“I will not cause myself undo harm.” She kissed him on the cheek and whispered, “I wish to save all my strength for tonight whenweseal our vows.”
He stared after her as she disappeared into the cottage and wished it was night already. He turned to the young man who remained outside as well, though a distance from him. “Your name,” Rhys demanded.
“Gillie, my lord.”
“Gillie, you are going to pass the time with me by helping me decide on a fitting punishment for you, for daring to interrupt me when I was speaking with my wife.”
Gillie lowered his head. “I care not what punishment you serve on me, my lord. I will suffer anything as long as my Jenny and our bairn are well.”
A piercing scream ripped through the air and Gillie winced, suffering along with his wife. And Rhys knew there was no punishment he could serve on the young man as bad as the one he now suffered.
Rhys turned when a few minutes later he heard rushing steps and saw Pitt hurrying toward him.
“There is a problem,” he said.
“Get Henry and bring him here. I will not leave Heather without someone I can trust watching over her.”
Pitt went to do as told and returned in a few moments with Henry in tow.
“Once my wife finishes take her to the keep and wait in the Great Hall with her until my return,” Rhys ordered and as he walked off another piercing scream followed him.
* **
Heather tookaccount of the situation. One thing she had learned about births, after delivering so many bairns, is that all are not alike. Each mother is more comfortable, more likely to birth her bairn with ease, if no complications arise, when left to her instincts than those forced to do as others say.
“I have done it all as I have been told,” Jenny cried, pacing the floor by the bed. “I have squatted, walked, knelt, sat and still the barin refuses to be born. I can do no more.”
Heather turned to the two women who were helping Jenny. “We will need buckets of fresh, heated water.
The two women looked at her oddly wondering over her request, but neither of them asked. They simply went off to do as Heather bid.
Once Heather had the two out of her way, she went to Jenny. “What is it that you would like to do now?”
Jenny stared at her not sure what to say, then said, “I would like to rest, my lady. I am so very tired.”
“Then that is what you shall do,” Heather said and helped her into bed, making her as comfortable as possible and pressing along her stomach as she did.
When the pain came again, Heather talked her through it with a soothing voice. “You are doing wonderful, Jenny, and I am sure the bairn will come soon now, so we must get you ready.”
Jennyagreed with an eager nod and Heather quickly helped her to bring her knees up and push her nightdress back over them to drop on her stomach. She was soon urging Jenny to push, telling her how the bairn was nearly there. With more eager coaxing from Heather, and Jenny anxious to be done with it, the babe came in no time.
“A fine lad,” Heather cried out as the bairn made himself known with his own cries.
The two women were shocked when they returned. The bairn lay wrapped in a blanket in Jenny’s arms while Heather saw to the aftermath of the delivery. Once Jenny was seen to, she saw to cleaning up the bairn and wrapping him in a cleaner blanket that Jenny had recently finished stitching.
Heather turned to the two women who were fawning over the new barin in Jenny’s arms. “If you both would go to the keep’s kitchen and ask for Nessa and tell her that I sent you to collect food for Jenny and her husband, enough for two days, she will see it done.”
The three women looked at her as if they could not quite believe what she said.
Jenny finally spoke up, “My lady, that is far too generous of you.”
“A gift from the Dragon and his wife, and you know you cannot refuse the Dragon.”
The three women simultaneously nodded their heads vigorously.
“I will wait with Jenny until you return,” Heather said. “And please tell my husband I wish to speak with him.”
The one woman stepped forward. “The Dragon left. Henry, Belle’s husband, has been left to wait for you.”
