Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
“Their maither?” Emilie parroted, shock rippling through her as she gaped up at her new husband.
His brows knit together, staring at her as if she’d gone daft.
“Aye, I thought ye kent that was the reason I married ye,” he said in a slow, measured tone. “Yer parents said ye’d be a great maither for the bairns. And they need a maither in their life. They’ve spent long enough without one.”
Immediately, Emilie began shaking her head.
“They dinnae mention that.”
Children being in the mix complicated things a bit for her. Taking care of the little ones at the abbey had always been one of her favorite things to do.
She loved children, and she thrived when she was taking care of them. And, she had no doubt that these two children would be the same.
Which would only serve to make her sad and bittersweet when it was time for the annulment and she returned to the abbey.
“Let’s sit,” Archer grumbled, either not noticing or not caring about the panic that was now racing through Emilie.
He did not look back at her as he started making his way through the crowd, his large shoulders carving a path that she would be able to follow easily.
For a moment, Emilie wondered what would happen if she didn’t follow after him. Would deliberately disobeying him be something that made him wish for an annulment?
But no. She had a feeling that Laird McGregor was the type of man who enjoyed a bit of the hunt. If she pulled away from him, it would likely only serve to make him chase her. And that was the opposite of what she wanted.
Besides, the Lord commands that I am to obey me husband. It doesnae matter that I willnae be in this marriage for long. He is still me husband now, and so I must follow along with the Lord’s command.
Emilie began to move, trotting along in the wake of Archer’s footsteps quickly so that she could catch up with him. All around them, people waved as they passed.
A few of them even reached out, putting a friendly hand on Emilie’s shoulder and welcoming her to Clan McGregor.
Emilie gave them as friendly a smile as she could, but she was certain that it came out as more of a wince.
The only people who had touched her for as long as she could remember had been the other women at the nunnery. With them, the hugs and the laughs, and the braiding of hair—that all came easily to her.
But this? Getting touched by strangers, even if the touches were friendly?
It made Emilie feel as if she might jump out of her skin.
Plastering a gracious smile on her face, Emilie pushed forward, making her way toward the head table. When, finally, she reached it, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
By the time she sat down, careful to tuck the folds of her skirts neatly beneath her, Archer was already loading food from the serving trays before them onto his plate.
“What is the other table for then? If we have all this food?” Emilie asked, pointing to the table pushed against one of the walls that was laden with dishes.
Archer bit into the roasted leg of a chicken, the grease from the meat dribbling a bit into his beard, which he wiped off with the back of his hand.
“That’s where the clan will eat from,” he advised, “this food here is all for us.”
Emilie nodded.
She thought it was a bit wasteful, all the food heaped upon the table for only the six people who were now sitting at it. But she didn’t think it would be a polite thing to say.
Although maybe bein’ impolite might help her here.
“Who are ye?”
A small voice rang out to Emilie’s right, and she turned, finding the children staring up at her with curious expressions.
The girl, she thought Archer had said her name was Aurora, had clearly been the one who had spoken. She was sitting the closest to Emilie, her expression hard as she glared at her.
“Me apologies,” Emilie said quickly, astonished with herself that she hadn’t yet greeted them. “Me name is Emilie. Yer faither and I got married today. Ye must be Aurora and Louis. Yer faither’s told me all about ye.”
The lie slipped from her lips quickly, before Emilie had put any kind of thought into it.
She hadn’t been sure why she said it. She wasn’t someone who made a habit of lying. Because of course, Archer had done no such thing.
The only thing her new husband had told her was that they were his children and their names.
Now that Emilie thought about it, did Archer even greet the children when he approached the table?
She didn’t think that he did. From what she saw, he walked straight to the table and then immediately began piling food onto his plate.
Why would he nae greet his own bairns?
They were staring at her now, skepticism written on their small features.
“Faither told ye about us?” the boy, Louis, asked.
Emilie nodded. She didn’t want to lie to them again, so she didn’t offer any more details. She just gave them what she hoped was an encouraging smile, praying that they would begin talking again to change the subject.
