“She can stay,” Emma assured her. “I am nae hungry.”
“Eat anyway,” Catriona urged, but her voice was laced with approval. She brushed Stella’s hair with her fingers, then returned to her place.
Jack also had not moved. He set his hand on the table beside Emma’s and drummed his fingers once. No one but Emma could hear it.
The nursemaid reached for a cup of water, and the movement drew Stella’s gaze. The baby turned toward Jack instead and blinked.
Emma watched Jack raise an eyebrow at the sudden attention and suppressed a smile. Stella stared at him for a long moment, as if sorting him into a new order. Then, very carefully, she put out one small hand.
Jack hesitated for a few seconds, then lifted his hand and took her fingers. Emma watched with keen interest as he bent to kiss them. When she looked up, she realized she was not the only one watching the very rare encounter.
“Finally,” he murmured. “Ye remember me.”
“She always did, Jack,” Catriona said from across the table. “She only needed a mind to show it.”
Emma felt the tug in her chest tighten, then ease. She looked at the stain on his cuff again and studied the calm line of his mouth. When he turned to look back at her, she couldn’t look away.
“Midnight,” Jack repeated, now looking at her and not the child. “Outside me study.”
Emma shifted Stella again and kept her eyes downcast. “Aye.”
“Good.”
He rose to his feet, the chair scraping across the floor. He looked once at his mother, then at Olivia, and let his gaze trail over the others. Then he walked out. The door closed behind him, and the hall eventually breathed again.
Ava leaned toward Emma after the conversation resumed. “What was that?” she whispered.
“Lunch,” Emma responded.
Thankfully, Ava did not retort.
Emma took a bite of bread and chewed it slowly. The taste was plain and warm. It would be easy to pretend that this was all that mattered. Bread and lists and whether ribbons cost more than loaves. However, she couldn’t pretend, not when he continued to haunt her thoughts with each passing day.
“Emma, ye ken ye can always hand us the bairn if ye grow tired, do ye nae?” Catriona offered, a slight worry crossing her face.
“Thank ye,” Emma said mildly.
However, her mind grew even more restless as the conversations all around her lengthened. Perhaps a simple walk around the castle would calm her nerves. She would ask Ava for one later. Her sister would never turn down a chance to explore.
She reached for a slice of the well-cut apples and popped one in her mouth. For now, she would mostly focus on what mattered, which was making Jack prove his worth to her. Everything else could come much later.
CHAPTER 18
The airoutside smelled of fresh grass and a hint of rain that had not yet fallen. Emma walked along the courtyard path with Ava, with the baby cradled against her chest. The sky was pale blue, a sharp contrast to the smell of the incoming rain.
“Let me hold her for a wee while,” Ava suggested, extending her arms. “Yer arms will tire.”
“I am fine,” Emma said, though she shifted the bairn higher and tucked the ribbon under Stella’s chin so it would not tickle her. “Remember what Ma used to say when her sister gave birth a few years ago? A bairn is lighter when ye like the weight.”
“Aye, but ye will like a rest as well,” Ava countered. “When we go to the market, I will buy a pin and perhaps some sense for ye as well.”
Emma smiled. “Buy the pin and leave the sense. I ken well enough how to take care of a baby.”
“‘Tis nay surprise that the bairn has gotten used to ye,” Ava added, her voice gentle.
Two guards passed near the gate, their voices low. Emma couldn’t exactly hear what they were saying, only short snippets that she couldn’t make sense of.
“… fire should start dying out by now,” one of them had murmured.
