Chapter 7 #3
He dug the earth loose, careful not to strike the young roots. Ailis steadied the stem while Lileas patted soil around it with grave determination. Their hands came close more than once. Once, Ailis’ fingers brushed his knuckles, and the touch was nothing.
It was everything.
A small, treacherous warmth moved through him, not fierce like desire this time but quiet and dangerous. A hearth-flame warmth. The sort a man could sit beside and begin to forget the cold.
He withdrew his hand first.
Ailis looked at him, and he knew she had felt it too.
For a moment, with the child between them and the new rose planted in MacLaren’s earth, it felt real.
Later, Gordon returned to the sitting room, but when a light drizzle fell outside, they all followed him inside.
Marion sat beside Ailis near the long table by the window, speaking softly as Ailis mended a torn ribbon one of the children had brought her.
Gordon kept his attention on the letters though he heard every low murmur, every small laugh, every rustle of Ailis’ gown when she shifted in her chair.
He kept stealing glances at her.
I cannnae help meself.
The hall doors burst open when he bent over his letters again.
Lileas ran inside with her dark curls tangled wildly around her face, clutching something to her chest. She was laughing so hard she nearly tripped over her own feet.
“Look!” she announced proudly. Whatever creature she held wriggled in her arms.
Marion gasped when she saw it. Beth rose halfway from her seat. Ailis turned, and instead of shrieking as Gordon half expected, she lit up with delight.
Lileas clambered straight onto the bench where Ailis sat as if she had done such a thing all her life. The hedgehog gave an indignant twitch.
“He likes me,” Lileas declared.
Ailis stared at the beast while Gordon watched to see her reaction. “It does nae look pleased.”
“He is shy,” Lileas said at once.
“Spiny,” Gordon observed without anyone asking. They all turned to that, so he added, “Many shy creatures are.”
A young servant hurried into the room a moment later, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. She dropped into a hurried curtsy, nearly tangling herself in her own apron.
“Forgive me, Ma’am. Me Laird.” She looked between them, horrified. “This little devil slipped away again. She wished to see Miss Ailis so badly even though they spent all mornin’ together. She wouldnae heed me. I do apologize. And where on earth did ye find that?”
Lileas’s laughter vanished as the servant reached for her. She looked down at the hedgehog then at her muddy shoes, and her little shoulders curved inward.
“I cause trouble,” she whispered, her tone dropping as her shoulders slumped.
“Sweet bairn, nay, nay, ye didnae…” Ailis spoke immediately, sliding from her chair and kneeling beside Lileas. She reached out and touched one finger lightly to the tip of the girl’s nose.
“If ye cause trouble then, ye and I have somethin’ in common,” Ailis said. Lileas looked up, and Ailis smiled at her. “Aye, I am just like ye, sweet lass.”
Gordon took in the entire scene keenly, forgetting himself until Ailis suddenly turned to him.
“May she have breakfast with us?” Ailis asked.
Her voice was sweet. Too sweet. She had already decided. He could see it in the lift of her brow, in the careful innocence of her face. She was asking only to see whether he would be beast enough to refuse a lonely child before half the household.
Gordon looked at Lileas. The girl held the hedgehog tighter though it had begun to squirm in protest. Her eyes fixed on him with uncertain hope, and he wondered, with a dull ache, how often children looked at him expecting refusal.
He gave one nod.
Ailis clapped her hands softly. “There. It is settled.”
Lileas brightened. “Can Brochan eat with us too?”
Gordon went still. “Brochan?”
Ailis folded her lips together.
“The hedgehog has a name?” he asked.
“Of course, he has a name,” Ailis said. “He is part of this family now.”
“This family?” Gordon repeated, his temple throbbing now as he realized what he had just agreed to.
She gave him a sidelong glance, all sweetness and trouble. “Aye, so, of course, he may join us.”
The maid made a strangled sound. Marion covered her smile with one hand. Beth looked at the ceiling as if asking heaven for patience.
The hedgehog wriggled in Lileas’ arms again.
Gordon stared at Ailis. She stared back, eyes bright with victory.
Gordon knew he should order the creature returned to whatever hedge had suffered its absence. He should have the servant wash the lass and mind her better.
I should deny her this. It will certainly make her dislike me and this union more. But he could not bring himself to shun that hopeful gleam in Ailis’ eyes. Or that of the bairn either.
“One breakfast,” he said, caving into his heart first. “And the beast stays off the table,” Gordon added.
“Brochan,” Ailis corrected gently.
Gordon looked at the hedgehog then hardened his jaw. “The beast stays off the table.”
Lileas hugged it close. “He will be good.”
“I doubt that,” Gordon said.
Ailis laughed loudly, and the sound tickled his insides.
His keep had never felt less orderly.
Nor, God help me, less empty.