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“When will you leave?”
“Within the sennight, weather permittin’.”
Blair nodded his assent and thought that to be the end of it, but Aiden did not move to commence the preparations for departure. Instead, he shuffled awkwardly at his laird’s side, a demeanour most unlike that which Blair had come to expect from the hardened Scots warrior.
“Aiden?”
“Your lady looks well, Laird.”
“Aye, that she does.” Blair waited.
“She is close to her time, aye?”
Blair shrugged. “‘Tis a few weeks yet, I gather.”
“She will ha’ need of Betsy?”
“Betsy?” Blair was fast losing the thread of this conversation.
“Aye. She will require Betsy tae attend her at the birthin’ I daresay.”
Now Blair was truly baffled. When did his second-in-command develop such a fascination for the mysteries of childbed? “I suppose so. We have not discussed that an’ I doubt I shall be consulted in any case.”
“Perhaps Elspeth will be sufficient tae see the bairn safe into the world…?”
Blair had heard enough. “God’s holy balls, man, what are you blatherin’ about? Why this sudden concern about midwives?”
His companion bristled, then stiffened beside him. Aiden fixed his chief with a defiant glare. “I had thought to ask Betsy to accompany us—me—to Mortain.”
Blair tunnelled his fingers through his hair. “Has the woman developed some skill with the bow of which I am unaware? Might she fend off an attack from Ingram by brandishing her needle?”
“I wish to wed her. We had thought to remain at Mortain for it is closer to her home, and we could be of use there.”
Blair gaped. “Shit. I didna see that comin’. You… and Betsy?”
“Aye, Laird. Me an’ Betsy.” The man’s expression was bordering on belligerent.
“How long has this been brewing?”
Aiden shrugged. “A tidy while. ‘Tis what we both want an’ I’m hoping ye’ll raise nae objection to the match, Laird.”
“Objection? Why would I object?”
“I am your clansman an’ therefore I require your permission to wed. Betsy too, since she joined our household.”
Blair collected his wits sufficiently to formulate an answer. “Dinna be such a fool, of course I’ll nae stand in your way. I wish ye joy, the pair of ye. But, is she not a wee bit older than ye?”
“Just a couple of years, no more. I am five and thirty, Laird and she not yet forty summers. We are both past the age where we might have expected bairns, and we do not long for such in any case. I believe we shall do well together. We… suit.”
Blair considered that. His dour captain-at-arms was not a man given to effusive sentimentality and he suspected a degree of passion to underlie that innocuous word.Suit indeed.
“My felicitations, Aiden. So you wish Betsy to come with you then, to take up residence at Mortain? Am I to gather the pair of you intend to set up your home there?”
“Aye, Laird. We had thought tae hold the place for ye, until such time as ye may wish to make other arrangements.”
“You would act as my steward?” It was a decent enough plan, Blair thought.
“I would, an’ Betsy could run the household. She and Elspeth, well, ye must ken that they dinna see eye to eye…”
