“If ye have nay objection,” Frederick said.
There it was again. The difference.
He had asked.
Not ordered.
Asked.
Iona knew she should be suspicious of how much that mattered. Instead, she found herself nodding before caution could gather properly.
“I will come,” she said.
Jamie grinned as though the matter had never been in doubt.
The four of them left the chamber together, though Erin claimed almost immediately that her knees objected to forced merriment and she would prefer to inspect the herb stores later in the morning. That left Iona, Jamie, and Frederick to continue across the courtyard while Lennox fell in behind them at a distance too practiced to be accidental.
Iona glanced over her shoulder at him. “Must he follow?”
Frederick’s gaze flicked briefly back, then returned to her. “He follows because I told him to.”
“I gathered that much.”
“He also follows because he dislikes idleness and enjoys pretending he is subtle.”
That startled a laugh from her before she could stop it.
Frederick’s mouth shifted, not quite a smile but close enough that she noticed.
The morning air carried the smell of turned earth and wet grass as they passed beyond the inner yard and down toward the lower grounds. The keep spread wider there than she had realized. A kitchen garden stood near one wall, neat with early growth. Beyond it lay a stretch of orchard, then a narrow path leading toward a small pond edged in reeds and stone. Farther still, she could see the beginning of a training field and, beyond that, low rolling pasture.
Jamie darted ahead and then back again like a small restless bird, never going so far that either adult had to call the child back.
“Do nae run near the pond,” Iona called.
“I was only looking.”
“That is how trouble begins.”
Frederick, walking beside her with his hands clasped behind his back, said quietly, “He listens better when ye do nae sound frightened.”
She turned to glare at him. “And how precisely should I sound when the child is determined to fling himself into every hazard he sees?”
“Firm.”
“I was firm.”
“Ye sounded ready to leap in after him.”
She folded her arms. “I would. Would you not?”
“Aye, I would, but I daenae let him ken it,” he said. “That is the problem.”
She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again because Jamie had stopped by the water’s edge and crouched to examine something in the reeds.
For one brief heartbeat, she felt the old sharp fear move through her.
Frederick saw it.