The two children shared a quick glance, clearly not believing her. Aurora narrowed her eyes at Emilie, while Louis gave her a shy, hesitant smile.
“Well, just in case he dinnae tell ye,” the young boy began, “me name is Louis. And me sister, Aurora. We’re twins!”
“Twins?” Emilie parroted, unable to stop the shock from leaking into her voice. “I’ve nae met twins before.”
“If Faither told ye about us, why do ye nae ken we’re twins?” Aurora pressed.
Emilie’s eyes flicked to the young girl. Her eyes were still narrowed on Emilie, still studying every one of her movements.
Mayhaps it’s time for a little bit of truth. That might be just the thing to win them over.
“He dinnae tell me a lot,” she admitted, shrugging one shoulder a bit sheepishly. “But he did already tell me yer names. And, he told me that I was to be yer new maither. Which, I think, is quite excitin’.”
Almost immediately, Emilie knew that she had said the wrong thing. Aurora’s gaze, which had already been filled with disbelief and distrust while she was glaring at Emilie, turned outright hostile.
The young girl’s cheeks grew pink, and her small hands fisted in her lap.
“I daenae need a maither,” she growled in a voice so like her father, Emilie would have thought it was comical had the malice not been directed at her.
Emilie opened her mouth, her mind casting about for the right thing to say to ease the girl’s worries. But before she could, Aurora pushed her chair back from the table.
She stood, tiny fists still balled at her side as she stormed away from where they were sitting and into the crowd.
“Aurora!” Emilie called out, her cry for the young girl getting lost in the sounds of the revelry.
Emilie knew that she needed to make this better. She might not plan to be at Castle McGregor for long, but she did not want to spend the time she had here with the children hating her.
She moved to follow after her, but a large hand clamped around her wrist. A gasp flew from her lips, and she turned to find Archer staring up at her from his seat at the table.
“Leave her be,” he growled. “She’s stubborn, that one. Daenae need to go chasin’ after her. She’ll come around.”
“But I…” Emilie began to protest, but Archer shot her a look that let her know there was no room for arguing.
Slowly, Emilie sat back down in her chair.
“I’m sorry about me sister,” Louis’ sweet, soft voice floated to her over the noise of the crowd.
When Emilie glanced to her right, she found that the boy had moved into his sister’s seat and was now sitting directly beside her.
“Nay need to apologize,” Emilie said, quickly trying to brush off what had happened between her and Aurora.
“It’s all right that yer sister was upset.
I suppose it would be a bit strange, meetin’ a woman that ye daenae ken who is claimin’ that she’ll be yer maither.
It’ll take some gettin’ used to, I’m certain. ”
Louis’ eyes widened a bit, although Emilie couldn’t quite read the emotion within them.
“It’s true, though?” The boy asked, and even though Emilie couldn’t read his expression, she couldn’t miss the hope in his voice. “Ye’re goin’ to be our maither? Truly?”
Emilie paused for a moment. She didn’t want to upset the child, not like she’d done with his sister. And simply stating what Archer had told her, that she was there to take care of them and to help raise them, had been enough to send Aurora running.
But Louis? It was so clear from the tone of his voice that he was looking for her to confirm it. The emotion in his words was so open and raw that it made Emilie’s heart ache for the poor child.
Archer still had not spoken to them. And, other than the moment where he told Emilie not to chase after Aurora, he hadn’t so much as acknowledged their presence.
Is this what their entire lives have been like? Has he always ignored them like this?
Her stomach flipped at the thought. Having a parent like that was something that she knew all too well.
Did Emilie’s own parents not drop her off at a convent and leave her there without so much as a letter for seventeen years?
But at least at the abbey, Emilie had been able to carve out a family of her own. She had had the nuns and the other novices. She’d been happy.
From the looks of it, these two children only really had each other.
“Aye,” she said, her voice a bit thick with the emotion roiling within her. “I’m here to be yer new maither. Truly.”
And she meant it. With every fiber of her being, she meant it. She did not know how long she would be there. But for whatever time they had together, Emilie promised herself that these children wouldn’t only have each other—they would have her, too.