Ewan paused and then bubbled over with laughter. “Ye daenae have a wife!”
Finley cracked one eye open. “Then tell me ale I loved it.”
Ewan rolled into a fit laughter, before suddenly remembered he was meant to be sneaking. He covered his mouth, shoulders shaking.
Maxwell felt his chest loosen.
He had never been a man who longed for noise. Noise meant threats. Noise meant someone wasn’t watching something important.
But this noise was different.
This noise was life.
Ariella shifted beside him, and he felt their son’s weight settle more fully against her. The babe slept on, undisturbed by the celebration, trusting the world to hold him.
Ariella glanced up at Maxwell, eyes warm. “He’s out cold.”
Maxwell’s voice softened. “He’s had a long day.”
“He’s had a long life,” Ariella teased quietly. “All one year of it.”
Maxwell’s mouth curved. “Aye. Hard years.”
Ariella’s smile faded into something gentler. “He’s safe.”
Maxwell swallowed. “Aye.”
Her head tipped toward his shoulder, resting there with easy familiarity. The simple trust in the gesture struck him harder than any praise.
Maxwell’s hand lifted slowly, then settled at her upper arm, thumb brushing faintly as if anchoring himself to the truth of her beside him.
Ariella exhaled softly, content.
“Ye’re quiet,” she murmured, echoing Mairi’s words from months ago.
Maxwell glanced down at her. “I am listening.”
“To what?”
“To everything,” he said simply.
He listened to the laughter.
To the clatter of cups.
To the murmured prayers of gratitude that drifted up when the old men lifted their ale.
To the small sigh Ariella made when the baby shifted and she adjusted him with practiced care.
Maxwell’s gaze drifted across the courtyard again, taking in faces that looked to him not with fear, but with pride. Men who had fought under his command. Women who had trusted him to keep their children safe. Servants who now moved through the keep without the tightness of dread in their shoulders.
This was what he had spent his life trying to protect.
And for the first time, he allowed himself to feel it without guilt.
Finley rose from the grass with exaggerated effort, clutching his side. “I live!”
Ewan looked offended. “That’s cheating.”
