“Thank ye,” she said.
The smile that followed was unguarded.
It struck him with more force than he anticipated.
Frederick held her gaze a moment longer than he should have, something shifting beneath the surface of his usual control.
He had seen her smile before.
Quick ones. Careful ones. Ones shaped by politeness or deflection.
This was different.
There was no calculation in it, nor hesitation, just warmth.
His thoughts moved in a direction he did not immediately correct.
He wondered, briefly and without permission, what that smile would feel like against his lips.
The image came too easily.
Too clearly.
He drew in a slow breath, steadying himself before it showed.
That was not where this stood.Nae yet.
He turned his gaze back toward the others, though his awareness of her did not lessen.
Across the room, Jamie laughed at something Maxwell had said, the earlier caution replaced now with open curiosity. Ariella leaned closer again, guiding the boy’s hand back to her belly, while Caitlin watched them both with quiet delight.
Frederick folded his arms loosely, his posture relaxed, though his thoughts remained anything but.
This was what he had intended. To provide them with a place where they would not need to run.
And yet, standing there beside her, with her warmth still lingering too close and her smile still fixed in his mind, he found himself considering something beyond that.
Something else that he had not planned for.
For now, it was enough that she remained where she was, at his side, and that she had not yet chosen to leave.
Sleep did not come easily.
Frederick lay awake longer than he would have admitted, staring into the dark as the castle settled around him. The sounds were familiar. The low creak of old timber. The distant murmur of guards changing posts. The occasional shift of wind against stone. None of it should have disturbed him.
What unsettled him was quieter. Sweeter. More mischievous.
Her smile.
He closed his eyes and saw it again, unguarded and warm, offered without calculation. It lingered in his thoughts with an insistence that did not belong to something so simple.
He turned onto his side, exhaling slowly.
This was not unfamiliar ground. Desire was not new to him. Neither was restraint. He had lived years balancing both without confusion.
This felt different.
It was not only the memory of her mouth or the way she had looked at him in that moment. It was what lay beneath it. The trust that had flickered there, brief but unmistakable, and the way it had settled him.