Epilogue #2
“I’m so glad to hear ye say that,” Fiona told her as Mary led them to a guest chamber and opened the door.
“I’ll have someone bring up yer things. Supper will be in an hour. Ye can relax until then.”
Supper turned into a whirlwind of greetings, laughter, and to Erik’s relief, good food.
Fiona looked happy for the first time in days.
He might be putting too much pressure on her, but much of it she put on herself, trying to take some of his burden from him.
They would have to come up with a better arrangement when they got back to Ross.
Finally, they returned to their chamber for the night.
Someone had unpacked their bags for them and laid out Fiona’s night rail.
A platter of fruit and cheese sat on a side table with a pitcher of something to drink and small cups.
A cheerful fire burned in the hearth and buckets of water stood warming by the hearth for them to use to refresh themselves, folded towels and extra sheeting lay piled on a chest under the window.
“Everything we need, aye?” Erik said. “I believe we have a soft mattress available. And solid ground beneath it.”
“All I need now is ye,” Fiona told him, coming in to his arms.
As Mary had expected, her father and a few other men took Erik hunting the next morning.
Fiona was glad. She would not have to explain to him why she spent so much time with the healer, though she could have passed it off as time spent chatting with her and Lia.
She swore Mary to secrecy before asking to see them.
Mary had answered with a laugh. “I kenned that must be the reason for yer visit, despite what ye told yer husband. Ye have that look about ye.”
“Look? What look?”
“Hopeful, happy, like something good could be happening, but also like ye are up to something.”
Nothing that would make Erik suspect, Fiona hoped.
The healer asked her questions, and most she was able to answer.
After a quick examination, the healer patted her shoulder, making Fiona fear the worst.
“Ye are carrying a bairn, Fiona.”
Not until Lia, working across the herbal with her back to them, turned and squealed did Fiona understand what the healer said, rather than what she feared she was about to say.
“I’m so happy for ye!” Lia announced. “And Laird Ross will be thrilled.”
Fiona smiled, certain that he would, and turned back to the healer. “When will this wee one arrive?”
She cocked her head as if thinking—or counting. “In late summer, or early fall, I think. ’Tis hard to be precise. Have ye been ill or tired?”
“Aye, tired, but we’re working so for the clan, I thought that was the reason.”
“Ye must find a way to rest. To share yer burdens. Ye will learn ye canna be Lady Ross for as many hours of the day as ye have been, especially after this wee one arrives.”
“We will figure something out,” Fiona promised with a smile.
After knocking on the door, Mary came in. “Ye are smiling. Good news?”
“The best,” Fiona told her. “Erik will be so pleased, as am I.”
Mary gave her a hug. “I’m so happy for ye. But we will keep quiet about this until ye have a chance to tell him, aye?” Her gaze traveled over the healer and Lia. “Later today, after the hunters get back,” she suggested to Fiona. “Ye dinna want the secret to get out before ye see him.”
After a successful hunt, Erik was tired but pleased.
The buck he got would feed Rose tonight, along with smaller game their escorts provided.
James Rose didn’t seem disappointed not to have been the one to get a buck, but perhaps he was simply being a good host. And that was a pleasant change from the way Erik left Rose the first time last autumn—disgraced, without Fiona, and without their wedding night—when a drunken brawl among Rose’s men and his made them unwelcome.
After delivering their bounty to the Rose cook, the hunters went their separate ways to clean up.
He headed up to the chamber he and Fiona shared, expecting that she might be busy elsewhere, so he was happy to find her reading, and with a large tub and buckets of water heating by the fire.
“Hello, love. Ye made ready for me, I see,” he said by way of greeting.
She set aside her book and stood. “Ye were successful?”
“Rose will dine on venison this evening, unless Cook chooses to serve it tomorrow. Aye, we were successful.”
“Let me help ye then,” she said. “Ye’ve blood on yer clothes.”
“Dinna come too close or ye’ll have it on yers.” He poured several buckets of water into the tub, then stripped, tossed his clothes out into the hall for the maid to take to wash, climbed in, and leaned back. “’Twas a good day,” he said, eyes closing as Fiona poured more warm water over him.
She soaped a cloth and helped him wash as he told her about the hunt. Finally, he ran down and asked her what she’d done while he was out.
“Stand and let me rinse ye,” she said. “I want ye on yer feet and awake, not dozing in the tub. I have news ye’ll want to hear.”
“What news?”
She gave him a sheet to dry off with, then a clean léine. “Patience, love.”
“Aye?” He pulled her to him. “Now that I’m clean, I want a kiss from my bonnie wife.”
“And ye shall have one, after I tell ye my news.”
“Is it so important?”
“Perhaps as important as the next Ross laird,” she said, smiling, and placed his hand on her rounding belly.
“A bairn?” Erik’s eyes widened.
“Aye. In late summer or early fall, we will have a bairn. And perhaps ye will have an heir.”
“Fiona!” He dipped his head then and kissed her, not once, but over and over, until she could barely breathe and ducked her head, laughing.
“Are ye glad, then, Husband?”
“Am I gl…aye!”
She lifted her head from his chest, her expression smug.
“Ye planned this,” he said, as what she’d really done in convincing him they needed some time at Rose hit him. “To come here—”
She nodded. “So I could visit the healer, aye.”
He wrapped his arms around her even more tightly. “My clever wife. I hope our bairn is as smart as ye.”
Her hands framed his face, warm and soft against his cheeks. “And as handsome as ye, my love. But what if she’s a lass?”
“If she’s as lovely as her mother, I’ll have to lock her in her chamber until she’s old and gray.”
“But a lad?”
“’Tis different.”
She tilted her head, her gaze going distant as she thought. “I hope he’s as strong, and honorable, and fair as ye are.” Her focus shifted back to him and she grinned. “And he has yer blue eyes. The lasses willna be able to resist him.”
“Nor will his mother, I fear. He’ll be spoiled every day of his life.”
“As ye are?” She slipped her hands behind his neck and hugged him to her.
“Now that ye mention it, I am lacking some spoiling.”
“Ye are?”
“Aye, I dinna have my beautiful wife in my bed.”
“’Tis easily done, my love.”
After loving well and long, lying in each other's arms, unwilling to let the moment go, Fiona said, “Think how happy everyone at Ross will be. And proud. Ye have achieved so much for the clan. ’Tis no’ at all as it was when ye became laird. And now this.”
“With all the work we’ve done, all we’ve built, ye are giving me the most wonderful thing of all,” he told her, his heart full of joy. “’Tis right here,” he said, and touched her rounding belly. “We will be a family, Fiona. How did I get so lucky?”
“How did I? I loved living at Rose and in Inverness, but I’m grateful my future is with ye and the people of our small part of Ross.
And soon with yer bairn.” She shifted to drape an arm across his chest, hand over his heart.
“Do ye really think ye were simply lucky to see a lass at a market? Or did ye make yer own luck by deciding I was going to be yers?”
“How could I no’? From the moment I saw ye, ye were everything I wanted.”
“No’ every man would come for me, given all the events and people in the way. I’m glad ye did. I’d say ’twas a good decision—for all of us,” she added as she cradled her lower belly.
He turned to her, pulling her against his body, needing her closer. “My wise wife,” he murmured. “I love ye, and I am proud to be the man ye chose, as well.”
“Saying aye to ye is the best decision I ever made,” she told him, the love for him in her gaze unmistakable. “We have much to look forward to, and much still to do, but we have proven we can handle all of it as long as we’re together.”