“Mama!” he said, kissing her cheek. “I went to the castle to find you, but they said you had come to the games.”
Kellington squeezed her baby boy. “Let me look at you,” she said, pulling back to study him. Unlike his brothers and father with their straight, dark hair, Cassian had been born with dark, curly hair, which he kept cropped. He had his father’s coloring and eye-color trait, but his features were all his mother’s. “You have grown inches since I last saw you. I did not know the House of de Lohr was coming.”
Cassian grinned, looking very much like her. “I did not send word because I wanted to surprise you,” he said. “Everyone came, even Sherry, although after marrying Christopher’s daughter last year, he wanted to remain with her at Lioncross because she is due to give birth soon. He does not want to miss it, but Christin insisted that he come, so he is here.”
Kellington smiled. “I am happy to hear it,” she said. “It has turned out to be a great event, bigger than we expected.”
It was clear that Cassian was excited about it. “Every great house is here, from what I’ve seen– the Earls of Teviot, the House of de Bourne, de Royans, the garrison at Richmond Castle, the Earl of Wolverhampton, and so many more. I could go on and on. What I did not see was William Marshal’s standard.”
“He’ll be here,” Jax said, coming up to his son with the baby in one arm. He hugged his son with the other. “He told me that he would attend. And speaking of attending his first tournament, you’ve not met your nephew, Atlas.”
Cassian looked at the baby, who looked very much like his brother. But he would never let the man hear that from his lips. “He looks like his mother, thank God,” he said. “A strong little lad. That is a proud thing, Cole.”
Cole had finished his food so he took the baby from his father so Jax could finish his. “He’ll be on a horse next year, joustingwith rest of us,” he said. “’Tis good to see you, little brother. It has been a long time.”
Cassian looked to the brother he admired deeply. “I’ve missed you,” he said, looking around at his family as Julian came up to embrace him. “I’ve missed you all. It feels good to be home in the north again.”
“You can always come home, Cass,” Julian said, a glimmer in his eyes.
Cassian shrugged as if to concede the point. “I know,” he said. “And I will, someday, but right now, Peter and I are having grand adventures. I like it on the Marches.”
“And you like a certain young lady, too,” Jax said.
Cassian looked at his father sheepishly. “Brielle is on my mind, I admit it.”
He was speaking of Christopher’s second eldest daughter, a young lady he’d had his eye on since he first went to serve at Lioncross Abbey. That was the worst kept secret in both families.
“Get her out of your mind and into your bed, Cass,” Julian said as his mother hissed her disapproval. “I mean marry the woman. What are you waiting for?”
Jax put up a hand. “A conversation for another time,” he said. “Right now, we have games to attend or Addie and Gaia will have fits. Come with us, Cass.”
“I will,” he said. “But I must tell Lord Christopher that I will be with you this afternoon so he will not go searching for me. May… may I bring Brielle?”
Kellington latched on to his arm. “If you do not, I shall be very disappointed,” she said. “Tell Chris that I demand his daughter’s company this afternoon.”
Cassian grinned. “I was hoping you would say that,” he said, kissing her cheek swiftly. “I will find you in the lists!”
With that, he bolted off. Kellington watched him go, her eyes alight with the joy of seeing the son she seldom saw.
“He has grown so much,” she said, turning to Jax. “They are all growing up. Jax, I must have more grandchildren or I shall shrivel away.”
Jax started laughing. He pointed to Cole, Atlas, and, finally, Corisande with her enormously pregnant belly. “Iam doing the bestIcan,” he said. “I cannot force them to have children any faster, you know.”
Kellington laughed softly, hugging her husband, the man her entire world revolved around, even to this day. That had never changed since the moment they’d fallen in love. Theirs was an unusual but powerful love story. But once she was finished squeezing Jax, she took Atlas from his father and hugged the baby, but Atlas didn’t want anything to do with her. He kicked so much that she had to set him on his feet, holding his little hands to help him balance.
“I’m finished with that dish,” Corisande said, rubbing her back because it pained her these days with the belly she had to balance. “I want something sweet, Cole.”
She’d barely gotten the words out of her mouth when Atlas broke free of his grandmother and started tearing down the avenue as only a toddler can. Kellington and Jax went in pursuit, chasing him down as he screamed. That disinterested Addington, Gaia, and Effington, who were already heading for the lists, and Julian was due to compete in the afternoon, so he turned for the castle to prepare.
That left Cole and Corisande watching Cole’s parents hunt down a skittish toddler. Cole put his arm around his wife’s shoulders as she leaned into him, drawing strength from his warmth and power as she always had.
“You know that he runs like that because of the way my father chases him,” she said, grinning when Jax finally grabbed the baby and swung him into the air. “And my brothers. Do youremember their last visit when they pretended that he was a wild boar and chased him all through the bailey, hunting him?”
Cole laughed at a particularly silly memory. Alastor and the three de Bourne brothers had come for a visit last month, but they’d turned into giddy fools around a baby who only wanted to run. It had been hilarious and shameful at the same time to watch grown men behave like that, but Cole had to admit he was guilty of it, too.
“I know,” he said. “But given how smart Atlas is, he will be escaping them in little time.”
“True,” Corisande said as she watched Jax kiss the cheek of the screaming baby. “Moments like this… they seem so surreal to me.”
