Ariella set her feet down and immediately looked smaller than Frederick remembered, though he knew that was only the effect of the child she carried. Her belly was full and unmistakable beneath her traveling cloak, and one hand went there at once, protective even as she smiled.
“Frederick,” she said, and the warmth in her voice reached him before she did.
He stepped forward and kissed her brow in greeting. “Ye should have waited another week.”
She drew back at once, one brow lifting in a look so familiar that it almost unsettled him. “And miss meeting me nephew? Certainly nae.”
Maxwell joined them without allowing more than a breath of distance to remain between himself and Ariella. He clasped Frederick’s forearm in greeting.
“Ye look tired,” Maxwell said.
Frederick gave him a level look. “And ye look as though ye have nae slept since she began carrying.”
“That is because I have nae,” Maxwell replied without a trace of irony.
Ariella rolled her eyes. “He is intolerable.”
“I am attentive,” Maxwell corrected.
“Ye are both,” Lennox muttered under his breath.
Frederick ignored him.
Caitlin descended the steps then, all grace and controlled delight. She embraced Ariella first, then Maxwell with formal affection, speaking at once of the journey, of whether the roads were too rough, of whether Ariella had eaten properly, of whether the guest chambers had been aired enough.
Frederick let the swirl of greeting move around him for a moment before turning his attention toward the doorway behind the upper gallery.
He had sent word that Iona and Jamie need not come down immediately. The arrival would have enough noise and scrutiny without forcing them into the center of it at once. Still, he knew curiosity would bring them sooner rather than later.
He was right.
Jamie appeared first, hovering at the edge of the steps with the alert stillness of a child trying very hard to appear brave. Iona followed a heartbeat later, one hand lightly at the boy’s shoulder. Erin remained farther back in the hall, watching with the calm of a woman who trusted little and missed less.
Ariella noticed them at once.
Her face changed immediately. Not with shock. Not even with caution. With open interest.
“That will be him,” she said softly.
Caitlin turned, delighted all over again. “Jamie, come here, darling. Your aunt has arrived.”
Jamie looked up at Iona first.
Frederick saw the hesitation there, small but present. The boy did not fear his family now, not truly, but new people still required measuring. New affection required testing. That instinct had not left him.
Iona bent slightly and murmured something Frederick could not hear. Whatever it was, Jamie nodded and went forward.
Ariella knelt with more difficulty than grace, ignoring Maxwell’s immediate look of concern. “So,” she said, smiling at Jamie as though there were no one else in the courtyard at all, “ye are the boy who has sent my mother into a state of permanent delight.”
Jamie glanced at Caitlin, then back to Ariella. “Maybe.”
The answer made Ariella laugh.
“I can already see that ye are trouble,” she said.
“Only when it is interesting.”
Maxwell let out a low breath that might have been a laugh despite himself. “A family trait, then.”