She stood, tiny fists still balled at her side as she stormed away from where they were sitting and into the crowd.
“Aurora!” Emilie called out, her cry for the young girl getting lost in the sounds of the revelry.
Emilie knew that she needed to make this better. She might not plan to be at Castle McGregor for long, but she did not want to spend the time she had here with the children hating her.
She moved to follow after her, but a large hand clamped around her wrist. A gasp flew from her lips, and she turned to find Archer staring up at her from his seat at the table.
“Leave her be,” he growled. “She’s stubborn, that one. Daenae need to go chasin’ after her. She’ll come around.”
“But I…” Emilie began to protest, but Archer shot her a look that let her know there was no room for arguing.
Slowly, Emilie sat back down in her chair.
“I’m sorry about me sister,” Louis’ sweet, soft voice floated to her over the noise of the crowd.
When Emilie glanced to her right, she found that the boy had moved into his sister’s seat and was now sitting directly beside her.
“Nay need to apologize,” Emilie said, quickly trying to brush off what had happened between her and Aurora. “It’s all right that yer sister was upset. I suppose it would be a bit strange, meetin’ a woman that ye daenae ken who is claimin’ that she’ll be yer maither. It’ll take some gettin’ used to, I’m certain.”
Louis’ eyes widened a bit, although Emilie couldn’t quite read the emotion within them.
“It’s true, though?” The boy asked, and even though Emilie couldn’t read his expression, she couldn’t miss the hope in his voice. “Ye’re goin’ to be our maither? Truly?”
Emilie paused for a moment. She didn’t want to upset the child, not like she’d done with his sister. And simply stating whatArcher had told her, that she was there to take care of them and to help raise them, had been enough to send Aurora running.
But Louis? It was so clear from the tone of his voice that he was looking for her to confirm it. The emotion in his words was so open and raw that it made Emilie’s heart ache for the poor child.
Archer still had not spoken to them. And, other than the moment where he told Emilie not to chase after Aurora, he hadn’t so much as acknowledged their presence.
Is this what their entire lives have been like? Has he always ignored them like this?
Her stomach flipped at the thought. Having a parent like that was something that she knew all too well.
Did Emilie’s own parents not drop her off at a convent and leave her there without so much as a letter for seventeen years?
But at least at the abbey, Emilie had been able to carve out a family of her own. She had had the nuns and the other novices. She’d been happy.
From the looks of it, these two children only really had each other.
“Aye,” she said, her voice a bit thick with the emotion roiling within her. “I’m here to be yer new maither. Truly.”
And she meant it. With every fiber of her being, she meant it. She did not know how long she would be there. But for whatever time they had together, Emilie promised herself that these children wouldn’t only have each other—they would have her, too.
CHAPTER FIVE
Well, I’ll be damned, the lad is takin’ to her already.
Archer hadn’t turned to look at the interaction between Emilie and Louis. But he had been unable to tune it out completely.
After Aurora had rushed away in a tizzy, he had been curious about how the rest of the interaction would go with his son. He’d expected much of the same as had happened with Aurora, but obviously Archer had been wrong.
Of course, I was wrong. I hardly ken the bairns.
Archer grumbled to himself as the thought rushed to his mind, spearing another piece of roasted chicken with his knife. Glancing sidelong at Emilie’s plate, he noticed that it was still empty. She’d been too busy speaking with the children to focus on her food.
“Eat,” Archer grunted, interrupting whatever his new wife had been saying to Louis.
Emilie, who had been turned slightly in her chair so that her back was facing Archer, swiveled, her blue eyes lighting with surprise as they landed on him.