“I’m done,” he growled, turning and stalking out of the ring.
The guards crowding around the ring scattered, moving so that he could storm through them.
“Ye ken what I said was right,” Marcus called after him, but Archer just shrugged him off.
He needed to cool down and a little bit of time to himself to think. He’d been out to start training since the moment he’d woken up, and he’d not given himself a moment to stop since.
Archer stormed out of the training courtyard, moving toward the rose gardens and the cliffs that overlooked the sea. With every step, he felt something inside him roiling.
Why did I send her away?
But Archer knew exactly why he’d sent her away. It had been for the best. The best for her. The best for him. The best for the children.
As if his thoughts had conjured them, Archer turned a corner and found the twins sitting on a blanket with the maid, Charlotte. Archer stopped, standing stock still as he took in the scene.
Both of the twins seemed calmer than usual, even Aurora, who was more serious than most. Charlotte was doing her best to try to cheer them up, tittering away about the lovely day they were having or the different types of roses that decorated the edge of the garden. But neither of the twins was having it.
“I want to go back inside,” Louis said, his tone sounding melancholy.
He moved to stand, and the moment he shifted, his eyes fell on Archer. His gaze went wide, and Archer couldn’t help but wonder what he looked like.
Was he covered in dirt? Covered in bruises? Covered in blood?
He thought of the way he had been fighting that morning, and he knew he likely looked deranged in that moment.
“Ye told her to leave,” Louis said, his brows dipping together angrily as he pointed an accusatory finger at his father.
Aurora, alerted by her brother’s words, immediately jumped to her feet. She helped Louis up, while Charlotte stared between all of them with a panicked expression.
Once the twins were both on their feet, they trotted over to Archer, glaring daggers at him. But as they got closer, Archer could see their swollen eyes and the tears that still danced along the edges of them.
“Why did ye tell her to leave?” Aurora demanded, her lower lip shaking as she stared up at him. “What did we do wrong? Why was Emilie nae allowed to stay?”
Archer stared at them, mouth agape.
“What do ye mean what did ye do wrong?” Archer asked, incredulous. “Ye did nothin’ wrong.”
The tears that had been welling in Louis’ eyes finally fell, and immediately following, so did Aurora’s. Before Archer could react or really process what was happening, the twins hurled themselves at his legs.
Their tiny arms gripped him, shaking as they clung to him.
“What did we do?” Aurora wailed, and Archer could feel her tiny body shaking as she grasped at him.
“When can Emilie come back?” Louis chimed.
It was the first time that they had ever hugged him. And Archer stood stock-still, not knowing what to do.
“Ye dinnae do anything wrong,” he repeated, the words sounding hollow as his mind worked to keep up with everything that had happened. “This is somethin’ I did.”
“Why did ye make her leave? Why did ye nae want to be married to her anymore?”
The wails of the children blended together to the point where Archer could no longer tell which one had spoken.
Finally, he crouched down, the twins taking several steps back to account for his large body moving into their space.
Their eyes were red-rimmed, both of them wearing matching expressions of dismay as they stared at him. He sank down to their eye level, holding their gaze.
“I need ye both to listen to me,” he said earnestly.