This they brought to each other.
“Ye could no’ stay wi’ me,” she said with a smile, “and so I came to ye.”
He awoke with a start because Rhian had jerked violently within the circle of his arm. She came awake with a gasp. For an instant he thought she would push away from him, for she planted her palm on his bare chest. She curled her fingers into the hair there and drew him closer instead.
“Do no’ leave me.”
Leith did not know what to say to that. He could not promise. He might be sent away.
He did not want ever to lie to this woman.
In the past, aye, he’d spun lies. Pretty ones.Ye be the bonniest lass I ha’ ever seen. That was the best tumble I ha’ had from anyone.For the most part, the women knew they were lies and were charmed by them, as intended.
Rhian, though, demanded truth from him by her very being.
“My love,” he murmured instead, and they clung to one another for several moments while his heartbeat accelerated once more.
She murmured at him also, saying it plainly into the dark air of the chamber: “Leith, I am carrying your child.”
“Eh?” He must have heard her wrong.
She reached a gentle hand to touch his face. “I am carrying your child, and ’tis a son.”
Chapter Forty-Two
“How d’ye kenthis?” Leith sounded thunderstruck, and who could blame him? Rhian, lying upon his chest, could feel the thundering of his heart and a wealth of emotions uprising. “How could ye ken?”
“That, I canna tell ye. I just know.”
Were any of the emotions she sensed rushing through him dismay and regret? Because even if he believed her—and why should he?—he might not wish to sire a child that would be brought up here at MacBeith and become a pawn in a generational battle.
She believed he loved her, aye. That truth lay between them. She did not want him ever to regret the begetting of this child.
He raised his good hand and stroked his fingers through her tumbled hair, brushing it gently back from her cheek.
“Is it magic, Rhian, that ye can tell this thing?”
“I do no’ ken. Mayhap so.”
“Is it true, and no’ just fancy?”
“No’ just fancy.” She slid her hand between their bodies and touched her belly. “I can feel him. Here.”
He went silent, a rarity for this man. His next words would reveal what he thought, whether he believed her and whether he trusted her.
“I am to ha’ a son.”
Rhian’s whole body melted at the wonder in his voice. At the pride.
“Ye are, so,” she told him softly. “And he will be half MacBeith.”
“Half of ye.” He stroked her hair again. “Rhian, I ask again, how can ye know this?”
“I just felt him. Felt him there. He must ha’ been conceived last night.”
Leith nodded. “Aye. And he be hale and hearty? Can ye tell that also?”
“I believe so. Ye—ye are no’ sorry, Leith?”
