“Swing me, too, Papa!”
Grinning, Gavin obliged her by setting Sinclair down next to Cora and then sweeping up Maud, whose delighted giggles madethem all laugh—Cora’s heart welling with happiness to have her family reunited, aye, even if only for a few precious days.
“I hear there was a wedding while I was gone,” Gavin said to Maud after lowering her to the ground, the little girl skipping between him and Cora, who held Sinclair’s small hand as they set out toward the keep.
“Oh, aye, Papa, Tira looked so beautiful in her gown. May I have a gold-colored one, too, when I marry?”
Cora cast a sideways glance at Gavin, who looked startled and seemed to want her to answer.
“Aye, sweeting, whatever you want,” she said with a laugh at her husband’s discomfiture—her fearsome Highland warrior undone by their daughter’s innocent query while Sinclair let go of Cora’s hand to scuff his boots in the dirt.
“Och, you’re silly, Maud—that’s years and years away.”
“No, it isna! You will marry first since you were born before me and then I will marry a man as handsome as Papa, aye,I will!”
Now Maud stopped to kick at the dirt, too, and crossed her arms in a pout, which made Gavin grab her up and settle her onto his broad shoulder.
“Enough about marrying. Have you been tae the nursery tae see Tira’s twins?”
“You mean Isobel and Monroe?” Cora interjected with another laugh, Gavin’s gaze widening as they entered the foyer while Sinclair rushed forward to stop right in front him.
“Did you hold us in your arms like Errol does with his bairns? We went by just before you came home and there he was, cradling Isobel and speaking so funny tae her?—”
“No, no, it was Monroe!” Maud piped up with irritation at her brother, only to glance at Gavin and roll her eyes. “He always mixes them up, Papa. Monroe has red hair like Errol and Isobel’s is just like Tira’s?—”
“Och, they look alike tae me,” Sinclair countered, though Cora could see that he still stared up at Gavin as if awaiting an answer. She gently nudged Gavin with her elbow, which made him glance from her to their son.
“Aye, I held you both as often as I could—and dinna let anyone tell you it isna a manly thing tae do.” Gavin swung Maud down from his shoulder to look with mock sternness at her and Sinclair. “That’s enough questions for now. Go on with you tae the garden and play while it’s still warm and sunny. A thunderstorm is brewing tae the west—och, there they go.”
He chuckled and watched with Cora as the two skittered back outside, though she was distracted at once when Gavin drew her into his arms to hold her close.
“I have missed much while I’ve been gone…a wedding, Tira naming her bairns, and Errol thankfully accepting them as his own. Is there anything else tae tell me?”
Cora didn’t want to mention the mysterious ships sighted from the ramparts, not when Gavin had only just returned home, but he must have sensed her unease and lifted her chin to stare into her eyes.
“Cora?”
“Och…Lorne said it must have been two merchant ships sailing westward, but I dinna know, Gavin. He and Errol and a dozen men were gone yesterday for hours searching the coastline and they didna see anything amiss, yet I’ve been plagued by such a strange feeling. Do you think mayhap Thorgren Sigurdson has come looking for Tira?”
Gavin had grown tense even before Cora had finished, and he released her as he sighed heavily, his expression grim.
“I considered that it might happen when a prisoner escaped his death at the island by jumping overboard. Errol and I should have gone after him—but we wanted tae leave that accursed place. It’s possible the man knew enough tae somehow leadThorgren here—by God, we’ve got only two days before I must leave again, damn that Orkney bastard! What does Errol think?”
“The same as me, I fear. I saw him early this morning when he left Tira still asleep tae train with your men. He said he did his best tae reassure her after he returned last night, but we share a like feeling…”
Cora fell silent as Gavin’s expression grew more ominous, the lightheartedness of their reunion gone.
“Will you fetch Errol tae me? I’ll await him in the great hall.”
“Aye,” was all Cora had a chance to say as Gavin clasped her hands and then left her in the foyer, his stride appearing weary after the long trip from Dumbarton.
Her husband so strong, so formidable…but Gavin was flesh and bone after all with much responsibility on his shoulders.
A baron of Argyll, in charge of protecting the western coast of Scotland with the fleet of ships given to him by King Robert.
A warrior soon to head into battle against King Edward’s army—ah, God, she couldn’t think of that right now.
Cora instead hastened toward the tower steps while thinking of her own memories of sitting with Gavin in the nursery cradling their precious twins.
