Page 74 of Highland Prince of Darkness

She thought back to the time when she had gone riding with Iain while he was still angry with her. It had been before the wedding and she remembered how hopeless everything had felt back then. She smiled at the contrast to how hopeful she felt at that moment.

“What is the meaning for this, really?” Iain asked with a confused chuckle as he looked around. May could see that he held his right hand down at his side, it was poised and ready to grab his pistol at a moment’s notice.

“Do ye ken what this place is?”

“It’s the top of the glen,” Iain remarked with a frown.

“But what else? What else happened up here?” May pressed with him. She was trying to hold back her laughter as she watched the confusion grow across his face.

“I’m sorry, but I really dinnae ken,” Iain shook his head.

“Unbelievable, I thought that ye were supposed to be the romantic one,” May teased.

This seemed to jog something in his mind as Iain’s eyes instantly widened and he thought about the memories that they had shared up there.

“This was where I kissed ye for the very first time!”

“Aye, there ye go,” May chuckled.

Iain started to glance around at the space around them as though he could see the memory playing out before his very eyes.

“I remember how nervous I was,” Iain admitted with a light shrug, “I was so sure that I was going to mess things up, but then ye kissed me back and it just felt like my entire world had been turned on its head.”

“In a good way?”

“Aye, of course in a good way,” Iain said while quickly nodding, “Why are we talking about these memories?”

May stood away from him and faced into the wind, allowing it to push her hair back and away from her shoulders. She smiled at the way that it comforted her. One of the ways that she’d been coping was that she imagined her father was a part of the wind; he was all around her and always with her. It was a thought that she brought with her whenever she was having a difficult time getting over the fact that she could no longer talk with him. She hoped that he was with her mother and brother, that they were seeing how well she was finally doing.

“I wanted to bring ye here because I have something to tell ye,” May said, as she slowly started to turn around to face him.

Iain’s frown had only deepened until there was a thick line extending along his brow. May smiled up at him and let her hands roam his chest as his arms moved to be around her.

“What did ye want to tell me?”

May paused for a moment as she smiled up at him and pursed her lips. Since that morning, she had been going over in her head just how she was planning to say it. Yet, as the moment finally arrived, her mind seemed to go blank and she couldn’t think of how to phrase the words.

“We’re going to be having a baby,” she finally settled on saying.

May watched as the worry melted off of Iain’s face and fell through to reveal raw relief. He smiled down at her as his arms around her tightened. One of his hands quickly moved around to cup her belly delicately.

She couldn’t help but laugh at his tender reaction; this was a man who had been known by many villages as the Diabhal, mothers would tell children stories of a man named Diabhal to make sure they weren’t misbehaving. The thought of Iain with a child was still quite difficult to imagine, but May had no doubts in her mind that he would be an excellent father.

“How long have ye ken?” Iain asked as he finally stepped back to look down at her belly properly.

“Nae long, only since this morning,” May explained, “That’s why I had to go to the healer for a while, I told the council that it was because of a headache.”

“I see,” Iain was still smiling as he spoke, “I cannae believe it, we’re going to have a child.”

May was so giddy from the news that she felt as though she had drunk too much ale. However, the only thing she had consumed was pure happiness.

“I ken, we’ve got an exciting journey ahead of us,” May sighed as she leaned against him, burying her face in his chest.

“And I let ye ride all the way out here while ye’re pregnant!” Iain scoffed and shook his head.

“It’s still very early stages, and I’m nae as fragile as ye think,” May mockingly fired back at him.

“Whatever ye say, my lady.”