Chapter 26
Padraig was furious. He looked at Duncan and Myrna’s gloating faces, then at the stairs Cairren had just disappeared up.
He hadn’t believed Myrna’s story until she cried and kept apologizing for having to tell him what she’d seen.
It was the worst feeling of betrayal and loss he’d ever experienced.
Myrna said she’d seen Cairren and Henry slinking out of the postern gate.
He’d tried to argue that he was her guard and that he was aware she went for walks.
But Myrna argued she’d seen Cairren carrying a picnic basket, and the couple kept looking around to see if anyone watched them.
When Cairren entered the Great Hall with a basket over her arm, he thought his world would crumble around his ears.
Now that Cairren was home and accused him of the wrongdoing, he was seething.
He swore to himself that he would wait until he was calmer before he approached his wife, but he would not tolerate her infidelity.
He’d remained faithful despite living under the same roof as the woman he loved.
That notion gave him pause. He looked over at Myrna, and he found the intense feeling of longer and companionship that used to fill him whenever he laid eyes on her was no longer there.
He looked back at the stairs and felt that same feeling but to a far greater degree when he pictured Cairren in their chamber.
“Padraig! Padraig!”
Padraig turned toward Matthew, who ran into the Great Hall, his eyes wild. He’d never seen the man so distraught. He called out, “Aye.”
“We need Lady Cairren to come back right away. It’s the bairn.”
“Come back? What bairn?”
“She delivered ma son today, but now he isnae breathing right. We need Lady Cairren to help him.”
Padraig’s heart stalled. A bairn? Cairren spent the day with Catriona?
But Myrna said… Padraig turned toward Myrna, who refused to meet his gaze.
He took off toward the stairs, taking them three at a time.
When he reached the first landing, he knew not to try his chamber.
Cairren wouldn’t have gone there. What have I done?
I dinna think I even love Myrna anymore, and yet I believed her without question.
I did exactly what Cairren always expects.
I abandoned her. Padraig reached Cairren’s door and pounded.
“Cairren, open the door. It’s Matthew’s bairn. Something’s wrong. They need you,” he panted at the end.
Cairren listened to Padraig and dropped the quill.
She hadn’t begun writing her letter, still unsure what to say.
She was numb from what Padraig accused her of, and her brain felt like it was in a bog until he pounded on her door.
She rose and looked at the two plaids on her old bed.
She grabbed the Kennedy plaid before opening the door.
She pushed past Padraig without a word and dashed down the stairs.
She spotted Matthew but didn’t slow to ask him what happened.
She raced through the Great Hall and out through the bailey.
“Open the gate,” she called as she ran toward the postern hatch.
She passed through, hearing Matthew and Padraig only footsteps behind her.
She didn’t stop running until she reached Matthew and Catriona’s croft.
She burst inside and stumbled to a stop.
The sound of the newborn gasping was weak, but the only noise in the home. “I need boiling water and a sheet now.”
Cairren dropped her plaid from her shoulders and ran to Catriona and the bairn.
She took the baby boy from Catriona, who cried silent sobs.
Cairren cradled the infant in her arms and raised him near her ear, so she could listen to his wheezing breath.
She crooned to him as she kept checking on the bucket hanging over the fire.
“What happened?” She asked the room, not taking her eyes off the baby as his face grew a deeper shade of purple, and his breaths drew further apart.
“We dinna ken. One minute he was sleeping in ma arms,” Elspeth explained. “The next he was gagging and coughing. It was only another moment before he was gasping. Matthew went for ye straight away.”
“You did the right thing.” Cairren forced a smile for the terrified parents, but she wasn’t feeling at all confident.
When the water hissed, she asked for the bucket to be placed on the floor.
She sat down with a leg on each side and told Elspeth to cover her, the baby, and the bucket with the sheet.
It was only seconds before she was dripping with sweat, but she knew the baby needed the steam to loosen whatever was in his lungs.
She remained under the sheet, singing a French lullaby to the babe until his breathing deepened and the wheezing ceased.
She ripped the sheet from over them and struggled to her feet.
Padraig helped her, but had she not had the baby in her arms, she would have pulled away. “Open the shutters.”
Cairren stood before the open window as the cool night breeze streamed in.
She held the infant away from her, so he could inhale a few lungfuls of crisp late autumn air.
Then she turned him over on his belly, supporting his body and head with her forearm and hand before she thumped his back.
