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Thomas could see two small girls and one small boy as they milked the nanny goats. They were working very hard at it as the baby goats moved around them nervously, trying to get to a teat that hadn’t been milked. He grinned.

“The children look as if they know what they are doing already,” he said. “Did you teach them to milk the goats?”

Maitland nodded. “I did,” she said proudly. “But they learned quickly. Come over here. Let me show you what we are doing with the milk.”

He turned away from the goats and followed her over to the repaired kitchen area, looking around with some surprise.

“This does not look as it did when last I saw it,” he said. “The hearth was broken and the bread oven had no door. And there was certainly no roof.”

He was pointing to the cover that had been repaired.

The kitchen was an open one, with a hearth and chimney built into the enclosure wall, a bread oven that looked like a beehive, and a covering overhead to keep out the elements.

It was really nothing more than an open stall, but now it was neat and organized and clean, and smelled divinely of baking bread.

“Your carpenters fixed the shelter,” Maitland said, looking up at the covering. “They also fixed the bread oven and unclogged the hearth. Truly, the men you sent have worked miracles. This is not the same place you left.”

Thomas lifted his eyebrows in agreement. “That is for certain,” he said. Then, he noticed Artus, the two small twin boys, and the tiny little girl all standing at the kitchen table where they were working on what looked like curds. He pointed. “What are they doing?”

Maitland was quite proud of her production line.

“Making goat cheese,” she said. “I told your mother I was going to teach the children how, and it is really very simple. See the hearth? Tibelda is bringing goat’s milk to a boil, and when it is nice and hot, she brings it over to the table where Renard and Roland put lemon juice into it. This makes it curdle.”

Thomas was leaning over the small boys, watching what they were doing. “Des mentioned you had purchased lemons with the money I gave you,” he said. “This far north, they are a precious commodity. Is this what they were for?”

Maitland nodded. “There is something in the juice that starts the cheese-making process with the hot milk,” she said.

“I can use vinegar, too, but something about the lemons makes it taste better. Once the juice is stirred in, we wait until it curdles and then we spoon it into linen that has been placed over a bowl. We fold the linen up and let it sit overnight so the cheese becomes a little firmer.”

Thomas nodded his approval. “Fascinating,” he said. “Then what?”

Maitland pointed to Dyana, the little girl, as she stirred and stirred a soft, white mixture.

“Then Tibelda or I put salt and herbs in the cheese, which Dyana is mixing in. We did cheese yesterday that had wild garlic and dill in it. The cheese today has wild rosemary; it grows all along the southern side of the tower wall.”

“And then what will you do with the cheese?”

Maitland looked at him as if surprised by the question.

“Sell it in Kelso on Market Day,” she said.

“I believe we can make good money selling the cheese to travelers or to inns. In fact, I was going to go into Kelso and talk to the innkeepers to see if they would be willing to buy our cheese. It is quite delicious.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “ I will talk to the innkeepers in Kelso and tell them they must buy your cheese,” he said. “They would not dare deny me. In fact, I shall go to a few other small villages around here and sell your cheese to the innkeepers. Can you meet the demand?”

Maitland nodded. “I think so,” she said. “If I need more goats, I can always ask my great patroness, Lady de Wolfe.”

Thomas grinned, gazing into her lovely face and feeling a pull towards her that he’d never felt in his life.

A week of separation had done nothing to quell what was growing.

Distance could not kill something that was starting to have a life of its own.

In fact, his feelings must have been written all over his face because Maitland suddenly looked away, breaking whatever spell was hovering between them, but Thomas’ gaze was still on her.

He couldn’t look away.

Maitland kept her eyes averted, focused on the bread that Tibelda had just taken out of the oven. She ripped a piece of bread from a hot loaf and smeared it with some of the soft cheese that little Dyana had just stirred up with salt and rosemary.

“Here,” she said. “You must try the cheese so you know how delicious it is. We make it during the day and move it to the vault of the tower at night to keep it chilled, but try some of our freshly-made cheese from today.”

Thomas sensed a nervousness in her movements, as if she were abruptly nervous around him.

He could only surmise that she’d seen his longing for her in his eyes and it had startled her.

