So, why did it make him feel so incredibly ill to see them looking up at her, gazing upon her face not with fear or with trepidation, but with admiration?
Get yerself together,Archer admonished himself.
He did what he always did when it came to his children, and he closed his eyes. Archer imagined a block of ice coming down and hardening around his heart. He imagined it solidifying, blocking out his desire to be there for them.
Ye cannae get close to them. Ye cannae get close to anyone.
He repeated the words over and over in his mind, using them to steel himself entirely.
That, more than anything he had tried that day, worked to harden his heart and calm his emotions. When Archer felt ready, he opened his eyes.
Archer’s gaze fell on Emilie and the twins once more, and without another moment of hesitation, Archer walked toward them.
He got much closer than he thought he would before anyone noticed that he had arrived. It was Aurora who noticed him first. Her young face, which Archer knew resembled his own, went pale the moment her eyes found his.
Louis was next. The more sensitive of the twins had seemed to sense the shift in his sister’s mood. And, despite the fact that the young boy’s back was facing Archer, he had gone entirely rigid before Louis had even turned to face him.
Emilie took the longest. She continued telling her story for several moments after the twins had noticed Archer’s arrival. And he was glad for it.
The longer he stood there, looking at her while she interacted with his children, the easier it was for him to cloak every inch of himself in ice. It drove out everything that he had been feeling a moment before, every muddled thought, every ounce of wavering left him entirely as he stood there, watching his wife read to his twins.
Finally, Emilie seemed to notice the stiffening of the twins’ posture. Her words bit off mid-sentence, and she glanced first at Louis and then at Aurora.
“What are ye two…?” Emilie began, following the lines of their gazes, which were solely fixed on him.
Her words bit off in the middle of her sentence as she realized who was standing in front of them. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, color rushing to her cheeks as she immediately slammed the book in her lap shut.
“We were havin’ a picnic,” she said hastily, gesturing to the small basket of strawberries that rested in front of them, as if that provided even more of an explanation.
“Aye,” Archer said coolly, glad that his tone came out as cold as he now felt. “I can see that. Doin’ yer very best to still ignore me, I see.”
Seeing her for the first time in days, it was like Archer’s eyes did not want to leave her face now that they had rested upon it. She looked lovely as the sun bathed her.
There was a spattering of freckles across her nose, coming out beneath the weight of the early summer heat. And they only served to sharpen her features, to make them even more alluring than they had been before. Which, Archer wasn’t even sure how that was possible.
Despite his reluctance to do so, he still slid his gaze away from Emilie, allowing it to dart to his son and then to his daughter. Each one paled a little bit more as his gaze slid to them.
Louis sank back, pressing himself a little more into Emilie’s side. As if she could protect him. As if his son thought she would.
She’s made a lot of progress in ingratiatin’ them to her, I see.
He tried not to allow this revelation to bite, focusing the energy of it instead on keeping the words he spoke next calm and collected.
“Ye two should return to the castle,” he said icily. “I ken that ye daenae have a tutor today, but Eoin left orders for ye to practice equations. And I’m willin’ to bet that ye havenae.”
“We practiced them this mornin’,” Aurora said, her voice a bit stronger than it usually was.
Archer focused his gaze directly on her, and the moment their eyes met, a bit of the bravery seemed to flee his small daughter. But she didn’t shy away. Not entirely.
“Emilie said we had to finish them if we wanted to have a picnic,” Aurora continued, her voice not as forceful as it had been a moment before but still steady all the same. “She makes us do our practicin’ every day before we get to have any fun.”
Archer cocked his head to the side, considering his daughter’s words. When his eyes found Emilie once more, her cheeks were bright red.
“Ye should still go back to the castle,” he commanded, leaving no room for argument in his tone. “I need to have a talk with yer maither.”
Archer half-expected Aurora, at the very least, to protest at having Emilie referred to as their mother. But much to his surprise, she did not.
The twins glanced once at Emilie, as if waiting for her permission.