Soren didn't listen to her. His hands went down to her waist, his wide palms pressing through the blue wool to find the round mound of her belly, his fingers spreading out until he could feel the three little pulses underneath.
They were jumping like caught birds, their tiny sparks of magic unsettled by the heat, but they were still there, running steady in their old nests.
He let out a long, shuddering breath through his teeth that blew the grey dust from her collarbone.
Eris let her head drop forward until her forehead rested against the iron stud of his vest, her shoulders shaking with an old tiredness that she was too spent to hide from him now.
He gathered her up against his chest, his large arms wrapping around her wool dress until she couldn't feel the chill of the floorboards anymore.
Aldwin knelt beside them in the straw, his long, thin fingers finding the pulse at her wrist and holding it against his thumb for twenty beats.