The newborn coughed and spluttered, but this time clear fluid spewed forth with flecks of something dark.
Cairren recognized it and knew the newborn would likely survive.
She repeated the process of holding him before the window, then striking his back until she was confident there was nothing left in the tiny lungs.
She swaddled the infant and carried him back to Catriona.
“Let him suckle, but be careful that he doesn’t guzzle too much. Stop to burp him frequently.”
Catriona nodded, her tear-stained face showing her appreciation when she was too emotional to speak.
Cairren gave her a gentle hug before nodding to Elspeth and Matthew.
She picked up her Kennedy plaid from where someone hung it on the back of the chair and walked to the door where she looked back but mother, father, and grandmother were cooing over the infant.
She walked out of the croft without sparing Padraig a glance.
She’d been aware of his presence the entire time, but she’d been too focused on the baby to care what he did or where he went.
Now he walked in silence by her side. Before they reached the keep, Cairren stopped and turned to him.
“You promised days ago that she would leave. She’s still here.
You’ve made and broken that promise more than once already.
You believed her and accused me. You were so certain I would betray you, but I have done naught to ever make you doubt my honor.
I am so hurt by you right now that I don’t know if I’ll ever get past this.
I can’t keep doing this, Padraig. I can’t share your bed every night only to have you turn on me when a woman who can’t even be faithful to you claims I’m the harlot.
” Cairren snapped her mouth shut. She hadn’t intended to say anything about Myrna, but it slid out.
She was too overwrought to think straight.
“What did you say?” Padraig glowered at her. “Now who’s lobbing accusations to be spiteful?”
“They’re not accusations when they’re true. But honestly, Padraig, believe me or don’t, I simply don’t care to try anymore.”
“You’re exhausted and don’t know what you’re saying. A bath and a good night’s sleep, and you will feel much improved.”
“I don’t doubt that I will, but I am still through with you.
I’m your wife, so I have no choice but to accept your choices, but I want you to stay away from me.
” Cairren didn’t wait for Padraig to respond before she made her way up the stairs to the keep then to her chamber, where she fell on the bed without undressing or even taking off her boots.
She slept through the night and most of the next day.
Padraig entered the Great Hall, but neither Duncan nor Myrna were in sight. His parents sat at the dais, the evening meal finished. He was in no mood to talk to either of his parents and tried to make his way stealthily to the stairs, but he wasn’t to be so fortunate.
“We hear your little bride has disgraced you yet again. Which guard was it? Henry?”
“My wife made me exceptionally proud today. She saved a mother and bairn’s life. Saved the bairn twice, actually.” Padraig stood tall and made sure his voice carried.
“That’s not what we heard,” Mary sniffed.
“And who did you hear it from? Myrna? I was just with Cairren at Catriona and Matthew’s croft.
I watched with my own eyes as Cairren saved that bairn when it was barely breathing.
Matthew told me what she did earlier today to save Catriona.
She wasn’t with Henry. She ordered him to ride out and get Matthew because she feared he wouldn’t see his wife before she died.
I can easily imagine why Myrna said what she did, and I ken why you believed her.
I’m tired of it. I will take my wife and leave Foulis if this continues.
I will not continue to subject her to this hatred. ”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Micheil bellowed as he slammed his hand on the table.
“Wouldn’t I, Father? Cairren is the oldest child with no brothers. I would be within my rights to seek the lairdship after Innes passes. I could take her home and serve as his tánaiste until the time comes.”
“You would choose that—that—ugh—over us?” Mary spluttered.
“Yes.” Padraig realized he was telling the truth.
He ignored his parents and went upstairs.
He looked down the passageway to his door but couldn’t bring himself to enter it alone.
He made his way to Cairren’s chamber and knocked softly.
When she didn’t answer, he opened the door a crack.
He could see she was already fast asleep, so he slipped into the chamber.
He eased her boots off and covered her with her Kennedy plaid.
It hadn’t escaped his attention that she’d arrived back to the Great Hall in her Munro plaid before they argued, then chosen her Kennedy plaid before running to tend the infant.
He stepped away from the bed but wasn’t ready to leave, so he moved to the chair beside the table.
In the dim light from the banked fire, he noticed writing utensils and parchment laid out.
He could see the parchment was blank, and he wondered who Cairren intended to write to.
He wondered if it was her parents. He wondered if he would have the Kennedys returning to lob off his head.
He turned back to watch Cairren sleep before he dozed off, too.