Tears slipped down her cheeks as she struggled to her feet and stumbled her way around to her side of the truck.
“Rachel?”
“Leave me alone and get in the truck.”
He scrambled to his feet and went to her, but when he tried to help, she slapped his hands away. Her behavior shocked him. Earlier today, she’d been fine and seemed happy and excited about all their plans. “Rachel, love! Tell me what’s wrong. Ye’re scaring the living shite out of me.”
“Damn it! I’m pregnant!” she shouted. “Now, will you just leave me alone? Once again, I have screwed up. Literally this time.” She climbed into the truck, planted herself in the seat, and folded her arms across her chest. Huge silent tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared straight ahead.
Pregnant.Caelan wanted to roar with joy but clenched his teeth instead. In her current mood, he didn’t think she would appreciate such a reaction. But a wee bairn of their own. His heart threatened to explode with happiness. Fighting for a calmness he didn’t feel, he started the engine, turned the truck around, and drove the ten-minute drive straight home. Once parked in the driveway, he got out on his side, walked around to Rachel’s, opened the door, and stood there, waiting.
Still staring straight ahead, she hiked her chin higher. “What?” she asked without looking at him.
“I am waiting.” He kept one hand on the open door, and the other on the side of the truck, effectively hemming her in.
“For what?” she growled, crossing her legs and wriggling in the seat as though she was about to wet herself.
Now, he understood her new habit of needing to relieve herself so often. And her appetite. It all made sense. But he didn’t say so. If he did, she would kill him. Instead, he said, “I am waiting to hold the woman I love and thank her for giving me a child.”
She burst into tears anew, yowling like a wounded animal. “You’re going to thinkthank her.I’m giving you three boys all at once. We’re having triplets.” She covered her face with her hands and sobbed.
“Three? Threesons? Are ye certain?” Caelan slapped his forehead and stumbled back against the truck. “Blessed Goddess, holy Fates!”
She keened with another high-pitched, heartbreaking sob that made both dogs howl.
“What in the name of all that is sacred is all this infernal caterwauling?” Emrys called out as he emerged from the house. The screen door banged shut behind him. He picked up speed, shuffled over to Caelan, and poked him in the chest while bobbing his snowy white head. “I ken what this is about now. What did ye say to her? Ye should be proud, ye fool! Three sons! The woman is going to bear ye three sons, and ye’ve reduced her to sobbing. Ye should treat her like the queen that she is, and yet, ye stand there as though ye’ve lost every bit of wit and wisdom ye ever hoped to have.”
He shoved around Caelan and gently urged Rachel from the truck. “There, there now lass. All will be well. Come inside and lie down for a wee rest. I promise ye, all will be well.” As he led her toward the house, Emrys glared back at Caelan and mouthed the words for him to stay put.
“Stay put, my arse,” Caelan groaned while scrubbing his face with both hands. How could he stay put when he had as much condemned the woman he loved with all his heart and soul tocertain death? He wanted to howl along with the dogs, keening his sorrow and pain across the centuries.
After several long moments later, Emrys ambled out through the screen door, letting it slam again. “Would ye care to tell me what the devil has gotten into ye? We find the woman of your soul. We travel across time so ye can win her. Ye woo her, win her over, wed in the old way, and she opens her womb to ye. And now here ye stand there looking like ye’ve had your entire world taken away.” The old druid grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to shake him but failed.
Caught up in his anguish and unable to believe the cruelty of it all, Caelan stared down at the old druid as though suddenly realizing he was there. He leveled a pained glance on the house, then tipped his head toward the cab of the truck. “Copies of today’s paperwork are in a folder on the seat. It will all have to be redone.”
Emrys gave him a bewildered look. “Why?”
“Because we are going back to Scotland without Rachel. We must work out the financial details, so she and the bairns have the land and all the money they need. I’ll not have them wanting for anything, ye ken?” Caelan struggled not to break down and weep for the first time in his life.
“But ye said ye could nay live without the lass. That ye needed her to complete ye.” Emrys allowed his voice to trail off, giving up on further argument.
“It is because I love her that I do this,” Caelan said, his voice breaking. “I refuse to bring her back to our time to watch her die trying to bring my sons into this world. How many women of our time die when they try to bring forth a single bairn? If she carried a single precious wee son—I still would have feared for her, but I would have hoped in the promise of our joy. But three? In our time? Ye ken as well as I what her chances are.”
He turned away from the seer, sagged across the hood of the truck, and held his head in his hands. He had to keep Rachel and the bairns safe. No matter the cost.
“Ye’re not even going to tell her or give her the choice to have the babies here or try to have them in Scotland with ye?”
Caelan didn’t bother lifting his head. “No. She must think she’s going with us until the last possible minute. I dinna wish for her to suffer any more unhappiness than necessary. She’ll suffer enough once we’re gone. I am counting on ye, Emrys. Ye have to help me make her think she’s coming with us. Can ye do that?” He turned his head and leveled a hard glare on the druid, silently demanding his oath.
“Aye, my laird. It will be done.” Emrys turned to go, then paused before he entered the woods. “And when we’ve returned, I will be sure the Mirrors of Time watch over her and the wee ones so ye can see them as they grow.”
Caelan nodded his thanks, not trusting himself to speak. He walked to the house, stepped up on the porch, and quietly let himself inside. He made his way to the bedroom door and fought back tears. Rachel was asleep, curled up into a ball with the pillow clutched to her chest. He eased into the bed behind her, wrapped her in his arms, and buried his face in her hair.
Rachel stirredin Caelan’s arms, shifting him to immediate wakefulness. She moved slowly, easing her way to the edge of the bed as though trying to escape without his knowing.
“Where are ye going, my love?” he asked in a husky whisper as he pulled her back against him and buried his face in the softness of her hair. He breathed her in, imprinting her sweetscent of warmed vanilla to memory, so when he left, he could bring it back to mind and remember the comfort of holding her.
“I was going for a walk,” she said. Nervousness and despair echoed in her tone. “I need some air and time to think…time to figure out what to do.” She gently pulled away from him again without a glance back. It was almost as though she couldn’t bear to meet his gaze.
