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“I do wish I could make it up to him somehow,” she said.
“I sent him up to spend time with the bairns. That always calms him down.”
“Oh, yes, the children. I hope I get a chance to spend time with them.”
Sabrina loved children, but rarely got a chance to interact with them. Growing up an only child, she’d missed having a sibling or two.
“You’ll not have much choice. They rule the Kendrick household.”
“That sounds like an immense amount of fun.”
“Like the little ones, do you?” he asked.
“I do.” She wrinkled her nose. “My father, however, does not. He says they’re too messy, too noisy, and they get sick.”
Graeme laughed. “He’s not wrong, although our bairns are a robust lot. But you’ll get the noise and the mess.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Warmth once more sparked in his gaze. “Then you’ll fit right in, lass.”
I hope so.
“Graeme, don’t keep Sabrina standing about like a footman,” Ainsley called from the sofa. “And you come join the rest of us like a proper human being.”
“Yes, Mother,” he sarcastically replied as he took Sabrina’s elbow to usher her back to the others.
“Oh, Lord, I can’t imagine being your mother,” Ainsley said in a humorous tone. “She must have been a living saint.”
When Graeme’s grip briefly tightened on Sabrina’s elbow, she glanced up at him.
His expression was bland. “She was all that, and more.”
Royal threw him an odd look before smiling at his wife. “Our mother had to be a saint to put up with the lot of us.”
Graeme handed Sabrina to one of the sofas, then moved off to the side. “Especially me,” he said. “I was a terror.”
Ainsley pressed a hand to her chest with mock surprise. “I’m shocked to hear that, although I’m sure Grant wasn’t far behind when it came to terrorizing the locals. And I suspect Logan was an absolute fright.”
“They couldn’t hold a candle to me,” Graeme quietly replied. “No one could.”
“Our mother loved all of us, lad,” Royal said gently. “And you made her laugh the most. She always said you were the most lovable scamp in all of Scotland.”
“Did she? I don’t remember that.”
“I wonder where that husband of mine has got off to?” Victoria said after a moment’s odd silence.
Graeme settled into a leather club chair by the fireplace. He seemed to be deliberately sitting away from the rest of them. “Nick came in a little while ago. He was going to change and then come down.”
“Oh, dear,” Ainsley said. “We’ll have to tell poor Nick about Cringlewood. As if he doesn’t have enough on his mind with the king’s visit.”
Royal tucked his wife close. “Graeme and I talked to him about that when he came in. Stop worrying, love.”
“You’re not to worry about anything, Ainsley,” Graeme said. “Aden is handling matters. The marquess has already departed for the Continent, I believe.”
“Where it’s to be hoped he will meet with an unfortunate accident,” Royal grimly commented.
Graeme frowned thoughtfully at his glass. “Travel abroad can be risky. Bandits are especially bad in France, I hear. They have rather spectacular ways of making people disappear, such as shoving them off a cliff.”
