Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Emilie stared at the page in front of her, doing her best to keep her mind focused on the book that was resting in her lap. Since the kiss that she’d shared with Archer the afternoon before, Emilie had done her best to avoid seeing him at all.
When she returned to the castle after the kiss, the first thing she did was find Catherine. She’d asked the maid to escort her to the library, and that is where she had stayed.
Emilie had stayed there, losing herself in a book until well after, when she knew Archer would already be in bed. She’d crept into the room as lightly as possible, doing her best not to disturb him.
And then, that morning, when she had felt him jostling about as he’d woken up and readied for the day, Emilie had pretended to be asleep.
It’s better this way, Emilie had constantly reassured herself.
When she knew that the coast was clear, Emilie had risen from bed, dressed as simply and as quickly as she could, and retreated back to the library.
That was where she had been for the last few hours, and it was where she intended to stay for the remainder of the day.
“I ken I’ll have to face him soon,” she said aloud, finding solace in the act of speaking. “I still need to move forward with me plan of annoyin’ him into an annulment. But that can all happen tomorrow, when I have more of me wits about me.”
She smiled to herself, beginning to imagine how it would all unfold when she took up her plan again in the morning. Her eyes skimmed the page, barely taking in the words of the book on her lap.
The sound of the library door shutting with a thump filled the space, immediately grabbing Emilie’s attention. She glanced up, her gaze going over her shoulder in the direction of the door.
“Who in the heavens?” Emilie whispered to herself, keeping her voice low so that she would not be overheard.
For a split second, she thought that it might be Archer. Had he gotten sick of her avoiding him since the day before and finally sought her out?
A small thrill ran through her at the thought, one that she quickly stamped down.
But when a moment later two separate voices started a fit of giggling, Emilie knew exactly who it was who had found their way into the library.
“Be quiet, Louis,” Aurora’s voice chastised, floating on a loud whisper up through the shelves of books. “Otherwise, Faither might find us and tell us to go practice our letters or somethin’.”
“We’ve already practiced enough this week,” Louis argued with his sister.
“I ken,” Aurora answered. “Which is why we daenae want him to find us. Otherwise, we’ll get banished back to our rooms.”
They were trying to be quiet, Emilie could tell. But as children so often do, they had forgotten how easily sound carries, especially in mostly empty spaces. And Emilie was able to make out what they were saying easily.
Maybe I should speak up and say somethin’ to let them ken I’m here.
But before Emilie had a chance to do so, the twins emerged between two shelves.
As always, Aurora appeared first. She seemed to do that often, to walk in front of her brother and lead him, wherever it was that they were going.
Whether it was because she thought that she needed to protect him, or because she thought she was the boss of him, Emilie had yet to figure out. But whatever the reason, it was something that had endeared Emilie to the young girl.
Aurora was looking over her shoulder at her brother when they emerged from between the shelves. And as such, she had not noticed Emilie at first.
Louis, however, had been glancing over Aurora’s shoulder. And his eyes landed on Emilie almost immediately.
Despite how warm he had been to Emilie since she’d arrived, the boy’s face still paled when he realized there was an adult in the room. He reached forward and tugged on Aurora’s sleeve, interrupting her admonishment of him and pointing over her shoulder directly at Emilie.
Aurora turned, and the moment her gray eyes found Emilie, they narrowed.
“What are ye doin’ in here?” Aurora asked, her voice laced with a bravado that Emilie knew all too well the young girl did not feel.
Emilie took a split second to weigh her options, to explore all the varying ways that she could respond. However, she ended up deciding that honesty would likely be the best way to move forward.
Aurora struck her as a girl who would value honesty and would value not being spoken to as if she were a child.
“I was lookin’ for a nice, quiet place to hide for a bit,” she explained simply, shrugging one shoulder in dismissal of her own words. “Much like yerself, I’d imagine.”
The corner of Aurora’s mouth ticked up in a smirk at Emilie’s words, before she realized what she was doing and quickly got her expression under control.
“What do ye mean?” Aurora asked, puffing up her chest and staring at Emilie.
“I mean that I heard ye whisperin’ as ye were creepin’ in.”
Aurora blanched, and Louis looked panicked. Emilie couldn’t help but give a soft chuckle.
“Daenae worry,” she said. “I’m nae goin’ to go find yer faither. Ye’ll be safe here. I willnae tell him a thing.”
Her words seemed to be enough for Louis. Because the moment she said them, he shrugged happily and trotted past his sister. He hummed to himself as he walked toward a chest beside the low sofa Emilie was sitting on that she hadn’t noticed.
While Louis began rummaging, Aurora stood exactly where she had been, not moving an inch as she stared directly at Emilie.
For what it was worth, Emilie just held the girl’s gaze. She had hoped that, after their small stroll yesterday, some of the warmth she had gotten from Aurora would stick around. But with the young girl standing before her now, that seemed very unlikely.
“I promise I willnae say anythin’ to him, Aurora,” she promised again, dropping her voice a little as she tried to soothe the young girl standing before her.
“And it’s nae even just because of ye. Although I’m certain I’d keep just about any secret ye asked me to at this point, telling would mean I’d have to talk to him.
And I daenae want his grumpy mood ruinin’ me day. ”
Aurora giggled despite herself, clearly liking the thought of another adult calling her father grumpy. But the moment the small bout of laughter bubbled out of her, she clamped her hands over her mouth.