She’d told him once that she would never do anything improper with a betrothed man, and he realized with both respect and disappointment that she was a woman of her word.

Disappointed because he had hoped that she would fall.

It would make it easier for him to, also.

But she had remained strong. Thomas watched her as she extended the bread to him and he took it, making sure to brush her fingers as he did so. With his eyes on her, he took a bite of the warm bread and creamy cheese, realizing as soon as he began to chew that it was utterly delicious.

“It is the best cheese I have ever tasted,” he said, mouth full. “I shall demand that every innkeeper from Kelso to Berwick buy your cheese. In fact, I shall take some with me when I leave so that they may taste the product.”

Maitland looked at him hopefully. “It would be wonderful if we could sell it locally,” she said. “It does not keep very well, so it must be eaten within just a few days. I do not think we could sell it any further than just a few hours’ ride from Edenside.”

“You shall make a fortune, my lady. Well done.”

With that, he put the rest of the bread into his mouth and chewed it up, telling the children around the table how wonderful their cheese was.

The twins seemed rather shy around him, but little Dyana beamed, and all Thomas could see was happy children, so completely unlike the little waifs he saw the first night at Edenside.

In truth, Maitland had already worked miracles.

He ended up eating two more pieces of bread with the soft cheese because it really was delicious and he was rather hungry. Satisfied with his snack, at least for the moment, they headed out of the kitchen and back into the yard so that Maitland could show him the repaired tower.

However, they had picked up a tail in Artus, who followed them across the yard.

Thomas wished the lad wasn’t trailing them, hoping to have a few moments alone with Maitland.

He knew he shouldn’t but, at this point, he didn’t much care.

As the seconds ticked away, the more he felt as if he had to tell her what was on his mind and in his heart, even if the words would never translate into action.

He wasn’t a man to keep things to himself, for he believed in being forthright and honest. Perhaps it was foolish of him, but then again, he’d been known to be foolish from time to time.

Especially when it came to women.

“The last time you were here and you left so swiftly, my brother told me it was because of the Earl of Northumbria’s death,” Maitland said, breaking into his train of thought. “May I offer my sympathies. It is terrible what happened to the man.”

Thomas glanced at her as they walked. “He told you about the reivers?”

“He did.”

Thomas grunted. “Northumbria’s death was a surprise,” he said. “The reivers do not usually attack travelers, so that was an unusual happenstance.”

Maitland shrugged. “Mayhap not so unusual considering you had just confronted them in Coldstream the night before,” she said. “If I was a fighting man, I might think it was revenge.”

He looked at her, smiling. “Are you always so smart?”

She laughed softly, embarrassed. “Not really,” she said. “It just seemed logical.”

“Your instincts are good.”

Maitland blushed furiously at the compliment. She wasn’t usually the blushing type, but Thomas had that effect on her.

“Thank you, my lord,” she said. “I try to be a reasonable and gracious woman at all times. In fact, I must again thank you for all you have done for Edenside. Without your help and your craftsmen, we could not have repaired as much as we have. We owe you much.”

Thomas kept glancing at her as they walked towards the tower. “I am happy to be of assistance,” he said. “In fact, if there is anything more that you think you need, all you need do is ask. I shall make sure you receive it.”

Maitland paused, looking around the yard. “For now, I believe we are content,” she said. “I am going to see the abbot of Kelso next week to discuss the charity and the fact that we can accept more children if there is a need.”

Thomas frowned. “The abbot has not been by to see you yet?”

She shook her head. “Not yet,” she said. “We have had people traveling to mass pass us by and I know they have seen all of the work that was going on here, so I can only assume that information has made it to the abbot. He must know that I have arrived.”

Thomas scratched his neck as he looked off in the direction of Kelso.

“It is quite possible that he does not want to show his face considering it was his sister who nearly destroyed the charity,” he said.

“Mayhap I shall go into town with you when you go. It may help to have a de Wolfe present when you meet the man.”

She looked at him curiously. “Why?”

His eyes glimmered at her. “He will know that there will not be another failure, and if he fails you, then he will have to answer for it– to me.”