and-seek or climb trees or-'
Aidan caught him up and suspended him by his ankles.
'What we will do next,' he said, while Davy squealed and giggled and demanded to be put down, 'is have luncheon. And then we will see.' He set the boy gently down on the grass and tickled him with the toe of his boot.
'Uncle Aidan?' Joshua asked, as they walked back to the house, taking Freyja's hand in his and lacing his fingers with hers.
'Becky and Davy were Eve's foster children when Aidan met her earlier this year,' she explained. 'Their parents were dead and none of their relatives were willing to take them in. More recently Eve and Aidan have been given legal custody of them. Becky calls them Mama and Papa. Davy calls them Uncle and Aunt. Eve has told me that they are careful not to try to take their parents' place or to encourage the children to forget their parents. I could never have imagined Aidan with children. But, as you can see, he is as fond of those two as any father.'
'He has been a military man?' Joshua asked.
'For twelve years,' she said. 'From the age of eighteen to a few months ago, after he married Eve.' She glanced down at their hands. 'Did I give you permission to hold my hand, Josh-and in quite so intimate a manner?'
He looked down too and then up into her face before laughing at her.
'No,' he said. 'But we have a masquerade to maintain. Apparently you and Bewcastle agreed between you that our betrothal is to appear real to your family. I am merely doing my part.'
'If you imagine,' she said severely, 'that I am going to stand idly by while you maul me about in the name of realism, I am here to tell you that you are mistaken.'
'Stand idly by?' He laughed again. 'Oh, I hope not. It is no fun mauling about a marble statue or a limp fish. I suppose you were quite a hoyden when you were growing up?'
'Of course,' she said.
'Good.' He lowered his head closer to hers, and for one moment she thought he was going to kiss her again. 'I have a definite weakness for hoydens.'
This masquerade, she realized, had given him all the license in the world to flirt outrageously with her-and even to slip beyond flirtation at times.
Why was it such an exhilarating thought?
The Bedwyns were a boisterous, fun-loving family, Joshua had decided before the day was out. The children were not hidden away in the nursery while the adults found something decorously dull with which to occupy themselves. After luncheon they all decided to walk down to the lake, which was hidden from sight among the trees to the east of the house. There were plenty of hiding places there, Rannulf said-all of them had invited Joshua to an informal use of their names-for a game of hide-and-seek. He would take the swing with him, Alleyne added, and set it up in one of the trees. The trees were there to be climbed too, Freyja said.
'And there is always the water,' Aidan said.
'In September?' his wife asked.
'A warm September,' Aidan said, looking toward the window.
The sun indeed was shining.
'If anyone is going swimming,' she said firmly, 'I shall sit on the bank watching and attempt to look as decorative as I possibly can.'
'Me too, Eve,' Judith said. 'We can take turns on the swing for exercise.'
It was as active and strenuous an afternoon as it had promised to be. The children, Joshua suspected, were merely an excuse for the adults to kick up their heels and have a rollicking good time.
Alleyne and Joshua both climbed a tall, stout tree not far from the picturesque, man-made lake and secured the ropes of the swing to a high branch. The children swung there for a while, but inevitably a game of hide-and-seek began and continued for an hour or more until it was Joshua's turn to hunt and he had unearthed everyone but Freyja. He found her eventually perched high in an old oak tree, her back against the trunk, her feet drawn up against her, her arms clasped around her knees. He had already searched around and past that tree half a dozen times.
'Hey!' he called. 'That is cheating. One rule was that we must keep in contact with the ground.'
'The tree trunk is in contact with the ground,' she said, looking down without giving any sign that she might be afraid of heights. 'And my back is in contact with the tree trunk.'
'Hmm,' he said. 'There is a flaw in that logic somewhere. But you are fairly caught now.'
'You have to touch me first,' she said.
'Are you going to make me come up there?' he asked, narrowing his eyes on her.
'Yes.' She tipped back her head to admire the sky.
They admired it together after he had climbed up and touched her arm to make her officially out. A few little puffs of white were rolling slowly in a wide expanse of blue.
'Summer is almost over,' she said. 'Well, it is over, but it is lingering on into autumn. I wish winter were not ahead.'
'But there are invigorating walks and rides to take in winter,' he said. 'And if it snows, there are sled rides and snowball fights and skating and snowmen to build.'
'It never snows,' she said with a sigh.
He stood on the branch slightly below the level of hers and looked at her. She had left her hair down since the
