Her chest tightened. “Sometimes.”
“Tenderness,” the healer continued, brisk and unflinching. “In yer breasts?”
Ariella’s face warmed. “Aye.”
The healer nodded once, as if ticking off a list. “Ye are with child.”
The words landed like a stone dropped into still water.
Ariella’s breath caught.
Fear and joy collided so fast she could not separate them. A strange warmth filled her chest, blooming outward, bright and terrifying. Her hands went to her stomach instinctively, fingers flattening against her abdomen as if she could feel the secret there.
A bairn.
Maxwell’s bairn.
Her throat tightened. She could not speak.
Isla’s eyes were huge, shimmering. She whispered, “Me lady…”
Ariella looked at her maid, then back at the healer.
“Nay one can ken,” Ariella said, the words coming out sharp with panic.
The healer studied her. “Yer husband should ken.”
Ariella’s stomach clenched. Maxwell’s rules flashed through her mind like warnings carved in stone.I daenae want an heir. I already have one. Me brother.
What would he do when he learned she carried his child.
Would he be angry. Would he be cold. Would he pull away further, as if she had trapped him. As if she had broken his life open without permission.
Ariella’s voice trembled. “Nae yet.”
Isla took a step closer, quiet. “Ariella…”
Ariella turned to her maid, forcing steadiness into her tone. “Please.”
Isla’s jaw flexed, but she nodded once. “Aye.”
Ariella faced the healer again, pleading without dignity. “Swear it.”
The healer’s eyes narrowed, then softened a fraction. “I will nae shout it in the hall. But ye will nae endanger yerself by hiding it. Do ye understand?”
Ariella swallowed hard. “Aye.”
The healer nodded once. “Good. Ye will rest. Ye will eat. Ye will drink water. And ye will stop acting as if ye are made of iron.”
Ariella let out a shaky breath, half laugh, half sob. “Ye sound like me maid.”
“I sound like a woman who has seen too many mothers die because they thought they could outwork their own bodies,” the healer replied.
Ariella’s eyes stung.
She pressed her palm to her stomach again, gentler this time, as if offering comfort to the life she had not yet dared to want.
Fear of Maxwell’s reaction rose like a shadow behind the joy.
