Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Cannae believe that Marcus insists on speakin’ to me like that in me own home,” Archer grumbled.
He’d been walking for quite some time. So far, since he had left the sparring ring, Archer had stalked all the way through the castle.
He had stomped down the corridors, glaring at the painted portraits of his ancestors that watched him like ghosts on the wall. He had been sure that he could feel their disapproving eyes on him.
So, when his tirade through the castle did nothing to calm his racing mind, he’d stalked out onto the grounds.
He’d tried the stables, the archery course, the forest, and now he was menacing along the path in the hedge maze.
He’d had the route to the maze memorized since he was a child.
So, the twists and turns provided absolutely no surprises or challenge to his already frazzled mind.
But Archer did feel better with the massive hedges on either side, allowing him to be shrouded from view as he tried to work out everything he was thinking.
Why can I nae be friends with me wife? Would it be so terrible to allow meself that much?
It was a thought that he’d been battling for an hour now.
Ever since Marcus had planted the idea in his head.
And no matter how much Archer tried to convince himself that the thought was a stupid one, that it would be a mistake to allow himself to be close to anyone besides Marcus and Paisly, it was an idea that he simply could not let go of.
The path to the hedge maze opened up, golden sunlight shining upon the grass just beyond it. Without even noticing, Archer had made it all the way through the maze and out onto the other side.
The sea glimmered in the distance, the shimmering gray waves capped with white foam as they tossed about. Archer stopped just shy of exiting the maze, staring at the all-too-familiar water beyond it.
I’ll talk to Emilie. I’ll explain to her that what happened a few nights ago cannae happen again. But I willnae be friends with her. Marcus is wrong. Everythin’ will be tainted if I allow meself to get close to her. If I allow meself to get close to any of them.
“And the sword was pulled from the stone, raised up high in the air as if to pierce the clouds.”
Emilie’s voice rose up, floating to meet Archer on an errant breeze. It was as if thinking her name had conjured the woman herself.
Taking a step beyond the confines of the hedge maze, Archer looked around. It was easy to spot them, as they were not far off to his right.
The massive hedges must have masked quite a bit of the sound, more than he had realized. Because now that Archer was beyond the protection of the massive greenery, he could hear Emilie’s voice clearly.
She was seated on a large tartan blanket, her dark hair glinting with gold as it was kissed with sunlight. A book was plastered across her thighs, and she was reading from it.
One of the twins was nestled into either side of her, their attention not on the book at all. But at Emilie’s face.
Archer’s stomach hollowed out at the sight. This was precisely what he wanted when he’d arranged his marriage with Emilie’s parents.
He had wanted his children to have a mother. To have someone who could be there for them in all the ways that he could not.
So, why did it make him feel so incredibly ill to see them looking up at her, gazing upon her face not with fear or with trepidation, but with admiration?
Get yerself together, Archer admonished himself.
He did what he always did when it came to his children, and he closed his eyes. Archer imagined a block of ice coming down and hardening around his heart. He imagined it solidifying, blocking out his desire to be there for them.
Ye cannae get close to them. Ye cannae get close to anyone.
He repeated the words over and over in his mind, using them to steel himself entirely.
That, more than anything he had tried that day, worked to harden his heart and calm his emotions. When Archer felt ready, he opened his eyes.
Archer’s gaze fell on Emilie and the twins once more, and without another moment of hesitation, Archer walked toward them.
He got much closer than he thought he would before anyone noticed that he had arrived. It was Aurora who noticed him first. Her young face, which Archer knew resembled his own, went pale the moment her eyes found his.
Louis was next. The more sensitive of the twins had seemed to sense the shift in his sister’s mood. And, despite the fact that the young boy’s back was facing Archer, he had gone entirely rigid before Louis had even turned to face him.
Emilie took the longest. She continued telling her story for several moments after the twins had noticed Archer’s arrival. And he was glad for it.
The longer he stood there, looking at her while she interacted with his children, the easier it was for him to cloak every inch of himself in ice.
It drove out everything that he had been feeling a moment before, every muddled thought, every ounce of wavering left him entirely as he stood there, watching his wife read to his twins.
Finally, Emilie seemed to notice the stiffening of the twins’ posture. Her words bit off mid-sentence, and she glanced first at Louis and then at Aurora.
“What are ye two…?” Emilie began, following the lines of their gazes, which were solely fixed on him.
Her words bit off in the middle of her sentence as she realized who was standing in front of them. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, color rushing to her cheeks as she immediately slammed the book in her lap shut.
“We were havin’ a picnic,” she said hastily, gesturing to the small basket of strawberries that rested in front of them, as if that provided even more of an explanation.
“Aye,” Archer said coolly, glad that his tone came out as cold as he now felt. “I can see that. Doin’ yer very best to still ignore me, I see.”
Seeing her for the first time in days, it was like Archer’s eyes did not want to leave her face now that they had rested upon it. She looked lovely as the sun bathed her.
There was a spattering of freckles across her nose, coming out beneath the weight of the early summer heat. And they only served to sharpen her features, to make them even more alluring than they had been before. Which, Archer wasn’t even sure how that was possible.
