WoTD: lambent

Definition:
1: playing lightly on or over a surface; flickering; as "a lambent flame; lambent shadows"
2: softly brightly or radiant; luminous; as "a lambent light"
3: light and brilliant; as "a lambent style; lambent wit."

We hid in the shadows, Hester and I, our skirts over our knees, our socked feet itching from the cold. We should have been in bed but not even the fear of father finding us stopped us from being there. From our vantage point atop the stairs, we watched the men seated around the table. There were five of them, Shannon O'Dwyer the youngest at seventeen, a carrot top with eyes too big for his head, and his father, Matthew, the oldest at a number I couldn't remember let alone imagine. Father sat with them, his dark hair long around his face, his shoulders stooped as though weighed by a burden I could not see. The men were there for him, to help him, that much I knew. They sat in the near dark and talked in low tones, conspiring. The only light came from the fireplace, orange flames that tossed lambent light into the room, an ineffective panacea to the dark gloom and famished desperation. The light didn't reach my father. I doubted anything now could.