“I am nae beginning anything. I am merely astonished.”
“That is worse.”
“It is better than weeping.”
Erin looked up again. “Nay, let her weep. It would improve the morning.”
Caitlin shot her a look, though her amusement was impossible to hide now. “And ye are coming because?”
Frederick answered before Erin could. “Because if I bring ye alone, ye will buy enough to fill a cart.”
“That is likely true,” Caitlin admitted.
Erin gathered the last bundle into her basket and rose with a small grunt. “I am being brought to keep the pair of ye from turning a child’s wardrobe into a royal procession.”
Frederick nodded once. “Precisely.”
Erin muttered something in Gaelic beneath her breath, then, low and quick, her fingers brushing briefly against the top of her basket as though sealing the words into the day itself. He did not ask what she had said. He suspected he did not want the answer.
Caitlin heard enough to smile. “A blessing?”
“Aye,” Erin said. “For sense. The castle has been in short supply.”
They set out not long after, cloaks gathered and carriage waiting in the lower court. Frederick had nearly reached the archway when a smaller voice called after him.
“Frederick?”
He turned at once.
Jamie stood at the edge of the corridor, one hand still on the wall as though she had come running and stopped only at the last possible moment. There was something careful in her face again,not fear exactly, but the sort of watchfulness he had begun to recognize as a sign that she wanted something badly enough to risk asking for it.
He changed direction without thinking and crossed back toward her.
“What is it?” he asked.
Jamie looked up at him, then at the women behind him, then back again. “Can ye play with me today?”
The question was simple. It should not have struck him as sharply as it did.
He crouched so they were closer to level. “I must ride to the village this morning.”
“Oh.”
It was only one syllable, but disappointment sat plainly inside it. He saw the child try to tuck it away at once and disliked that effort more than he knew how to say.
“It is for something very important,” he added.
Jamie nodded, though the movement lacked conviction. “I understand.”
Frederick rested a hand lightly on her head, smoothing the hair there once before he could overthink the gesture. “Tomorrow morning,” he said. “I promise ye that.”
Jamie studied his face, deciding whether to believe him. Then, at last, she nodded for real. “All right.”
He rose again before the moment grew any more uncomfortable than it already was. He did not look toward the gallery where he suspected Iona might be watching. He was not certain he wanted to know whether she had seen the exchange, or how much.
The carriage rolled out through the gates with a creak of wood and leather, the road to the village still damp from the night before. Caitlin sat opposite him, alert and unmistakably pleased despite her attempts at restraint. Erin occupied the corner seat beside her, basket in her lap, expression unreadable in the particular way that suggested she was taking in everything and reserving judgment until it might cause the most inconvenience.
For the first stretch of road, no one spoke.