Page 21 of The Laird’s Wrong Wife

“Can Ness attend the wedding?”

Ceana glanced under the table. Two small horns had appeared between the hanging cloth and Tommy’s knee. “That depends on whether Ness can promise to behave.”

“She cannae,” Paisley muttered.

Tommy considered the judgment and nodded. “She could stand outside.”

Paisley folded her hands in her lap. Her expression remained polite when she looked at Ceana. “Faither has introduced women he intended to marry before.”

Ceana’s smile faded. “Aye?”

“Aye. Neither remained long.”

Tommy became deeply interested in spreading honey across his oatcake. He applied enough to cover the plate beneath it.

“What happened to them?” Ceana asked.

Paisley lowered her gaze. Tommy raised the oatcake and took a bite large enough to prevent speech.

Oscar reached for the bread. “The former arrangements are irrelevant.”

“Perhaps to ye,” Ceana replied. “I would prefer to ken why the children expect me to disappear.”

The housekeeper stepped closer to her chair. “Which Morrag customs would ye like included in the ceremony, me Lady? The seamstresses will also require time with ye this afternoon.”

The question closed the subject without exposing the children further.

Ceana gave the woman two brief instructions concerning her clan ribbons and turned back to her plate. Across from her, Paisley kept her attention on her folded hands.

Oscar finished breakfast soon afterward. A guard waited beyond the open door, and the faint clash of steel against steel drifted into the room.

“I will be at the trainin’ grounds,” Oscar said as he rose. “We will discuss the remainin’ details later.”

Ceana looked up at him. “Ye might begin by rememberin’ that I agreed to terms, nae silence.”

His hand paused on the back of her chair. The servants were close enough to hear them, and both children watched.

“We will speak later,” he said.

He left with the waiting guard before she could argue.

His departure seemed routine, though Ceana did not miss the timing. He had announced he was remarrying and returned to the part of his life he could control.

Soon enough, the servants began to clear the table. One maid lifted Ceana’s cup and reached for her plate, but stopped when Ceana remained seated.

“I can escort the children to their lessons, me Lady,” she offered.

“They arenae preventin’ me from doing anythin’ important.”

The maid’s eyes moved briefly toward another servant. “Aye, me Lady.”

Tommy climbed down from his chair and attempted to coax Ness from beneath the table. The goat emerged with a strip of fabric in her mouth that appeared to have come from one of the napkins.

Ceana took the cloth and handed it to Paisley. “Does yer braither usually begin every mornin’ by stealin’ from the table?”

“Only when Ness helps,” Paisley said, folding the damaged linen before setting it aside.

Ceana asked about her studies, and Paisley answered as carefully as she could. She enjoyed embroidery and reading, though she spoke of both as duties completed at the proper hour. Tommy interrupted twice to describe Ness’s skill at escaping the stables.