He tried not to let it chafe- how easily this stranger had moved into his home and won over his children.
I am the one who moved her in. I am the one who commanded her to take care of them. It is good that they trust her already. They need to be able to trust someone.
The reminder did little to quell the desire to be a true father to his children that occasionally bubbled within him.
Emilie gave the twins a quick nod, her gaze never once leaving Archer’s face as the twins scrambled up. They darted around him, giving him a wide berth as they made their way toward the far corner of the maze and then disappeared around it.
Once they were alone, Archer simply stared at his wife. He wondered if she would talk first. If, after days of ignoring him, she might fold and try to offer some type of explanation.
But the more time that ticked by without so much as a wavering, Archer started to realize that she would not be the one to break the silence.
“Are ye done ignorin’ me now?” he finally asked, keeping his tone as frigid as he could.
Emilie cocked her head to the side. He spotted it the very moment she slid the idiot’s mask over her face, watched the way that she glazed her eyes, and made the smile that was toying at her lips a bit lopsided.
“Whatever do ye mean, dear husband?” she asked, her voice high-pitched and grating once more.
But Emilie did not know that he had seen her. For several minutes, from the corner of the hedge maze and then after, when he’d stood just beyond the edges of the blanket, he had been watching her.
Because as much as he had been watching the twins, he had been noticing the ways in which they had responded to her, Archer had been watching Emilie as well.
He had heard the cadence in her voice when she had been reading to them. And it was much different from the version of her that she was presenting now.
‘Mayhaps she just is unsure of how to act around men.’Paisly’s words from a few nights before rushed back to him.
Archer was unsure if that was the reason. But whatever the reasoning behind it, his wife was putting on a show for him.
Now that he had gotten control of his emotions, the realization amused him more than it did confuse or frustrate him. And he allowed himself a moment of curiosity before he answered her.
“Ye ken what I mean,” Archer finally growled. “I have nae seen ye at all for over three days.”
“Has it been that long?”
She blinked up at him, her bright blue eyes framed with dark lashes, making her appear nothing more than a fawn. Archer scoffed at her.
“Daenae play daft with me,” he chided.
Archer couldn’t be entirely sure, but he thought he saw the blush at the apples of her cheeks darken a bit.
Was it because he had called her out on her act?
He couldn’t entirely be sure that was what he had seen. And, even if it was, he couldn’t be certain of the reasoning. So, he didn’t harp on it.
“I assure ye, me dearest husband, I havenae the slightest idea what ye’re talkin’ about,” Emilie smiled up at him.
It gave him an uncanny feeling, the way that her lips tugged up at the corners. There was nothing that Archer could identify exactly that was causing the smile on her face to ring false to his mind. But it did nonetheless.
“Well, it’s over now,” Archer continued, not allowing himself to get caught up in whatever game his wife was attempting to play. “Ye’ll nae be ignorin’ me anymore.”
“Of course,” she beamed at him again, and then her smile widened. “I suppose, if ye want to spend a little time together,mayhaps a walk? I’m certain that would be more than enough for us to make up for the lost time of the last few days?”
She doesnae expect me to say yes.
Archer wasn’t sure where the thought came from. But it was there nonetheless.
And it was that thought that made his own mouth tug up in a feral smirk.
Despite all the things that Archer had decided on over the past few days, despite the fact that he had told himself that from now on he would keep his distance from Emilie, he found himself agreeing.