“Aye.”
Jamie nodded slowly.
They stood there for a moment longer, the quiet between them different now.
Iona rose slowly, releasing Jamie’s hands but staying close. “We will learn this together,” she said. “There will be things that feel strange at first. That is all right.”
Jamie looked up at her. “What if I do it wrong?”
Iona almost smiled. “Then we will do it wrong together,” she said.
Jamie huffed a small breath, something close to a laugh, though it did not quite reach her eyes.
They began walking again, slower now, their steps falling into an easier rhythm.
After a time, Jamie spoke again.
“Will I get new dresses?” she asked, glancing down at herself.
Iona tilted her head slightly. “If ye wish to have them.”
“And dolls?”
“Aye.”
Jamie’s gaze brightened just a little at that.
“And… will people talk about me?”
The question came quieter this time.
“Some may,” Iona said honestly. “But they will learn who ye are. And that is what matters.”
Jamie nodded, though her fingers twisted together again as she walked.
They reached the edge of the path, where the ground sloped gently toward the outer fields. The keep stood behind them, steady and unchanged, though everything else felt different in ways Iona was only beginning to understand.
For a time, neither spoke.
Then, suddenly, Jamie looked up again, her expression shifting in a way Iona had not seen since before all of this had begun. “Where did he go?” she asked, her voice lighter now. “Frederick.”
Iona blinked, caught slightly off guard by the change.
“He was called away,” she said. “Remember, there was word from the northern village.”
Jamie’s brow furrowed briefly. “Will he come back soon?”
“I expect so,” Iona replied.
Jamie nodded, though her gaze had already begun to drift back toward the keep, toward the path they had come from.
There was an unmistakable eagerness in her entire mood now.
Iona watched her for a moment, a quiet understanding settling in her chest as she did. Her daughter was waiting for him to return.
“Tell them exactly what the lass said,” Frederick said as he crossed the inner passage with Lennox at his side. “Daenae soften it, and daenae let any man in that room decide her confusion makes the rest of it less useful.”
Lennox adjusted his pace easily to match him. “Aye. Though if half the men on the council had been dragged through brush, dosed with something bitter, and left to stumble home in the dark, they would remember even less and still swear they had perfect sense.”