“Yes, yes,” Mab agreed impatiently, “but first we need an heir for Glengorm. I hope my lady isn’t going to be like her friend the queen. A lad or two, and then there is time for the lasses.”
The raiding party returned by midafternoon of the following day. They had brought back Glengorm’s flock of sheep, and Ben Duff’s dozen head of cattle. They had killed several Grahames, but they had spared the English village hosting the Michaelmas fair, for they had arrived before their livestock was to be sold off. And the villagershad very wisely sided with Ian Douglas and Andrew Grey when they learned from where the cattle and sheep had come.
“Mind you,” Andrew Grey said, “had the creatures already been sold they would have sided with the buyers. But there we were, and they knew they could save themselves if they were quick. The Grahames were very surprised.” He chuckled.
“Were you hurt?” Cicely said anxiously, running her hands over Ian’s arms and shoulders, seeking wounds.
“Hurt?” Ian looked surprised. “Nay, ladyfaire, I wasn’t harmed at all. This was simply a wee raid. There was no danger.”
“No danger?”Cicely looked outraged. “You dare to tell me there was no danger. You ride off with a troop of armed men to accost a group of bandits, and you tell me there was no danger? You send a messenger to say you will be traveling deeper into the English border to retrieve your sheep. Mab tells me you’ll burn the village sheltering the Grahames, and you say there was no danger?”
Andrew Grey’s face, surprised at first, suddenly took on a knowing look.
“You could have been killed!” Cicely shouted, and then she burst into tears, flinging herself against her husband’s broad chest, sobbing piteously.
The laird was astounded. “Ladyfaire, I have been on many such ventures.”
Andrew Grey snickered, close to open laughter.
“What if you had been killed?” Cicely wailed. “Who would take care of us?”
“Ladyfaire, I wasn’t killed or injured, and I am here to take care of you,” the laird comforted his wife. “You have never shown me weakness before. Why are you showing it to me now?” He stroked her hair.
Andrew Grey began to howl with his laughter.
“What the hell is so funny, Ben Duff?” Ian Douglas snarled.
“Don’t you know?” Andrew said, doubled over with laughter.“Cicely, you must tell him,” he said to her. “It is not my place to tell him.”
“Tell me what?” the laird demanded.
“I am going to have a baby!” Cicely sobbed. “And I don’t want its da killed.”
“A bairn? I’m going to be a father?” Ian Douglas’s face lit up with pure joy, and he looked down into her tearstained face. “Ladyfaire, I thank you! And I promise not to get killed, for if I were who would teach my son all he needs to know?”
“It could be a daughter,” Cicely said softly.
“Nay, ’twill be a lad, I’m certain,” the laird of Glengorm answered her, grinning.
“No more raiding,” Cicely told him.
He shook his head. “Nay, I will not promise you that, for if I did not redress any attacks on my lands, my livestock, my people, I would not be a fit laird. And I would be open to attack from all and sundry who believed me a weakling. Raids are a part of life on the border, ladyfaire, but Glengorm has been more fortunate than most. The sheep stolen by the Grahames were still in their summer meadow, which is across the loch. It is the most distant of my lands. There was but a single shepherd and dog, and if he hadn’t jumped into the loch and swum across to sound the alarm we probably wouldn’t have known who took the sheep. I shall keep that meadow better guarded in the future, and I will build a small stone redoubt on the hill above, to be manned so that we will be able to see who is coming from that direction. But I will never permit an outrage against me to go unpunished, ladyfaire. Weakness leads to far worse things than small wounds.”
“Then I will pray the Grahames have learned their lesson, my lord,” Cicely told her husband. “May they keep to their own side of the border.”
“When is the bairn due to be born?” he asked her.
“Late March or early April,” she told him. “ ’Twill be a spring child.”
He put an arm about her, giving her a small hug. “I shall take him raiding with me as soon as our son can sit a horse,” he teased her, and Ben Duff laughed aloud again.
“You will do no such thing!” Cicely said indignantly.
“Ah, Ian, my friend, you are about to see the love of your life change into a mother before your very eyes. It has already begun, as you see, for she is protective of her child against all comers, even its father,” Andrew Grey said. “I can’t wait to tell my Maggie of this happy event.” And on the following morning he departed with his men and his cattle for his home.
Several days later Fergus came to tell his brother that a party of Grahames was on the other side of the loch calling for a parley.
“We’ve got to get that redoubt built before winter,” the laird said. “I don’t like it that the Grahames are suddenly coming and going as they please on my lands.”
