And, for the very first time since arriving at Castle McGregor, Emilie felt a bit of the ice that seemed to wrap around Aurora begin to melt.
CHAPTER TEN
“Can we go now?” Louis chimed, glancing eagerly toward the doorway to the dining room.
Emilie laughed, looking pointedly at the food still piled on each of their plates.
“We all need to finish eatin’ first,” she said cheerily, indicating their full plates. “It’ll be awhile, yet, before we eat supper. And we daenae want our bellies to be grumblin’ as soon as we step outside.”
Aurora hadn’t said anything else, but a soft smile seemed to linger at the corners of her mouth. Both children turned their attention back to their plates, before they immediately began shoveling food into their mouths.
They were chewing quickly, and Emilie couldn’t help but chuckle at their exuberance.
She turned her attention back to her own food, beginning to eat with a similar haste.
Emilie didn’t want to keep the children too long away from their studies. She knew that if Archer found out, he would be furious.
But she also knew that it was worth the risk. Especially since it’s been the one thing that seemed to have Aurora allowing herself to soften a bit.
When they had finished their food, they all stood and began walking back through the castle.
“Ye’ll have to lead the way,” Emilie informed the twins. “I’m still learnin’ me way around the castle.”
“I can show ye!” Louis chimed. “Aurora, hurry!”
Louis grabbed hold of Emilie’s hand, tugging it gently as he urged her forward. Emilie couldn’t stop the soft chuckle that rose out of her.
Aurora shook her head at her brother, but the rigidity that had been filling the girl since Emilie had married their father seemed to have ebbed a bit.
I’ll take what I can get.
Louis led them through a part of the castle that Emilie didn’t find familiar, and she didn’t think she and Catherine had taken this route before. It was much faster than she had anticipated.
Before she knew it, they were stepping outside, and the warmth of the sun was once again on her face. She glanced at the twins as they walked, noticing that their dark hair had glints of gold.
Aurora turned back to her. The expression on her face was so much like one that Archer wore often, with her mouth turned down at its edges and her brows knit together.
She favors her faither.
It was something Emilie had noticed the night before, when she’d first met the children at the cèilidh. And, while they both shared dark hair, their faces were nothing alike.
Where Aurora had the wide features and gray eyes of her father, Louis had dark eyes that were almost black. His cheekbones were high, and his features a bit sharper than either his sister’s or his father’s.
He must look like his maither.
A bit of curiosity flickered through her, and Emilie couldn’t help but wonder about the woman who had borne them.
“This is the best path to go down,” Louis chimed, grabbing Emilie from her quickly spiraling thoughts. “Especially when thetides are a bit higher. The beach at the bottom is bigger, so it doesnae get completely covered.”
Emilie glanced around them, immediately taking note of the way they had gotten there. The rose garden was to their left, the path that led down the side of the cliff just through a break in one of the bushes.
She glanced at the castle. Emilie was certain she’d located the window that was her chambers, and smiled in satisfaction, knowing she’d be able to see this spot from her rooms.
“Where are the other paths?” she asked.
“They’re all over.”
The answer came from Aurora. And, when Emilie glanced at her sidelong, she found the girl looking at her. Her expression was lacking the animosity she’d been cloaking herself with since Emilie arrived.