A Perilous Perspective (Lady Darby Mystery #10)(4)

Morven’s second son came running past, and then Gage soon fell into step with me, having finished escorting the boy into the bushes at the edge of the clearing. The boy tugged on his sister’s hair and was met with predictable results. His sister squealed and began to berate him for his unclean hands, forcing Morven to take her aside to try to calm her while her husband, Jack, gave his son a stern lesson in manners. I couldn’t help but smile at the mundane family dramatics. Twenty years ago, the same scene might have played out between Morven and one of her older brothers.

“Is this what I missed, then, not having a sister or female cousin to rile?” Gage queried.

“This, and so much more,” I jested as I turned to look up into his handsome face. His golden curls were in more disarray than usual, and his skin had bronzed from all the time he’d spent in the sun over the past week. It made the pale winter blue shade of his eyes all the more arresting. My husband was a well-favored gentleman in any circumstance, but confronted with his relaxed smile, tousled hair, and the evidence of his recent physical exertion, he was exceedingly difficult to look away from.

As if reading my thoughts, one corner of his lips curled naughtily as he bent his head nearer. His deep voice thrummed in my ear. “Perhaps Emma will nap long enough for us to enjoy one of our own.” And when he suggested we nap, I knew he was implying something altogether different.

I thought it more likely Emma would wake the moment we returned to Barbreck Manor and demand to be fed, but one could always live in hope.

“Would you like me to take her?” he asked as the roguish glint faded from his eyes to be replaced by something more tender.

We carefully transferred her to his shoulder. She grunted in protest, before turning her face into his neck and settling comfortably. As always, the sight of our child cradled in his strong arms made my heart do tiny flips. Though my muscles were also glad to be relieved of the duty. Emma might weigh less than a stone, but after a time, she still made my arms ache.

I took Gage’s coat of deep blue superfine, folding it over my arm as Lord Henry Kerr fell back a few paces to stroll along my other side. Though the wedding party was to be a small one made up predominantly of family, I had asked Charlotte to invite him for my husband’s sake. Just four months past, Gage had learned that Henry was his half brother. Though at first he’d reacted with anger and disillusionment at the discovery that his father had betrayed his marriage vows to his mother, whom he’d adored, Gage had soon after embraced his half brother.

Since that revelation and reconciliation, however, they’d not been able to spend as much time together as they’d both hoped.

Henry was the sixth and final child of the Duchess of Bowmont and had grown up in the bosom of that rather notorious family. The duke had claimed him and raised him as his own, just as he had all of the duchess’s children, no matter the truth of their conceptions. As such, Henry was still close to all the members of Bowmont’s family, and he was often called upon to assist with various matters at the duke’s numerous estates and holdings, keeping him away from Edinburgh, where Gage and I had been residing.

I looked back and forth between them. Though their coloring was different—Henry’s hair being an auburn shade that glinted in the sun and eyes the silvery gray of their father’s—the two men flanking me shared striking similarities in facial structure and physique. As such, I was somewhat surprised that no one had remarked upon it yet. Or perhaps they were too polite to do so.

“Lord Jack told me there are a number of hillforts and standing stones in the area,” Henry said. “I gather he holds a keen interest in ancient sites.”

“That he does,” I replied with a light laugh, recalling the story Morven had once told me about her then newlywed husband, and how he’d made her stand in the rain for hours while he tried to examine the grooves in the stones around a Neolithic cairn.

“Well, he and Rye have offered to take us out to see them tomorrow.” He glanced over his shoulder toward the gray clouds that were drifting ever closer. “If the weather clears. While I can’t say I am altogether enthused by such monuments, I would welcome the chance for a good gallop.”

Much like Gage, Henry enjoyed the exertions of physical activity—riding, shooting, hiking, climbing, as well as the requisite gentlemanly sports—boxing and fencing. Activities they could fully indulge themselves in here at Barbreck’s estate in the Scottish countryside.

“As would I,” Gage replied in a soft voice, so as not to wake our daughter. His gaze shifted to me. “That is, if Kiera doesn’t mind.”

“Of course not,” I said. “Go and enjoy yourself. I will likely be busy helping Charlotte with wedding plans.” It being only a fortnight until the wedding was to take place, there was still much to do. “And if not, I’m sure I can happily entertain myself examining Barbreck’s art collection.”

Gage grinned, knowing this to be an understatement. I would be ecstatic to have some time to myself to quietly study and contemplate the paintings gracing the manor’s walls.

In any case, I could only be separated from Emma for three to four hours at a time, making a long ramble on horseback already difficult and, with Jack leading the excursion, all but impossible. Such long ventures would have to wait until my child was older.

“Then, tell Jack I would be pleased to join you,” Gage told Henry before reaching out to wrap the arm not cradling Emma around my waist to pull me closer to his side. “And I hope you will be able to indulge to your heart’s content. May an enjoyable day be had by all,” he declared lightheartedly.