“What?”
She squatted lower.“A baby is coming out.Catch it.Now!”
He dropped to her feet, rent her shift in two, and caught the squirming, dark-haired being in his trembling hands.“Lore a’mighty.Lore a’mighty.”It was all he could say, awestruck by the slippery, red-faced babe.“Why is he not crying?What is wrong?”
“Is he all right?”Jessa clutched the side of the bed, twisting to see the child.
“Give him to me,” the midwife said, lifting the wee one out of his grasp.The wriggling mite squalled with rage, making the old woman laugh.“Aye, his wee lordship doesna like my cold hands.None of them do.They always cry good for me and clear their bodies of the fluids.”
Jessa groaned and pressed her forehead against the side of the bed.“Grant!Another one’s coming.”
Better prepared this time, Grant deftly caught his second son, laughing when the tiny wriggling beast fussed at him.“Aye, my wee lad.Tell me all about it.”
“Hand this one to me,” Mrs.Robeson said, a linen held between her hands.“I’ll tend to our angry wee laddie whilst ye help our lady into the bed so we can see to her needs and make her more comfortable.”
Bursting with joy, he rose and laid his hands on the beloved woman who had just blessed him with two healthy sons.“Come, m’love.Let me help ye into the bed.Ye’ve battled hard and heavy.Time to rest.”
With her fists knotted in the bedclothes and her face still pressed against the bed’s edge, she shook her head.“No.I don’t think we’re done.Another one’s coming.”
Awestruck, Grant stared at her as she bore down as she’d done twice before, then turned to the midwife for an answer.
The old woman waved away the words and whispered, “’Tis the afterbirth, my laird.They sometimes think it’s another because their body works to push it out.”
“Grant!”Jessa squatted even more, reached down, then steadied herself as she carefully pulled the babe from its birth into her arms.“I knew you were there,” she told the precious child, holding the baby to her chest as she rocked to her haunches and leaned against the bed.She looked up and narrowed her eyes at all in the room.“Never ignore what I say ever again unless you want to be banished.”She focused her anger on Grant.“That especially goes for you.”
“But the goddesses said there were only two.”He cringed at the weakness of his excuse for not listening to her.“I am sorry, Jessa.Never again will I ever take anyone’s word over yers.Please forgive me.”He crouched beside her and risked caressing her cheek.“Please?”
Her glare softened, as did the hard line of her jaw.“Always believe me.Okay?”
“Always,” he promised, then cupped the babe’s tiny head.“I canna believe we have three sons.”
Jessa grinned.“We don’t.We have two sons and a daughter.”
“A wee lassie?”
“A wee lassie to make sure her brothers toe the line.”Jessa reluctantly handed the baby girl off to Molly, then accepted Grant’s hand and allowed him to help her back into the bed.
He noted she didn’t seem at all surprised about their third child.“Ye knew about her.”
As she sagged back into the pillows, she gave him a wan smile.“I had a feeling but didn’t know for sure, and I had no idea whether number three was a boy or a girl.”
He sat on the bed beside her, his heart so full he couldn’t speak.
She arched a brow at him.“What?”
“I canna begin to tell ye how relieved I am that all of ye are well.I am blessed beyond my wildest imaginings.”He smoothed her damp hair back from her face and kissed her.“Thank ye, my own.For staying with me.Loving me.Putting up with me and giving me three braw children.”
She rested a hand on his cheek and gave him a weary smile that made her eyes sparkle.“Thank you for the same.”
“M’lady?”Molly said with understandable wariness.
Jessa looked her way.
“If it be to yer liking for the laird to step out, we’ll be making ye more comfortable so ye can put the wee ones to yer breast.”The maid glanced back at Mrs.Robison, Griselda, and the midwife as if they had chosen her as the unlucky one to speak.“And with three, we’ll need to be sending for a wet nurse, ye ken?To help make sure the wee ones have all the milk they need.”
Grant hoped Jessa would agree to the help of a wet nurse, but he wasn’t about to push her on it.Not after his grave error from earlier.He leaned forward and kissed her again.“Let them care for ye, my love.I’ll be in the solar, telling Henry and Lachie the news.”
“You remember the names we picked for the boys?”
