“That’s it?”
She shrugged again. “It was enough. But I came well prepared to plead my case and was confident he would see reason. Though I was not forced to use it, I had one argument that would ensure he would see things my way.”
He looked at her skeptically. “I thought you were done being overconfident. The king was about as angry as I’ve ever seen him.”
“Ah, but a good lawman always saves the best argument for last.”
“And what argument is that?”
Her eyes met his, and he felt something inside him shift even before she spoke. She put her hand over her stomach. “My menses are late.”
He stilled. His body had sensed the import of her words, but it took his mind a moment to catch up. “A babe?”
She nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. “I think so. Is…is it all right?”
Jesus, how could she ask something like that? A hot wave of emotion crashed over him. It tightened in his chest and throat. He didn’t know what to say. He never had. But the difference with Janet was that it didn’t matter. She understood him anyway.
But just in case, he told her again. This time with his body.
It was better than all right. It was everything.Shehad given him everything. The hunter had found what he didn’t even know he’d been looking for, and he would never let her go again.
Epilogue
Ardlamont, Cowal, Scotland, December 1315
Janet was going to have strong words with that little blue-eyed devil. “James! James Fynlay Lamont, come here right now!” She raced from room to room, coming to a stop when she entered the nursery and saw her husband. He stood a few feet away from her with two bundles tucked under his arms and two thin legs peeking out from behind his.
Even after five years of marriage, her heart still hitched on seeing him, as if part of her still couldn’t believe he could be hers. Despite her feelings, however, she’d learned long ago not to let him distract her. She folded her arms across her chest and stared at him. “It’s no use trying to hide him. I can see you, James.”
A little blond head peeked out from behind Ewen’s legs. She didn’t buy the innocent look on his face for one moment. “Hand it over, Jamie.”
“Hand what over, Mother?”
“The letter you took from my desk.” She bent down to the little boy’s level, trying to keep her stern expression in the face of a very wobbly lower lip. “It’s a very important letter, Jamie. I need it back for the king.”
He made a face, reached into his boot, and pulled out the now crumpled piece of parchment. “I don’t care about the stupid ol’ king. I don’t want you to work anymore today. I want you to come play with me.”
The mulish, disgruntled look on his face so resembled his father’s, she had to look up at Ewen. He just shrugged. “Don’t look atme.”
Janet sighed and drew her four-year-old son onto her lap. Would it ever get any easier? She tried to balance the work she did for the king as his “advisor” and de facto, if not exactly publicly acknowledged, lawman, but there were days—like today—when inevitably that balance tipped.
Now that the war had been won with England, Robert was anxious to have Scotland accepted as an independent kingdom, and she’d been hard at work preparing their arguments for the carefully worded letters that would be sent to the French king and pope, to whom they were also appealing to have the excommunication lifted that had been placed on Robert since he stabbed John “The Red” Comyn at Greyfriar’s Church four years ago. The Latin she’d once despaired of had come in handy.
“I thought you were going to play ball outside with Da today?” she said softly, stroking his head.
“We did. But thentheygot in the way. They always get in the way.”
Janet tried not to smile and looked at the squirming two-year-old girls tucked under their father’s arms. Unlike Jamie, they had dark hair like Ewen’s. “What did they do this time?” she asked her son.
“Mary threw the ball in the loch, and then Issy started to cry. I hate when she cries.”
Me, too, Janet thought,and she does an awful lot of it. She gazed up at Ewen for help.
“I’m trying,” he said. “But as you can see, I have my hands full. He slipped away from me.”
“I seem to recall someone saying this would be easy.”
“I was expecting one, nottwo,” he said. “I think it’s time for me to go back to war.”
