“Now,” he pointed at his bags. “Pack. And if I find anything else of mine that you have stolen, you shall be very sorry.”
Romney was defiant and contrite and the same time. “The money was not for me,” he insisted. “It was for Mother.”
Emberley rolled her eyes. “Romney de Russe de Moyon, you will not dare pull me into your thievery.”
Romney turned his big, blue eyes to his mother. “But I was going to buy you a present,” he told her. “I was going to buy you something nice.”
Emberley sighed with exasperation. “I do not need for you to purchase anything for me with ill-gotten gains,” she scolded. “Apologize to Sir Gart and finish packing his bags. We must break our fast.”
Gart gazed down at the unhappy little heads and felt his stance soften as a thought occurred to him.
“Romney,” he said. “I have a proposition for you. If you promise to stop stealing, we shall go into town after the morning meal and I will purchase something nice for your mother. How would you like that?”
Romney’s expression cleared up immediately. “Can we buy sweets, too?”
Gart lifted his eyebrows. “I suppose so,” he said. “Hurry, now. Pack my bags so we can go.”
“Gart,” Emberley grasped his arm gently. “Please… you do not have to purchase anything for us.”
He turned to her, feeling her soft hand on his arm as one of the greatest sensations he had ever known. “I know that,” he said. “I want to.”
Her dark blue eyes were fearful, beseeching. “But… well, people in town know my husband,” she whispered so the boys couldn’t hear her. “They will see you and… and I am afraid that Julian might find out somehow. I am already risking much by allowing you to stay here simply because the entire castle will see you. It is quite possible that someone, at some point, will tell Julian.”
He understood her concern and, for the first time, felt some doubt about staying on. If the baron did find out at some point, his wrath would fall on Emberley. Gart knew that. But it wasn’t enough to convince him to leave because he very much wantedto stay. Against his better judgment, he very much wanted to enjoy Emberley’s company. He simply couldn’t help it.
“It is possible,” he conceded quietly. “Do you think someone will run off to tell him?”
Emberley held his gaze a moment before finally shaking her head. “Nay,” she admitted. “There is no great love for Julian at Dunster. If he were told, it would be by mistake.”
He wasn’t surprised to hear that Julian wasn’t well liked. He had already seen in the few days he was here how much everyone at Dunster loved and admired Emberley. If there were loyalties, they were to her. He veered back to the subject of shopping.
“Where is the closest town to Dunster?” he asked.
Her delicate brow furrowed in thought. “Carhampton to the south and Minehead to the northwest, but….”
“Which one is larger?”
“Minehead.”
“How far is it?”
“Perhaps a mile or less. It is not far. But….”
He put an enormous, warm hand over the small fingers on his wrist and squeezed. “Then we shall go to Minehead,” he told her. “Please, kitten… do not refuse me the privilege that Erik has been denied. Let me do something nice for my best friend’s sister and her children.”
When he put it that way, she could not refuse him at all. With a faint sigh, this one of resignation, she nodded once and removed her hand from his arm.
“Very well,” she said. “But let us break our fast before we go anywhere. I will take Lacy and Brendt with me if you will bring Orin and Romney when they have finished their task.”
Gart nodded, watching her leave with the two youngest children, allowing his gaze to drift over her luscious backside. The woman had a round, healthy bottom that he could see beneath the fabric and it was extremely alluring. With thoughtsof her round backside on his brain, he returned his attention to Romney and Orin. The pair was packing furiously and he lifted an eyebrow at them.
“What did I tell you?” he asked. “If you do not pack it to my liking, I will make you do it again.”
Romney slowed down, gazing up at Gart. “But we are packing neatly.”
Gart crouched down by the boys to show them what he meant. For a man who usually did not have an abundance of patience, nor did he normally associate with squires or pages in any fashion, he was showing a good deal of natural understanding with two small boys. For the two small boys who had rare interaction with their own father, the presence of the patient man they had tried to rob did them a world of good.
Two hours later, they were on the road to Minehead.
