Why could there never be any peace even for a few days?
Errol couldn’t drinkin enough the sight of Tira cooing to Isobel while he held Monroe now, the babe with his downy red hair feeling so solid and sturdy in Errol’s arms.
A sharp contrast to Isobel, who had felt as light as a feather and just as delicate, though her pink cheeks were becoming plumper every day, which greatly relieved him.
He had feared the wee lass wouldn’t survive her first day of drawing breath, but Isobel was thriving right along with her brother…as was their beautiful mother.
With sunlight from a narrow window illuminating her flaxen hair, Tira looked to him like an angel as she smiled so lovingly at Isobel, the babe’s tiny hand curled around her finger.
Just as Tira had appeared angelic to Errol early that morning with the first rays of sunlight spilling across their bed when he had awakened to find her curled up against him, fast asleep.
Tira’s folded hands resting upon his bare chest, which had made him wonder what she might think if she had awakened, too, at that moment—but she had thankfully slept on while Errol had lain as still as possible.
His heart so filled with love for her.
His chin pressed against the top of her head, her hair feeling as soft as silk and her gentle breaths fanning his skin.
Such thankfulness had washed over him even as he felt the same emotion now when Tira looked up from Isobel and smiled at him from where she sat between the two cradles. The tenderness in her expression for her daughter, aye, he knew that…yet he hoped some of what shone in her eyes was for him.
“Is he growing drowsy?”
Errol glanced down at Monroe, who gazed up at him with big blue eyes as if fascinated by his face, and he shook his head at Tira.
“Not yet.”
“Och, a while longer then…until they fall asleep.”
Errol nodded, content to remain in the nursery for as long as Tira wanted, though a wet nurse sat nearby.
One of two village women who took turns tending to Isobel and Monroe while the other went to care for their wee ones in the comfortable room Cora had set up for them.
Her kind graciousness knowing no bounds, Errol chuckling when Monroe clutched at his thumb and gurgled at him.
Who would have thought a babe could squeeze a finger so tightly? Monroe would make a fine, strong warrior one day, aye,hisson now and not Thorgren’s, Tira surprising him last night when she’d said they never had to tell the twins the truth of their birth.
She had stunned him, too, when she had invited him to share the bed…just as he had been astonished to find her sleeping so soundly against him—until at last he had forced himself to rise so he could join in the training already commenced in the bailey.
Tira not stirring at all when he had eased himself from the bed, though he hadn’t wanted to leave her.
A few hours later he had rushed back into the keep, aye, sweaty, but not wanting to spare a moment to clean up before seeing her again…only to find Tira in the nursery, which had suited him just fine.
These moments were so precious, especially with him soon to leave her, Errol trying to shove away a darker thought that kept pressing upon his mind of the two ships spied yesterday.
Cora had risen early as well and had stopped him on his way outside, her anxious expression telling him that she felt troubled, too, but he and Lorne and the other men riding with them had seen no sign of any raiders during their search.
Yet a niggling of unease remained with him, Errol noticing that Monroe had fallen asleep in his arms?—
“Here, Errol, let me take him.”
He had started at the sound of Cora’s voice behind him, and she bent down to scoop up Monroe before Errol could utter a word—the same anxious look on her face.
“Gavin has returned and wants tae see you in the great hall…I think you know why.”
Cora didn’t need to say more and Errol didn’t want her to, a glance at the unspoken query in Tira’s eyes making him say lightly, “Och, he wants tae hear about Lorne knocking me on the head. So you told him?”
“Aye,” Cora murmured with a soft laugh, though her gaze held no humor. “Go on now, dinna keep him waiting.”
Errol nodded with full understanding and rose from his chair, casting a smile at Tira before he strode from the room and hastened downstairs.
