Dragonblade Trilogy - 01 - Dragonblade (47 page)

Tate and Toby watched
with varied degrees of amusement and, in Toby’s case, exhaustion. Tate finally
turned to his wife.

“Have they been like
this since I left?” he asked.

She began nodding
before he finished his sentence. “Since Dylan and Alex learned to walk about
two months ago. This is constant.”

Tate put his hand on
her belly again. “And another one on the way.”

Toby sighed wearily.
“I can hardly stand the anticipation.”

He laughed softly and
kissed his wife on the temple.  “Perhaps one of these days we will finally take
that trip to Rome I promised you so long ago,” he murmured. “That should give
you respite from the chaos of our children.”

She shrugged as she
watched the boys wrestle. “They are too young to be without their mother. As weary
as I am, I would not want to leave them for any length of time.”

“Not even for Rome?”

“Perhaps someday.”

He smiled gently at
her before moving to the writhing hoard of children with the intention of
settling them down. Toby appeared as if she couldn’t take the squabbling
another minute. Crouching on his haunches, he tried to reason with the twins.
They responded by jumping on him, causing him to lose his balance and end up on
his buttocks. As he fell back, Roman jumped into the melee and pounced on him.
Tate laughed as he ended up lying on his back with three little boys atop him.
Not to be left out, Catherine stood over them and swatted her brothers with the
sword.

As Tate allowed
himself to be pummeled by his toddlers, he couldn’t remember a time in his life
when he was so completely happy.  From the horrors of eight years ago to the
delight of the day, every pain, every effort, had been worth the price. The
road that had led him to Cartingdon those years ago had been the best path he
had ever taken and he could have never imagined that the aggressive, rude woman
with the strange name would become his very reason for living.

He eventually pushed
himself up from the mass of boys. Toby was standing with Kenneth and Stephen in
conversation a few feet away but Tate noticed that he was not alone. Catherine
was standing next to him, the sword still in her hand, as she gazed up
adoringly at her father.

Tate smiled and picked
her up, his little angel, so sweet that all she had to do was look at him and he
would melt away. She had that effect on all of the knights, particularly
Stephen. The man positively adored her. Tate kissed her cheek as she wrapped
her little baby arms around his neck. He took the sword from her so she would
not put his eye out with it.

“Papa?” she put her
little face in front of his so that she could look him in the eye. “Where did
you go?”

He smoothed her curly
dark hair out of her eyes. “I went to help someone.”

It was as much of an
explanation as she could understand. “Did you help them?” she wanted to know.

“I did, angel.”

Catherine thought on
that a moment. “Will you stay home now?”

He smiled gently. “I
will stay home now.”

“Papa?”

“Aye, angel?”

“Will you sing the
baby song?”

Tate’s grin broadened.
He had dreamed of this moment his entire life. When Arabella Mary was born in
January, he had two little angels to sing the baby song to.

To the sky, my sweet
babe,

          The night is
alive, my sweet babe.

Your dreams are filled
with raindrops from heaven;

                          Sleep,
my sweet babe, and cry no more.

Seven years and three
more children later, Tate finally took his wife to Rome. It was everything she
knew it would be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathryn Le Veque has been a prolific writer
of Medieval Romance Novels for twenty years.

Visit Kathryn’s website at
www.kathrynleveque.com
for more information including
ordering more novels. Kathryn lives in La Verne, California.

Recommended reads:

The Savage Curtain

The White Lord of Wellesbourne

Lespada

Archangel

Order at
www.kathrynleveque.com