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Sylvie and Aloria, along with Jordan’s Scot maids, were watching over Mary Alys and the twins while their parents frolicked the hours away. William had had a hell of a time separating his wife from the boys because she had missed them so, but he managed to convince her to bathe and dress and join the merriment.
Her father had been even worse. The man took one lad in each arm and had refused to put them down, even when they began to cry because they were hungry. He was as content as Jordan could ever remember seeing him and suddenly, he didn’t look so old anymore. He was happy, returning to the Thomas she had known and loved all of these years. It warmed her heart to see her father make her sons laugh or sing Scottish ballads to them.
Matthew had taken to Mary Alys as if she were his own daughter. She quickly got over her initial shyness and was soon laughing and hugging her grandfather, as well as getting acquainted with her two new uncles. Cord and Ian, thin and pale from their months in prison, ate continuously upon reaching the castle and ignored Byron’s pleas to slow down. Each man had lost a good deal of weight and seemed determined to make it up all in one night.
Not one of the three men had said a word to Kieran since he had broken the news to them, and Kieran was actually apprehensive of their reactions. After seeing them to comfortable quarters, he had purposely avoided them to allow them time to grow accustom to the idea that their sister and daughter had married an English knight. He left his wife with them, hoping she could convince them that he wasn’t such a bad person. Since his brother died, Kieran had no other family, outside of his aging uncle in Nottingham, and he found that he truly wished to be accepted by Jemma’s kin. Thomas was already quite pleasant to him and he liked the laird, but what he really wanted was for Jemma’s father to acknowledge him as part of the clan.
His confirmation had come the first night after their return. Entering into his apartments, he found Jemma and her father and brothers seated around the hearth, playing with Mary Alys. With a short nod to acknowledge those present, he proceeded to the bedchamber where he stripped off his armor, took a short sponge bath, and put on clean breeches and a tunic.
His wife came in when he was putting on his boots.
“What are ye doing?” she asked softly.
He glanced up. “Dressing for dinner,” he said, letting his huge leg fall back to the floor. “Are you going to change from that dress?”
“Aye,” she went to him, wedging herself between his legs and wrapping her arms around his thick neck. “What’s wrong with ye? Ye’ve hardly seen us since we returned.”
He pulled her against him. “What do you mean? I have had a lot to do and….”
She shook her head. “Not that much. I know that Jordan and William have been together quite a bit. Ye’re not that busy, Kieran. What is wrong? Dunna ye like my family?”
He looked a bit stumped, groping for words. “ ’Tis not that, Jemma,” he shrugged. “You have not seen them at all in the past year and I just thought…well, I assumed they wanted you all to themselves.”
She ran her hands through his hair, forcing his head back to look at her. “They think ye dunna like them,” she said flatly. “They think ye’re an arrogant snob and that ye’re embarrassed to be a kin to a family with only a burned-out castle to their name.”
His eyes widened. “They think that? ’Tis not true, I tell you.”
“I know that, and I told them so,” she smiled. “But they think it anyway. And I think they are a-feared of ye ’cause ye’re so big.”
He shot to his feet. “Then I must straighten them out immediately,” he said firmly, looking at his wife with concern. “Me? Arrogant?”
She chuckled and he stopped a moment, kissing her sweetly before quitting the room with her in tow.
Jemma’s brothers stood up when Kieran marched purposefully before them. Matthew, still rather weak, continued to sit but eyed the big knight warily. Kieran met every man’s eye before clearing his throat.
“I understand you believe me to be ignoring you,” he said. “And I must assure you that that is not the case. I was simply giving you time to grow accustomed to the idea that I married Jemma. I never meant to imply that I didn’t want to be around you.”
Cord and Ian looked at each other, but Matthew gazed up at his son-in-law.
“Ye’re a busy man, Sir Kieran,” he said after a moment. “We dunna expect ye to entertain us. And we are used to the fact that ye married our Jemma. ’Twas no great sorrow to overcome. Hell, I thought she’d never get married.”
“Da!” Jemma cried softly.
“Well, ’tis true,” Matthew insisted to his daughter. “I dinna think there was a man in Scotland that could tame your wild streak, much less an English knight.”
Jemma rolled her eyes in embarrassment but her husband grinned. “I have not yet learned how to control her, but I have learned that she can be managed when handled properly,” he said. “Besides, I do not want to tame her. I like her just how she is.”
Matthew smiled and shook his head. “Then ye are a better man than I, sir knight. I dunna know whether to thank ye or give ye my condolences.”
Kieran laughed softly at his wife’s misery. “She is really not so bad. It did not take me long to fall in love with her.”
“Ye love her?” Cord repeated. “God help ye, man.”
Jemma shot her brother a quelling look. “Shut yer mouth, Cord Scott, or I shall punch ye silly.”
Cord grinned at her and made a face and Kieran could see why she was so confrontational. With four older brothers teasing her, she had had to defend herself.
“Sir knight, I am pleased my daughter found a man that would have her,” Matthew said after a moment. “She has grown into a happy woman and for that, I am grateful to ye.”
