Highland Seer (34 page)

“Fine. Must I do it now?” He eyed the swell of her breasts under their thin cover.

Ellie bit her lip. “’Twould be best in case there is more to prepare for than we expect. I think it means the MacKyrie now holds all of MacDuff, but I need another’s opinion.”

Donal stood and Ellie admired his casual disregard of his nudity as he carried the document to the glow of the hearth. He frowned as he read it, then stared off into space for a few moments. Finally, running a finger down the page, he read it again. Ellie watched, fascinated, as her new husband considered the import of what it said. Finally he turned to her and grinned.

She grinned back. If he understood it the same way she had, and if Jamie concurred, then MacKyrie was safe from MacDuff retaliation.

“I think ye have the right of it, lass. I want Jamie to study it, too, but if we’re right, MacDuff joined his lands with yers, and since ye’re the surviving signer, ye control all of his interests, too. Won’t his people be surprised when they arrive, to learn they must pay ye fealty?”

“As if we could trust them.”

“Nay, we canna. No’ right away.” He set the document aside and returned to stand by the bed, wrapping his large, strong hand around one post. “But I suspect the MacDuff treated his kin as harshly as he did ye. If that’s true, having ye as laird will be a welcome change.”

Ellie sighed, rolled to her side, and propped her head on her hand, a frown creasing her forehead. “They’ll keep us busy.”

“Aye, but some of them may be willing additions to the fighting force ye...we need. That will take some of the pressure off of yer...our lads and buy us time to strengthen MacKyrie defenses.” Donal rapped his knuckles on the bedpost. “One thing bothers me. Why did he sign a document that left his holdings to ye instead of his MacDuff heir?”

“After all the wives he’s gone through, I’m certain he never planned for me to outlive him. He wouldha seen to my demise when he tired of me.”

Ellie slid off the bed and padded to him, then wrapped her arms around her new husband’s waist and rested her cheek on his strongly muscled back. “This is no’ the time to be thinking of him.” She slid her hands down his belly. “Come back to bed. Ye can talk to Jamie later. Besides, I’ve yet to give ye yer wedding present.”

Donal grinned and turned in her arms to face her, already fully aroused. “That sounds like a good idea, wife. But wedding present? Ye are the only present I need or want.”

“My, my, it didn’t take ye long to change yer thinking from making war to making love.”

“Yer touch is all it takes, love. Ye’ve had me wild for ye since I first laid eyes on ye in the great hall, playing yer silly game with Micheil, letting us think he was the laird.”

“Sorry.” Ellie looked anything but contrite. “That wasna planned. Neither of us could believe Fergus or one of the lads hadn’t mentioned anything about the clan’s laird.”

“They hadna.”

“Then they were playing with ye, too, wanting to see yer reaction.”

“I recall being somewhat displeased.”

“That a woman was laird? Or a Seer?”

“That ye hid it from us.”

“Well, as ye can see, I’m no longer hiding anything from ye.”

“Aye, things have improved a great deal around here.”

“Yer wedding present is the secret to the MacKyrie whisky.”

Donal frowned. “Are ye sure we wish to share that?”

“Ye’ve noticed it’s smoother and stronger than most, aye? The reason is, we triple distill it and then age it in French brandy casks we trade for in Edinburgh every year. And now ye ken the secret.”

“The only secret I want is the one in ye.”

Ellie laughed and jumped back into bed. “There’s no man alive who kens that, save ye. Come love me, husband.”

****

Donal paced the great hall, back and forth in front of the fire. His friends, Toran Lathan, the clan Lathan laird, and Jamie Lathan, sat sipping MacKyrie whisky, watching him wear a track in the stone floor.

“She’ll be fine,” Toran told him. “Aileana is with her. Ye ken she willna allow anythin’ to go wrong.”

“I ken that, I do. Aileana’s Talent is sure to keep them well. But I’m anxious nonetheless. Would ye have me work it off pacing or knocking ye to yer arse on the practice field with the flat of my blade? Yer choice. Ellie is my wife and she’s a wee older than most to be delivering her first...our first child. What if something does go wrong?”

“Then Aileana will mend it,” Jamie told him. “Like she did for me. I was nearly dead. She healed my wounds and...”

“Dead?” Toran interrupted. “Is that a word ye want to use around an anxious expectant father? Some negotiator ye turned out to be.”

Jamie settled back into his seat and pursed his lips. “Perhaps not the best choice...”

