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What was the matter with the silly woman now? He’d brought her sons back, just as she wished. Leaning all the way over, he grasped her wrist and pulled her to her feet. He smiled warmly into her face.

She didn’t smile back.

Not many women could look dangerous, but Edlyn did right now. He hadn’t noticed before, but in the slanting light of the westering sun, her face stuck out with all sorts of weird angles, jutting and unrelated. Her chin was wide, and she had a habit of pushing it forward as if she were challenging his superiority. Her cheekbones rose at such an angle they pushed the outside corners of her eyes up and gave her an odd, witchy glare—a glare she now bent on him as if he were one of her sons she could reprimand.

Then Parkin bounded to his feet and put the finishing touches on her irritation. “Are we really going to train for the knighthood?”

“Nay,” she snapped, and Hugh remembered guiltily her determination that her sons should be men of peace.

“But Mama, Hugh said so,” Parkin whined.

She turned that glare on Parkin and said, “Hugh’s not in charge of you. I am.”

Allyn rose off the ground and nudged her arm with his head until she hugged him to her. Even at eight, the top of his head already reached her shoulder. In his quiet voice, he asked, “Is it true you wed Hugh while we were away?”

Stricken, Edlyn could only stare at her lad.

Hugh answered for her. “Aye, she really did, but she didn’t want to.”

Allyn fixed his thoughtful gaze on Hugh. “Why not?”

“I wanted to wait for you.” Edlyn shot Hugh a warning scowl, one he didn’t understand, and followed it with a warm smile at Allyn. “But we couldn’t wait any longer, so we wed yesterday.”

Jealous of his brother, Parkin snuggled against his mother’s other side. He wasn’t quite as tall as his brother, but Hugh had seen twins like this before. They didn’t quite look alike, and their personalities showed little resemblance, but they shared the same father, of that there could be no doubt.

“Why couldn’t you wait longer?” Parkin asked.

“Sometimes people have to do things they don’t want to,” Hugh explained. “You’ll find that out when you’re grown.”

“Oh.” For the first time since Hugh had met Parkin, the lad calmed, and it seemed he donned the weight of added years. “I know about doing things you don’t want to.”

Like being thrown out of your father’s castle, Hugh could almost hear the boy add.

Edlyn walked toward the bustle in the square, taking the boys with her. As she stepped away from the protection of the dispensary’s fence, she spotted a distraction. “Look, lads, there’s Sir Gregory who took you on your pilgrimage. Let’s go and thank him.”

Her sons groaned, and Hugh thought Sir Gregory must be groaning also. When Hugh found him trudging along the road with two lads in tow, he had been pathetically grateful for the offer of a ride to the abbey.

But the monk valiantly smiled when Edlyn hugged him and said, “I hope they weren’t too much trouble.”

“Not at all, Lady Edlyn.” Sir Gregory twitched as he lied. “They were exemplary lads and an honor to your name.”

“Do you think they’re ready to start the novitiate?”

Parkin said, “Ma-oh-ma!”

She pulled a lock of his hair. “Are they?”

“Mayhap in a few more years.” Sir Gregory faded back toward the monastery. “Not just yet, but soon.”

Edlyn looked frustrated, the boys looked relieved, and Hugh had to pinch himself to stop from laughing. Unfortunately, Edlyn knew his mirth without seeing it, and she started toward the camp at full speed.

Hugh had no trouble keeping up. “Aren’t you going to thank me?”

“For the clothes? Thank you.” She kept walking. The boys bobbed along beside.

“For fetching your sons,” Hugh said.

She glanced at him, then slowed reluctantly. “You fetched them?”