James started as a slight weight slammed into the side of his leg. He looked down to find an adorable blond with curly hair and bright hyacinth eyes latched on to his leg with both arms wound tight. She grinned up at him in delight and he experienced a dose of his own.
“Well, if isn’t Miss Hazel Eames,” he exclaimed with mock surprise and swung the toddler into his arms. “How are you today, wee lass?”
“Good!” She smacked a hand on each side of his face and smooshed her nose against his.
“Mr. MacKintosh!” the two other children chorused, crowding close around him now. He fancied his ready acceptance of the youngest Eames made him more approachable.
James greeted Luella softly, having discovered she was painfully shy, and complimented her fur muff. He nodded along as Ellis launched into a rapid description of what must have been everything he’d done over the past day. James hardly heard a word of it, his attention all for Prim as she followed along behind them.
She wore a different coat today, other than the wool one he’d seen her in before. Of black velvet, it was trimmed with rich bands of gray fur down the long front, at the elbow below the huge puff of the upper sleeve, and around the skirt as well. She carried muff of the same in one hand but was hatless. The day was a clear one, the sun reflecting off the snow. Her smooth, dark hair gleamed in the brilliance. Under her dark brows, her wide eyes did as well. She was unexpectedly lovely.
“I’m sorry,” she said, indicating the children mobbing him. “They’re simply excited. The girls have never been skating before.”
“Never?” James exaggerated the question, looking around at the children, grateful to have a reason to look away before he partook of inappropriately lustful thoughts in public.
The query brought forth another spat of chatter from all three fronts that continued unabated while they sorted out the skates and fastened them to five pairs of feet.
* * *
“No, no more.”
James peeled the clinging arms away from him and set one child after another onto one of the benches surrounding the rink with a solidplop,plop,plop.
“I want you all to sit here, eat your chestnuts, and not move a muscle. Aye?”
“Aww!”
“Ellis,” he said sharply, giving the lad a firm stare Prim knew her son hadn’t been privy to in at least a year. Perhaps his entire life. “You’ve had more than your share of fun all afternoon. Don’t you think your mother should have some as well?”
The boy cocked his head, looking from James to Prim and back again. “Mama never has fun.”
“All the more reason, don’t you think?”
Ellis considered that for a moment before he nodded.
“Good. I’m trusting you to watch out for your sisters for a few moments,” James said.
“Me?”
“You’re the man of the house, are you not? I can trust you in this? Aye?”
“Aye.”
Prim watched her son straighten, his shoulders squared. He liked the idea of taking charge, of being seen as responsible as much as she. Prim never considered it before but knew she should put more faith into her growing offspring if she wanted to see them develop in self-assuredness.
“Thank you,” Prim said when James took her hand and pulled her back toward the pond.
She glanced back at her trio of children. Ellis was between the two girls now, keeping them close as they tucked into the bags of roasted nuts James had purchased from one of the vendors.
“Children need to be children, but a boy also has to learn how to be a man,” he said. “Even if you have no wish to remarry, he’ll need a father figure one day.”
“I do have three brothers,” she reminded. “But I’d like to see them all grow up to be self-sufficient. Even the girls. Especially them.”
“And why not?”
He continued to amaze her with his open-mindedness.
James held her hand firmly as they stepped onto the ice. He’d proven himself to be beyond graceful on skates though he’d claimed to have only been a handful of times. Thankfully, he’d been skilled enough to steady her at the start as she’d been as shaky as a newborn fawn on the thin blades. Rather than ridicule her, he’d teased her mercilessly about her poor skills, but all the while set about reeducating her on the talents she’d forgotten over the years.
