“He’s amazing,” he whispered, then glanced up into Ciara’s watchful gaze. “And so are you.”
Gently disengaging her son from her breast, Ciara placed him into Faolan’s arms. “Keagan MacKay, this is your father.” As she covered Faolan’s hand with her own, she blinked hard against unshed tears. “I know you will love him as much as I do. He is truly an amazing man.”
Leaning forward, Faolan brushed her lips with his, then pressed his forehead to hers. “Thank ye for forcing me to open my heart. Thank ye for everything, Ciara.”
With an exasperated growl, Keagan squirmed in Faolan’s arms, his face flaming red as he sucked his fist. Apparently, he hadn’t been finished at his mother’s breast and was about to make his displeasure known.
As he smiled down into the face of his son, Faolan laughed and stroked one tiny hand with his finger. “So ye’re going to have a temper are ye, my lad? Are ye going to be one to speak your mind?”
“I canna imagine where he would get that trait,” Maxwell snorted from the doorway.
Faolan laughed again as he placed Keagan back in Ciara’s arms and watched the baby latch onto her breast. “I believe he inherited his appetite from Cousin Angus. The lad appears to be starving!”
Ciara smiled, stroking Keagan’s cheek, and cuddling him close with a contented sigh. “He’s braw and bonny. He’s destined to be a courageous fighter and none will stand in his way.” As she ran a light finger from the top of his forehead to the tiny tip of his nose, Ciara dropped her voice to a breathless whisper as a tiny teardrop escaped down her cheek. “And his soul will never go where his mother cannot follow. He will never leave her behind.”
* * *
Sweltering heat radiatedthrough the room. Ciara couldn’t remember when their bedchamber had ever been this warm. Faolan had stoked the hearth until the flames roared into a white-hot inferno. He’d weighted down the tapestries covering the windows against the prying fingers of the biting, cold night wind. Apparently, he’d decided a stifling room might help his overwrought son.
Exhaustion hammered at her weary body as she listened to Keagan’s frantic wails. Poor little lad, she didn’t know which tore at her heart worse, Keagan’s never-ending cries or Faolan’s panic-stricken face.
Keagan was a little over a month old and at the moment, he expressed his extreme displeasure as loud as his lungs could bellow. Ciara drew a shaking hand through her hair; she’d lost track of how many hours remained until sunrise. She’d never dreamed such a tiny creature could raise such a racket for so long.Mercy.She must’ve birthed the first male banshee.
Stripped to the waist, Faolan cradled his son, pacing back and forth across the fur hides scattered over the floor. The babe’s fretful wails echoed off the rafters as Faolan rubbed his tiny back. The child’s little legs alternately tensed and kicked from beneath his swaddled rump. He squirmed and fretted; his rounded belly rumbled.
Ciara knew Keagan screamed with colic and by the increasing volume of his cries so did everyone in the Highlands.
She pulled herself out of the bed and held out her hands. “My turn. Let me walk with him for a while. You’ve jostled him for hours. I thought surely his little belly would’ve calmed down by now. I’m not sure what else to try.”
With a shake of his head, Faolan hesitated handing over his fretting son. He cupped the wailing baby’s head in his hand. The lad screamed as though a knife pierced through his little body. Faolan groaned and stared down into Keagan’s face. “Are ye sure he’s all right? He’s in such pain. Is there no way we can get him any relief?”
Holding out her hands, Ciara nodded. “Your son is just very outspoken.” Ciara remembered all the babies she’d seen down through the centuries while traveling among the mortals of the world. With a weary sigh, she kissed him on the head and cuddled him to her cheek. “He’s got a bellyache. I promise. He’ll be fine. If he wasn’t, we both would know it.”
Finally, a trick came to mind she’d once seen while watching an old wise woman tend to a young woman’s brood. Ciara rubbed her cheek against the velvet of Keagan’s head and hummed a monotonous tune as she paced across the floor. Settling on the pillowed bench beside the hearth, she carefully placed Keagan on his tummy across her knees. She gently jiggled her legs and rubbed his tiny back, smiling as he rewarded her with several popping farts.
Faolan chuckled as he cozied down beside her and hugged his arm about her. With a kiss to her neck, he held her close as she continued rubbing and patting Keagan’s back.
“The poor lad. He’s got a bellyful of gas and can’t seem to pass it. Apparently, he’s not as much like his cousin Angus as I first thought.” Faolan reached out and patted his son’s rump as he settled Ciara deeper into his arms.
His face darkened as he peered into Ciara’s face while she continued rubbing Keagan on the back. “What did ye mean when ye said if something was gravely wrong with the lad, we both would surely know?”
As Ciara lifted her now quieter son up to her shoulder, she rocked to and fro to lull him to sleep. “Faolan, you know the magic that flows through our veins. Those very same energies flow through Keagan’s as well. If Keagan were threatened in any way, I promise you, we would be able to sense it.”
Faolan pulled her back against his bare chest and whispered into her hair. “I swear to ye, Ciara. I swear to ye upon my very soul, I shall always keep both of ye safe until I draw my last breath.”
As Ciara nestled back into his protective embrace, she was thankful Faolan couldn’t see her face. If he could, he would’ve noticed the immediate sorrow clouding her tear-filled eyes. These damn human emotions, so hard to control, especially this fierce love surging through her being. She blinked back the tears and swallowed hard against her choking emotions. She’d be damned if she’d waste an instant of what little time she had with her husband and her son with weeping over what the future might threaten.
* * *
With Keagan contentand asleep in her arms, Ciara wandered up and down the narrow stone path crisscrossing through the gardens. She searched through the blackened branches of the leafless rowan trees and glanced under the bushes sagging low to the frost-covered ground.
Ciara searched everywhere she thought Alec might hide. Where was he? She hadn’t seen him in over two months, not since she’d returned him to his human form. She couldn’t believe he had left her without even the simplest goodbye. Alec had been the closest thing she’d ever had to a friend. How could he just disappear?
She had been more than irritated when he’d ignored her call when she’d given birth to Keagan. Perhaps she’d spent so much time amongst these mortals, she’d become susceptible to their sensitive emotions. He had really hurt her feelings when he had abandoned her without a word. Then she’d been so busy with her new duties as an attentive mother, she’d put her bruised feelings to the back of her mind. Now that she and Keagan had settled into a comfortable routine, she found herself missing her longtime friend.
She wanted him to meet Keagan. Ciara knew he’d love him almost as much as she did. Alec always held a special place in his heart for the innocents born of this world. Ciara wanted Keagan to know Alec as well. The feisty immortal could teach her son so much. Even though they’d been together for centuries, she doubted she even knew all of Alec’s tricks. She missed the sound of his mocking voice. She even missed his snide observations.
Ciara grew tired of wandering up and down the wintry garden and settled upon a bench, the same bench where she’d begged Alec to help her find a way to stay in this satisfying life. He’d told her that day he’d already tried, had already spoken to the goddesses once. His news hadn’t been what she’d wanted to hear. He’d told her they’d refused to allow her to stay.
