Without a word, he stepped slightly ahead of her, not blocking her path but altering it, steadying the moment before it could turn.
Jamie straightened a second later, triumphant, holding up a flat stone.
“It looks like a heart.”
Iona let out the breath she had been holding.
Frederick looked at the stone gravely. “It looks like a stone.”
Jamie frowned at him. “That is because ye have nay imagination.”
“Nay, laddie, it is because I have eyes.”
Jamie considered that, then slipped the stone into a pocket as if deciding both things might be true.
They continued on toward the orchard, where the grass grew softer beneath their boots, and the branches still held the tender green of early season. A pair of hounds, broad-chested and eager, came loping across the field the moment they spotted Frederick. Jamie lit up at once.
“Can I touch them?”
“If ye stand still first,” Frederick said.
“That is the opposite of touching them.”
“It is the first requirement.”
To Iona’s surprise, Jamie obeyed.
Frederick gave a low whistle, and one of the hounds slowed immediately, coming to heel at his side. The other circled once, sniffed Jamie’s boots, and sneezed with enough force to make the child laugh.
“There,” Frederick said. “Now ye may.”
Jamie dropped to a crouch, hands sinking into thick fur with pure delight.
Iona watched the scene with a tightening in her throat, she did not understand at first. Frederick crouched as well, one hand steady at the dog’s collar while the other showed Jamie where the animal liked to be scratched. His expression changed in that moment. Softer, though no less attentive. He did not speak to the child as one might to an idiot or an ornament. He explained. Demonstrated. Waited for the understanding to settle.
It was such a simple thing.
It should not have moved her so much.
But it did.
“Does this one bite?” Jamie asked.
“Only if given reason,” Frederick replied.
“Would ye bite if given reason?”
Frederick glanced toward her before answering. “Less often than I once did.”
Jamie seemed satisfied with that.
They walked again after that, slower now. The hounds followed for a time before veering off toward a handler’s call. Jamie trotted between them and then, as children did when contentment loosened caution, began speaking more freely.
“There was a fox near the cottage once,” the child said. “Erin said it had better sense than half the village.”
“She was probably right,” Iona murmured.
Jamie looked up at Frederick. “Did ye ever catch one?”