“Me Lady,” she said. “Maybe ye should take a break. You have been at this for a while.”
Emma bent to scoop up the yarn. “No. If I can teach a calf to fetch, then I can survive anything. But for some reason, she just wouldn’t listen.”
Jenny came nearer, lowering her voice. “Ye have already survived a fair bit without dragging in livestock, do ye nae think?”
Emma tossed the yarn in her palm. “All the more reason. I will not sit in an empty castle and stare at an empty chair. At least this one answers back.”
She started toward the far side of the room to try a different angle, laughing under her breath at her own stubbornness.
Then the great doors slammed open.
The sound cracked off the walls, causing even the calf to jump. Suddenly, every servant in the hall stopped moving.
Emma turned to the source of the noise and felt a chill slither down her back.
It was Logan.Standing in the doorway.
The candlelight caught the rough waves of his hair and the hard line of his shoulders. Fresh stubble darkened his jaw.
“What in God’s name…” Emma trailed off.
The journey had left his clothes wrinkled and his eyes tired, but he looked like he fit there, solid in the stone frame. He also looked far better than any man who had abandoned his wife.
Far,far better, it made her knees almost weaken.
Her stomach dipped, and her hand closed around the yarn. Heat rose up her cheeks, and with it a sharp, unwelcome rush of relief. The annoyance came right after.
I cannot imagine what he is thinking at this moment.
She watched as his eyes swept the hall.
Calf.
Yarn.
Hay on the floor.
Open doors toward the stables.
Yes, she would be shocked as well if she were in his shoes.
“And what in God’s name do ye think ye are doing,wife?” he asked, his voice carrying to the last bench.
The wordwifesent a small jolt through her. She smoothed her expression before it could show.
“Husband,” she returned, a bid to assert her ground. “What are you doing here? I thought you would be gone for months.”
Low murmurs rippled along the edges of the hall while Logan crossed the space in long strides. He did not stop when he reached her. Instead, his hand closed around her arm, fingers hard on her sleeve.
Her face heated further, and she hated herself for it.
“I suppose we have God to thank for bringing you back so soon.”
“Stop playing daft and come with me,” he bit out.
She thought about pulling free just to prove that she could, but her curiosity won over. She lifted her chin and let him lead her out of the hall, the yarn still in her hand.
In the corridor, the noise of the hall faded away. Their steps echoed ahead of them, mixing with the distant pop of fires in other rooms.
