“I dinna want Momma to die.” Finn wailed, clasping himself to Lachlann’s leg.
“I will do my best,” Ethne promised and hoped she would not be sorry to have said it.
Lowering her to the ground, she bent the woman’s knees and lifted her skirt. The head was now visible. She sighed in relief.
“Yer child wishes to be born.”
The tight grasp of the woman’s hand on her wrist startled Ethne. Nearly as much as Domelch’s next words. “Do not let the baby die.”
“I will not! Glad I am that ye can hear me.” With the lightest touch, Ethne searched the curves along the baby’s face for anything gone awry. All was as it should be. “I need yer help. Can ye push?”
“I’vebeenpushing. All for naught.”
She rubbed Domelch’s leg in a comforting way. “But I am here now. I will help ye.”
The contraction was powerful enough that she feared for the babe. If the cord had wrapped around the little neck, it would never survive. Domelch stopped responding, but there was definitely a sudden bearing down from her.
With a firm hand, Ethne turned the tiny shoulders and gave the slightest encouragement to clear the tight grasp of Domelch’s body. The child slithered into her hands. A girl. She quickly wiped its face, holding its body against her and near to her mouth. There was no breath. Silent tears slid down Ethne’s cheeks.
“Come now, little one. Let me hear ye sing.” She tapped a cheek. Then her back. And finally, her chest. “Sing yer beautiful song for me, lass.”
Nothing. Ethne repeated the process, each time with a firmer hand. The little face puckered so slightly she couldn’t be certain she hadn’t imagined it, but kept her eyes on the delicate features. Then the child’s expression crumbled, and she let forth a loud, strong wail.
“Thank, God!” Ethne held the tiny body against her own for added warmth.
Lachlann was there beside her, followed by Finn. The boy’s wide grin when he looked at his little sister made Ethne’s tears drop even faster.
Finn wrinkled his nose. “She’s loud.”
“A good thing,” Lachlann said, accepting the little bundle without hesitation so that Ethne could see to Domelch.
The rest of the ordeal went without any problem, and Domelch soon stirred, accepting the water Finn had run to get for her.
“Does the child live?” Domelch clutched at Ethne, her eyes wide with sudden concern. Ethne might have been wrong about Domelch’s desire for this child. But when the little girl let loose a wail, the woman rolled her eyes and Ethne knew she had not.
“The babe is hungry.” Lachlann placed the babe in Ethne’s arms, a gentle smile on his face.
The flash of what this moment could mean if it weretheirchild—Ethne’s and Lachlann’s—flooded her mind. Her heart clenched with a deep need, but quickly shifted to pain. She was overwhelmed with sadness. Such a thing could never be. But if it could, he would be the man she’d want it with.
She cleared her throat and simply smiled her thanks, too overwhelmed for words.
He returned to Finn, who had lost any interest in the goings-on. Now that he was a hero and had done well finding his mother and she would be fine, he wanted to get back to the game Lachlann had promised him.
Once Domelch was settled back in the cave, the child fed and resting in her arms, Lachlann refused to get back in his bed, but allowed Ethne to check that the wound did not bleed. He then proceeded to see to her instead, getting her some warmed mead and a blanket. The air in the cave had turned chilly as soon as the fire went out in their absence.
“I wonder where she was going along that path.” Lachlann settled across from her, sipping his own mead.
Ethne considered whether she should share what she knew. The urge to do so was strong. With a start, she realized how much she trusted Lachlann and his judgement. Not a good thing to feel toward someone who would be leaving soon. She refused to consider how his rejection would feel if she asked him to help her escape. Besides, Niall and Aldred did not seem as forthcoming as Lachlann. They always kept their distance from her.
“That’s the road to the fair,” Finn said from Ethne’s pallet where he had gone to lay down. “I wonder why she dinna take me.”
Lachlann’s gaze questioned her. Did she agree? She gulped, assessing whether trusting him actually required her sharing this with him. She decided it did.
“She had wanted me to return to the fair. There was something she wanted me to get.”
“Ah, and that was when Uradech would have ‘protected’ ye.” Lachlann’s tone had turned bitter. Very bitter. His lips were tight while he shook his head. “That man could have done nothing to protect ye.”
His anger seemed…unusually strong.
