“Father, you’re going fast!” Paige held onto the sides of the wagon and laughed. “I like it,” she said as she bumped along. Alex smiled. He was on a mission.
“Do ye miss yer mommy?” he blurted out.
“I didn’t know her. You did,” Paige said quietly. He stopped and fell to one knee.
“Ye are right. Did I ever tell ye what she was like?”
“No, but Miss Blair did. She showed me pictures and everything.”
“Everything?”
“Aye, she said mommy was pretty and you loved her. Did you, father?” The brown eyes wide with anticipation, waited with childish innocence.
He thought his heart would break. “Yes, I did love her. So much we had you.”
“That’s what Miss Blair said.” Paige squirmed. “Can we go now? I have to go to the privy.”
Alex stood. So the bairn knew all these things. “We’re goin’, lass.”
“Hurry, father,” she called from behind.
“Aye.” Alex picked up his pace. So this was what he would be doing these next years. He liked the idea.
“Mrs. Gillespie, we are taking our guests to dinner tonight. Ye and the mister are coming along,” Alex said as he stuck his head into the kitchen doorway.
“Ach, go along with ye. Me and the mister have plans o’ our own.”
He looked his housekeeper in the eye. “And so that is the way of it, is it?”
“Aye. It is. Go on, have ye’re fun. We would be aboot being alone here this eve if ye don’t mind. And,” she crooked her finger, “leave the bairn wi’ us. Lass needs some rest, and her father out pulling in a wagon all day, bouncin’ ’er like she was a sack of potatoes. And her wi’ two broken legs. Unfit it is.”
“Paige didn’t mind,” he said stubbornly. “And what does a bairn know, I ask ye?” He left Mrs. Gillespie to her work. He could not argue
her point. Stomping off to the barn, he fed the animals along- side Mr. Gillespie. “Laird Dunnegin, it is goot to have ye aboot the place again.”
“Aye, it is good to be among my family and my lands.”
“It is the way of the Scots.”
“Aye. ‘Tis the truth.” He clapped the man on the shoulder, and pulling on his knee-high boots, helped put the animals in the barn and clean the stalls.
“This is no work for a laird.” Mr. Gillespie could not abide his employer working in the stalls.
“Well, I say a man who owns a place can work it same as anybody.”
“Suit yourself, lad.”
They worked several hours without talking. Alex realized he hadn’t worked up a good sweat in a long time. Dabbing his forehead, then resting his arms on the rake, he saw her coming.
She had on jeans and a pink T-shirt and was headed their way. He watched from the darkness of the barn. Her hair whipped about her face. It had gotten longer and she now possessed a confident gait.
When she was almost there, he went back to work. Best to let things lie for now. He needed to think and had come out here to do it. And here she was. Working in a back corner, he hoped to watch.
She went to Silsee’s stall and sat and petted the lamb, talking and playing with it.
He revealed himself. “Oh, am I in the way?” She started to get up.
“Sit, lass. Ye have duty to pet and play mommy to thelamb?” Edwina couldn’t help but notice his green eyes as they teased her. She looked down at her kneecaps.
“Aye. I promised.”
“The lass is clever indeed.”
Edwina couldn’t help but laugh and agree. “Is she sleeping then?”
“Aye.”
“Cecelia tells me we are to go out and celebrate your return and the good news, about Paige,” she added.
“Aye. Will you be free?”
“You’re my employer. Tell me I have to go.” She smiled.
“Good lass. Clever like my own bairn.”
“I’d better go find Cecelia.” She stood and wiped the dust and hay from her clothing.
“Lass, in your hair . . .” He reached for a piece of hay and tossed it off.
“Thanks.” She headed for the manor. Her heart hurt right in the middlemost part.