him laugh.

Grandma said he had to protect Jessica because thats what big brothers do. Hed worried so much about it that hed snuck in to sleep on the floor beside her crib just in case the monsters who lived in the closet came to eat her in the nighttime.

But hed woken in his own bed in the morning, so maybe hed only dreamed hed gone in to protect her.

They shuffled up in line, and Douglas glanced, a bit uneasily, at the smiling elves who danced around Santas workshop. They looked a little bit mean and madlike Jessica when she was crying really loud.

If Jessica didnt wake up, she wasnt going to get to sit on Santas lap. It was stupid for Jessie to be all dressed up to sit on Santas lap, because she couldnt say scuze me when she burped, and she