A scream, quickly cut off, shattered the stillness and brought Donal’s pacing to a halt. “Be still, both of ye,” Donal warned them, waving them to silence. A moment later, the lusty cry of an infant echoed down the stairs and into the hall. Donal took off at a run.

He burst into the lying-in room in time to see Aileana, Toran’s Lowlander wife, a healer with extraordinary talents, pass her hands over Ellie’s sweat-soaked form. Bloody linens littered the floor around the bed where Ellie lay. Off to the side, a maid dabbed at a streaked and mewling infant with a damp cloth. Donal took all of that in in a rush, then moved to Ellie’s side.

She gave him a tired smile. “We did it. MacKyrie has a son and heir.”

Donal grasped her hand, earning an annoyed glance from Aileana who finished monitoring Ellie, then moved away to check over the now-clean infant and bring him to them.

“Here’s your son, Donal. Fitting that he already has your frown,” she added as the baby screwed up his face and began to wail. Donal took the infant from her. So small, yet he cried so fiercely! Donal’s heart swelled in his chest, full enough to burst.

“I canna believe this is happening,” Donal murmured. “A son. I never expected...”

“Aye,” Aileana said. “Toran had the same stunned look on his face when he first saw our triplets. Now give your bairn to Ellie so she can feed him. That’ll keep him quiet for a while.”

Donal gave their child to Ellie along with a kiss. “Ye did well, lass. He’s a strong lad and a fitting heir.”

“Good,” Ellie said as she held the infant to her breast. “As soon as Aileana lets me, we’ll start to work on another.”

That brought a cackle from the other side of the room.

Donal chuckled, then took a damp rag from Aileana and smoothed away the sweat from Ellie’s face and neck. Ellie yawned. He picked up her hand and kissed her fingers, then leaned over to kiss the back of his suckling son’s head.. “Rest then, wife. I’ll let ye both sleep and go spread the news. Ye did well today.”

“Wait...what shall we name him?”

“What would ye like to name him?”

Ellie shrugged one shoulder. “I dinna ken. We could name him after Jamie, since he brought ye to me.”

“I’ve a better idea. Name him after Micheil. He’s been a loyal and truthful friend all yer life. He’ll be a fitting godfather to our son.”

Ellie’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Brilliant, my love. Ye’ve been around Jamie enough to have learned some of his diplomacy, I think.”

Aileana snorted. “That’s not possible.”

“I thought ye were done,” Donal told her. “Why are ye still here?”

“I’m cleaning up after you, as usual,” she responded tartly, flipping her long braid over her shoulder. “But I’m going. I’m going.”

With that, she left them alone with their new son.

“I love ye, Donal.” Ellie reached for Donal’s hand.

He dropped a kiss on her fingers. “And I ye, and our son, Micheil. I canna believe I’m here with ye both. I never saw my life going this way.”

“Then ’tis a good thing my Sight came true for ye...from my dream.”

“Ye say I came to ye in a dream, yet ye made my life greater than anything I could have dared to dream.”

“We do need a daughter to carry the Sight, ye ken. That gift has never run in the males of the line.”

“I’ll look forward to it. But no’ yet. Ye need to rest, lass.”

Ellie smiled sleepily, her eyes drooping. “Stay with us, Donal. I couldna bear to see ye leave me again.”

“I’ll never leave ye, lass. What makes ye think I could?”

“I dinna ken. Perhaps it was a dream.”

“Then it was only a dream. Not a Seeing. I’m here to stay, Laird MacKyrie. Shall I kneel and swear fealty to ye to prove it?”

“What? Nay.” That roused Ellie enough to shift the baby, protesting, to her other breast. “Ye proved that long since. Dinna fash, husband. My mind is wandering. I just had a baby, ye ken.”

Donal smiled, then beamed as Ellie’s face lit up. His heart lifted at all the thought of all the gifts she had given him. Her love and respect, a home where he truly belonged, and now a son. “Aye, wife, I ken it.”

“Ye smile so rarely. ’Tis good to see.”

“Ye have given me many reasons to smile—both ye and now our son. Ye are my home, my love. I’m here to stay, no matter what comes.”

A word about the author...

Willa Blair is the best-selling and award-winning author of Highland Healer, her debut novel, the first in a series set in the sixteenth century Highlands, when the old ways, and old talents, still shaped events. She always wished she had several psi talents, such as reading her husband’s mind, cleaning house by simply thinking about it, and flying. But alas, no. So she endows her characters with special talents and lives vicariously through them. She loves reading and writing romance novels set in the past, present, and future.

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