Despite his reluctance to do so, he still slid his gaze away from Emilie, allowing it to dart to his son and then to his daughter. Each one paled a little bit more as his gaze slid to them.
Louis sank back, pressing himself a little more into Emilie’s side. As if she could protect him. As if his son thought she would.
She’s made a lot of progress in ingratiatin’ them to her, I see.
He tried not to allow this revelation to bite, focusing the energy of it instead on keeping the words he spoke next calm and collected.
“Ye two should return to the castle,” he said icily. “I ken that ye daenae have a tutor today, but Eoin left orders for ye to practice equations. And I’m willin’ to bet that ye havenae.”
“We practiced them this mornin’,” Aurora said, her voice a bit stronger than it usually was.
Archer focused his gaze directly on her, and the moment their eyes met, a bit of the bravery seemed to flee his small daughter. But she didn’t shy away. Not entirely.
“Emilie said we had to finish them if we wanted to have a picnic,” Aurora continued, her voice not as forceful as it had been a moment before but still steady all the same. “She makes us do our practicin’ every day before we get to have any fun.”
Archer cocked his head to the side, considering his daughter’s words. When his eyes found Emilie once more, her cheeks were bright red.
“Ye should still go back to the castle,” he commanded, leaving no room for argument in his tone. “I need to have a talk with yer maither.”
Archer half-expected Aurora, at the very least, to protest at having Emilie referred to as their mother. But much to his surprise, she did not.
The twins glanced once at Emilie, as if waiting for her permission.
He tried not to let it chafe- how easily this stranger had moved into his home and won over his children.
I am the one who moved her in. I am the one who commanded her to take care of them. It is good that they trust her already. They need to be able to trust someone.
The reminder did little to quell the desire to be a true father to his children that occasionally bubbled within him.
Emilie gave the twins a quick nod, her gaze never once leaving Archer’s face as the twins scrambled up. They darted around him, giving him a wide berth as they made their way toward the far corner of the maze and then disappeared around it.
Once they were alone, Archer simply stared at his wife. He wondered if she would talk first. If, after days of ignoring him, she might fold and try to offer some type of explanation.
But the more time that ticked by without so much as a wavering, Archer started to realize that she would not be the one to break the silence.
“Are ye done ignorin’ me now?” he finally asked, keeping his tone as frigid as he could.
Emilie cocked her head to the side. He spotted it the very moment she slid the idiot’s mask over her face, watched the way that she glazed her eyes, and made the smile that was toying at her lips a bit lopsided.
“Whatever do ye mean, dear husband?” she asked, her voice high-pitched and grating once more.
But Emilie did not know that he had seen her. For several minutes, from the corner of the hedge maze and then after, when he’d stood just beyond the edges of the blanket, he had been watching her.
Because as much as he had been watching the twins, he had been noticing the ways in which they had responded to her, Archer had been watching Emilie as well.
He had heard the cadence in her voice when she had been reading to them. And it was much different from the version of her that she was presenting now.
‘Mayhaps she just is unsure of how to act around men.’ Paisly’s words from a few nights before rushed back to him.
Archer was unsure if that was the reason. But whatever the reasoning behind it, his wife was putting on a show for him.
Now that he had gotten control of his emotions, the realization amused him more than it did confuse or frustrate him. And he allowed himself a moment of curiosity before he answered her.
“Ye ken what I mean,” Archer finally growled. “I have nae seen ye at all for over three days.”
“Has it been that long?”
She blinked up at him, her bright blue eyes framed with dark lashes, making her appear nothing more than a fawn. Archer scoffed at her.
“Daenae play daft with me,” he chided.
Archer couldn’t be entirely sure, but he thought he saw the blush at the apples of her cheeks darken a bit.
Was it because he had called her out on her act?
He couldn’t entirely be sure that was what he had seen. And, even if it was, he couldn’t be certain of the reasoning. So, he didn’t harp on it.
“I assure ye, me dearest husband, I havenae the slightest idea what ye’re talkin’ about,” Emilie smiled up at him.
It gave him an uncanny feeling, the way that her lips tugged up at the corners. There was nothing that Archer could identify exactly that was causing the smile on her face to ring false to his mind. But it did nonetheless.
“Well, it’s over now,” Archer continued, not allowing himself to get caught up in whatever game his wife was attempting to play. “Ye’ll nae be ignorin’ me anymore.”
“Of course,” she beamed at him again, and then her smile widened. “I suppose, if ye want to spend a little time together, mayhaps a walk? I’m certain that would be more than enough for us to make up for the lost time of the last few days?”
She doesnae expect me to say yes.
Archer wasn’t sure where the thought came from. But it was there nonetheless.
And it was that thought that made his own mouth tug up in a feral smirk.
Despite all the things that Archer had decided on over the past few days, despite the fact that he had told himself that from now on he would keep his distance from Emilie, he found himself agreeing.
“All right,” he said, his voice almost taunting as he spoke. “A walk sounds lovely.”
Emilie stared at him for only a split second before she pushed herself up off the blanket. But this time, Archer was certain, right before his wife had begun standing, it was surprise that had flickered across her face.