She glared at Emilie over the top of her hands, but there was no real heat within her gaze.
“I promise,” Emilie repeated, giving the girl a soft smile. And Emilie watched as some of the shutters that Aurora seemed to have crafted around herself seemed to fall away.
Slowly, the young girl removed her hands from her face and dropped them to her side. She studied Emilie for a moment longer before finally moving to join her brother at the chest.
The sound of things shifting within the chest filled the air, the twins bowing their heads together as they murmured amongst themselves about what they wanted to select from within it.
I wonder if it’ll be like this the entire time that I’m here, with me constantly havin’ to win Aurora over all over again every time we interact.
Emilie tried to banish the thought, especially since as soon as it crossed her mind, it started to sour her mood. But it was also something that she knew she would do.
Even if it took until the very moment her marriage was annulled and Emilie was on her way back to the abbey, she would keep trying to win Aurora over. She would keep trying to get the little girl to trust her.
Emilie readjusted herself on the low sofa, rearranging the skirts of her dress a little more comfortably around her. She glanced back at her book, her eyes beginning to skim over the words.
Try as she might, the actual meaning of the words would not seep into her mind.
Behind her, the twins were murmuring. Apparently, all it took for them to learn how to whisper was for them to realize that they weren’t, in fact, alone.
However, snippets of what they were saying were drifting over to her.
“…but chess would be easier…”
“…it would just be us….”
“…maybe Emilie could…”
Emilie shut her book, the sound of the pages snapping together echoing a bit louder than she anticipated, grabbing the twins’ attention. Out of the corner of her eye, Emilie saw them shift.
She felt the pressure of their stares and swiveled over the back of the couch to meet them.
“What could Emilie maybe do?” she asked, giving them an encouraging grin.
“Play blocks with us,” Louis chimed. “I want to play blocks. But Aurora wants to play chess, and chess is borin’.”
Aurora glared at her brother. “Chess is sophisticated and is good for the mind.”
It took all the self-control that Emilie had not to laugh. When Aurora had spoken, she had sounded so much like her father that it had been comical. And the air of superiority she’d taken on it had made her seem decades older than she actually was.
“Chess is great for the mind,” Emilie said, humor still lacing her tone. “Whoever taught ye that was right.”
Emilie had a feeling who it was that had taught her that. Archer was so strict about his children having a good education and being of sharp wit that she had no doubt that it had been something their father had bestowed upon the girl.
I wonder if he’d like to play chess with me.
The thought flicked through her mind of its own accord, and Emilie stamped down on it immediately. It would not do for her to begin thinking wistfully of her husband.
She could not be friends with him. She could not play games with him. At least, she couldn’t play any games with him that weren’t along the lines of ‘annoy the life right out of him until he no longer wants to be married to her’.
“But three people cannae play chess,” Louis protested, glaring at his sister.
“Ye could play chess over here,” Emilie said, pointing to the low table a few feet in front of her. “And I could just watch. It’s all right, I daenae have to play.”
“See, Louis,” Aurora chided. “Emilie doesnae want to play.”
Immediately, Emilie shook her head.
“It is nae that I daenae want to,” she quickly explained. “I love chess. It’s me favorite game. But Louis is right that only two can play at a time. And I daenae want to take over and have one of ye have to sit out.”
Aurora grumbled something unintelligible, but Louis began nodding, agreeing quickly to play the game with his sister. They extracted the board from the chest, as well as a large wooden box that Emilie knew contained the pieces.
She watched patiently as the children placed the game upon the table and began setting everything up.
They squabbled for a bit about who got to be what color, and then eventually, the twins settled down to begin playing their game.
Emilie settled back into the sofa, watching the children as they went round and round. She smiled and cheered when one of them won.
More than once, Louis looked at her for approval before he made a move, and she gave him a nod or the shake of a head to indicate if he should move forward or not.
“That’s cheatin’ ye ken,” Aurora protested, turning to glare at Emilie.
“I would help ye too, if ye would ask for it,” Emilie answered evenly, shrugging one shoulder.
“I daenae need help,” Aurora protested, sticking her nose up into the air as she made her next move.
It was the wrong move, making her queen vulnerable in one fell swoop. Louis realized it immediately, moving his knight in to take the queen on his next turn.
Aurora glanced over her shoulder, narrowing her eyes at Emilie as if the loss of her queen was Emilie’s fault. Once again, Emilie just shrugged her shoulders.
“I would have told ye that was a bad move,” she said with a grin. “Ye would have kenned, if ye had asked.”
Aurora rolled her eyes and turned her focus back to the game. Louis ended up winning two moves later, much to Aurora’s chagrin.
Emilie hid her smile behind her hand, watching as the twins set up the board again. And much to Emilie’s surprise, when Aurora went to make her first move, she glanced over her shoulder, looking to Emilie for approval.
Emilie worked to keep her shock under control, giving Aurora a quick, helpful nod. And, just like that, whenever either twin had a question about the move they were trying to make, Emilie would give them guidance with nothing more than the slight movement of her head.
Aurora won the next match. And, when she celebrated, she threw her arms over her head and cheered, before bouncing up and rushing over to give Emilie a quick, grateful hug.
Mayhaps I willnae have to wait until the day I leave to win the lass over, Emilie thought, smiling to herself as she gave Aurora an encouraging and friendly pat on the back.