veil though. Galeren wished any of it helped keep his mind on what she was going to be.
They started off with Margaret riding with Silene and Alex riding with Galeren, who also carried Daffodil in a small pouch at his side.
Their first stop had been the Firth of Clyde, where they explored caves hidden along the coast. They waited a bit while Silene prayed, and then they ate their first meal together.
He’d taken them along the coast to a long stretch of rocks and reeds and vendors set up with their banners snapping in the wind.
Soon, the vendors would be gone from here, not to return until next spring…when she was—no. He promised the children…himself, not to think on the future today. They rode to a small forest close to the castle, to a sunlit glade and ate their midday meal.
With a light step, he moved quickly now, scooping up Daffodil as he went. When he reached them, he knelt in the grass with them and laughed. They played a game where he was a mouse, hoping not to become a rat. They searched out edible berries and ate them while the sun warmed their chilly bones. Daffodil finally collapsed in the grass, asleep. The children were next with Margaret sleeping on Galeren’s lap under a nearby tree.
“This is not the first time you have kept the children with you,” Silene said softly, sitting next to him. “All of the steward’s children.”
Galeren shook his head. “I help Alex learn defense and good character.”
His hand lifted to the streak of scarlet burning from one of her cheeks to the other. “Ye blush.” He smiled. “Why?”
“’Tis nice to see a man of good character. He is pleasing to the eye.”
He raised a curious brow at her. “Is he?”
She nodded, appearing mesmerized by his full attention.
If she were someone else, he would have leaned in and kissed her. He’d stopped seeing her veil and wimple. He saw only her face. The face he was falling in love with. He couldn’t fight it. He knew it was wrong. He wished she didn’t wear it, but she did, and he still wanted to kiss her.
He felt the kitten’s sharp little claws in him and looked at his ankle. He smiled watching sleepy Daffodil climb up his thigh, his hip and then crumple up in his léine next to Margaret’s head and purr.
He should feel disgusted with himself for being so lost to a kitten and a soon-to-be nun.
But he didn’t.
He returned his attention to Silene, ready to apologize for being distracted. She was wearing a dreamy smile.
For a moment, he forgot to breathe. When he remembered, he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
“The hour of my prayer approaches.”
He nodded. What was happening to him? He had never felt this way about a woman. Why did it have to be her who stirred his heart and compelled him to change his path and lead him on one that would likely get him thrown out of John’s court and excommunicated? Not to mention what God would do to him.
He watched her rise up and brush grass from her hose. She made her way to a large tree and went to her knees.
There were women everywhere. Why was he allowing this one to claim what he’d given to none before her?
He wanted to tell her, to hold her.
Instead, he sat, watching her, praying with her that they be blessed in a union and not punished for this. Father Timothy would remind him that God was good.
He wanted to take Silene home to meet the old priest. He tried to stop himself from seeing her comfortable as his wife in Invergarry. But his mind wandered in the quiet of the forest where they played and slept the afternoon away.
When she was finished, they woke the children.
“They love you,” she noted with a tender smile when they clung to him and wiped their sleepy eyes.
“And I them,” he replied, rising up with two children and a kitten hanging off him.
What did she think about never having children? He wouldn’t ask. But there was something he would ask her. “Why are ye goin’ to say yer vows when ye are still so young? Yer prioress was married to a baron before he died and she gave her life to God, was she not?”
She didn’t answer right away and then waited while he set everyone and everything down.
When the children were out of earshot, she cleared her throat. “I have never met a