“The twins daenae need to live like ordinary bairns,” he said, forcing the previous anger out of his voice.
What he was saying was important, and he needed her to take in every single word.
“Me children will one day have part in the success of all of our people, whether it’s because they are Lairds themselves or because they have married themselves to allies,” he said, speaking as plainly and pointedly as he possibly could.
“Their studies are the single most important thing to that success, and to the future of thousands. So nay, me bairns daenae need to live. They need to be smart enough to make sure that everyone they’ll be protectin’ survives.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“What do ye mean that’s all that’s important?”
Emilie stared up at her husband, unable to believe what she’d just heard.
There was no way that someone could be that crass and that uncaring. Especially not when it came to their own children.
She couldn’t make sense of it.
“I do mean it,” Archer growled, staring daggers at her as she argued back with him. “And I did nae marry ye so that ye could doubt me and try to tell me how to raise me own bairns.”
“Actually,” Emilie narrowed her eyes at him further, “I thought that was exactly why ye married me. To be their maither, right?”
Archer stared at her for a moment, clearly toiling with his response. But Emilie didn’t give him time.
There was a nagging thought in the back of her mind that the way she was behaving went directly against her plan to annoy the Laird. That being herself and advocating for the twins was something that showed a lot more of herself than she ever planned.
But she didn’t care about that. Not when she’d had time to get to know the children and the man to whom she was married.
The children were frightened of him; that much was clear. But it was also clear that it wasn’t a physical kind of fear.
Based on everything Emilie had seen, she did not think that Archer had ever put his hands on them. As menacing as Laird McGregor was, he did not seem the type to abuse others.
No, the fear that she had experienced in the twins had been the fear of the unknown. Because they did notknowtheir father, not really. Not in the sense that children usually know the people who sire them.
He told them what to do, and they did it. And that appeared to be the extent of their relationship.
But what makes it that way?
Emilie continued speaking, determined to get to the bottom of what was going on with this family and to heal some of this before she eventually returned to the Abbey.
“A maither,” she forged on, “is to care for her bairns. And a part of that carin’ is to make sure that they’re healthy and happy. And yer bairns? They’re nae happy. And ye cannae let them keep continuin’ like this. It’s unfair, and it’s unkind.”
“I never claimed to be kind,” Archer growled at her. “And I daenae care how ye tend to them in the time when they’re nae in their studies.”
Archer was standing close to Emilie already, but he shifted on his feet, bringing his large chest even closer to her. She felt his warmth floating across the space to her. And, despite everything, despite the frustration she was feeling, the urge to lean into him threatened to overwhelm her.
Her attraction to him reared within her, a tightening in her lower belly causing Emilie’s hands to begin to sweat.
Get control of yerself.
Emilie shook her head, trying to clear it of the feelings his closeness had welling up inside of her.
“I am nae yer servant,” she mumbled, some of the boldness that she had been feeling a moment before leaving her as desire rushed in. “Ye cannae order me around like I am such, either.”
“Actually,” Archer continued, oblivious to the effect that he was having on her. “I can order ye around. Is that nae what a husband is for? When ye took vows, ye said that ye would honor and obey, and I thought ye were the type to take vows seriously.”
Emilie’s mouth popped open in surprise, and her eyes locked on his.
How dare he use me vows against me. He kens I was a novice nun, that I am a novice nun.