“Lowen is my eldest son,” Mirren explained.
Keira’s eyes darted between Noah and Lowen. “Oh! So you’re …”
“Presumably I’m the brother he forgot to mention,” Lowen said.
The atmosphere was decidedly tense, and Keira had the feeling her choice of clothes might not be the biggest faux pas of the evening.
“No.” She managed to keep her smile fixed. “He definitely said he had three brothers.” Holding out her hand, she counted them off. “One in London. One with the train … and one who …” Oh crap, she had no idea. Noah definitely hadn’t mentioned a third brother.
“Lowen makes pottery,” Seren said, resting a hand on Lowen’s shoulder. “I’m sure Noah told you about that.”
“Yes. He did. He said you make really beautiful stuff.” Surely no one was known for making ugly pottery.
“Actually, I havefourbrothers.” Noah pulled out the chair at the end of the table for her, then gave Kit a look that sent him shuffling onto the next chair, leaving a spot for Noah beside Keira.
“Four?” she asked in surprise. “You didn’t mention a fourth.”
“Jago lives in New York. We don’t see much of him.”
“Jago and Lowen are unusual names,” Keira said, adjusting the slit in her dress to minimise the amount of thigh on display. She switched her attention to Mirren. “Noah said you gave all of your children traditional Cornish names except for him, but he didn’t tell me how he got his name.”
“That’s a funny story,” Mirren said.
Kit leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “Here we go…”
The other faces around the table looked on in gentle amusement.
“My husband wanted all of our children to have traditional Cornish names,” Mirren continued. “He chose Lowen, then Jago and Trystan. I’d always loved the name Noah, but Terry was insistent that he wanted all Cornish names. We bickered about it from the time I found out I was pregnant again. Eventually I agreed to call the baby Kitto, which is the Cornish version of Christopher. We said we’d call him Kit for short.”
“Okay.” Keira glanced at Kit who seemed to be in a permanent state of eye-rolling.
Mirren smiled playfully as she continued the story. “I waited until right after I’d given birth, and with the medical staff in the room, I announced that the baby was called Noah. I told Terry very loudly that since I’d carried the babies and given birth I was at least going to choose the name of one of them, and since that would be our last baby it was my last chance. Terry wasn’t in a great position to argue with me so I got my way.”
Keira chuckled. “I feel as though there must be a bit more to this story.”
“Obviously.” Mirren leaned over and patted Kit’s arm. “It turned out Noah wasn’t our final baby, and Terry got to name one of his boys Kitto after all.”
“Did you have another baby just because of the name?”
“No! Kit was a happy surprise.”
“You realise every time you tell this story it causes me psychological damage,” Kit said, to everyone else’s amusement.
“I never said you were unwanted,” Mirren said, shaking her head. “Unplanned, but very much loved and wanted. Terry liked to claim it was all part of his master plan, but if you’d have seen the look on his face when I told him I was expecting our fifth child, you’d know for a fact that wasn’t true.”
Keira smiled at the story. “I think they’re all lovely names.”
“I should get going,” Lowen said, glancing at the window. “I need to get back before dark.”
“Lowen lives on Bryher,” Mirren explained. “It’s one of the smaller islands so he has to take a boat back.”
“Aren’t you staying to eat?” Noah asked him.
“No. I’ll probably see you at the race tomorrow.”
“Are you racing?” Trystan asked, surprise evident in his voice as he looked at Lowen.
“No, but I’ll watch.”