Jaime stepped over to him and Alexander, the baby in his arms, and the small face was revealed to anyone close enough to look.
Ailis slipped her arms about Alexander’s neck and tucked her face up against his throat. “Ye must name him, Alexander, and ye must have him christened,” she said, her voice hoarsened by her illness, and she felt him tense. “I am sorry. I didna have a chance to do it. I had to stay in hiding.”
The heat of her small face as she pressed it against his skin caused Alexander to tense with a deep fear for her. He did not need an extensive knowledge of illness to guess that she had contracted a fever. Alexander looked at Jaime. The expression upon that man’s face gave Alexander little hope that what he felt could be disputed, that perhaps Ailis was simply very tired and not ill at all.
“She is afire. How has she come to this state?” he demanded of Jaime as he lightly tightened his hold on Ailis.
“The lass spent barely two days in her childbed before she began her journey to here. We have walked the whole way, save for the last few miles.”
“All the way from where? No one has been able to find either of ye for nearly a fortnight.”
“First we fled Craigandubh. Then we had to hide at Sir Malcolm MacCordy’s tower house whilst Mistress Ailis had the bairn. What with hiding from the ones who hunted us, a rainstorm, a constant mist, and choosing a long, twisted route so as to stay hidden, we have been trying to get to Rathmor for well over a week. She wasna ready for such an ordeal. She wasna strong enough.” Jaime shook his head, his expression mournful.
Her mind increasingly clouded with fever, Ailis was sure she heard some criticism in what Jaime and Alexander were saying. “They were going to kill him, Alexander. They were going to cut him up and send him to ye in pieces.”
Again Alexander looked to Jaime for an explanation. “Donald MacCordy”—Jaime snarled the name—“that swine was ever telling her what he planned for the bairn after he was born. He told her that he would send ye your child in pieces, very wee pieces. ‘Tis that which has driven her so.”
“Ye can talk about all of this later,” Kate commanded in a brisk voice. “This lass must be put to bed and tended to.”
“The bairn will be needing a wet nurse,” Ailis said as Alexander began to move more quickly, hurrying toward their bedchamber.
“We will find him one,” Alexander assured her. “Dinna fash yourself, sweeting. He will be well cared for.”
“And a name, a name and a christening?” she pressed. “He must be christened. This journey could have been death for him, and he would have gone to his grave unshriven. I canna bear the thought of it.”
“Aye, he will be christened. A priest is due here on the morrow. He will christen the laddie as soon as he arrives. I will see it done ere the man can remove his cloak. Aye, and then I will hold the man here until ye are well, and we will have that church-sanctioned marriage we sought months ago.”
He stayed with Ailis as she was changed, washed, and dressed in a warm nightrail. It eased his worries a little to hear the women tending to her report that she was bleeding no more than would be expected, that they could find no signs that she had done herself any harm in that way. A heavy loss of blood added to the fever she suffered from would have surely meant her death. Ailis was then given a gentle draft, and he sat by her side, holding her hand as he waited for her to fall asleep.
“Ye must keep Jaime here,” Ailis pleaded. “Donald wants him dead, and he willna kill him cleanly. He warned us over and over and over again that one more attempt by Jaime to aid me would end in Jaime’s death.”
“Jaime has a home here for as long as he wants one.” He lightly kissed her forehead. “Now, hush, sweeting, and go to sleep. Ye need your rest.”
“Just one more thing,” she whispered, her voice soft and slowed by encroaching sleep. “If I am still ailing when the bairn is to be christened, I want Jaime named as a godfather. He deserves the honor, for he brought our bairn into the world. Will ye do that for me? I ken he is poor, but his character is a rich one.”
“Aye, love, I will do it. I canna think of anyone more deserving. Ye dinna need to tell me that he had a great deal to do with ye and our bairn reaching Rathmor alive.”
“A traitor . . .” she struggled to say.
“I found him.”
“Good.” For once she was not concerned about the punishment the man had received, even though she was certain that Alexander would have killed him, as would have any man.
When Ailis finally went to sleep, Alexander left Kate to watch over her while he sought out Jaime. He found the man in the great hall changing the baby’s linen on a rug before the fire. Alexander crouched by his son and carefully studied the child’s sturdy little body with utter fascination. Despite seeing the child with his own eyes, Alexander still found it difficult to believe that he was a father again.
“He has all he should have,” Jaime said as he cleaned the child off. “Aye, and ‘tis all in its proper place. He is healthy and strong. ‘Tis hard to believe, but he seems to suffer no ills at all from the journey here.”
When the baby clutched Alexander’s finger in a surprisingly strong grip, Alexander felt himself swell with emotion. That amazement he had felt at first still lingered in his heart. He could not believe that he had had a part in creating such perfection. He found himself thanking God that the strength of his passion for Ailis had prevented him from exercising his usual caution and keeping him from fulfilling his heartbroken vow to remain forever childless.
“I am hardly a blameless man,” he murmured, “but I canna understand, have never been able to understand, how any man or woman could harm a child.” He thought of his poor Elizbet and wondered if he was being given another chance.
“Donald MacCordy could do it. Ailis wasna foolish for worrying. That man will kill anything when he has a sword in his hand. I have seen him. With this wee bairn he was striking close to ye. Aye, and he would have been hurting Ailis, who continued to refuse to have anything to do with him. He is badly eaten up with hate for ye, of any and all MacDubhs. Ye have made him look the fool. Twice MacDubhs have taken women promised to him. Aye and filled the bellies of each of those women with MacDubh bairns.”
“I will take his accursed life yet. Tell me all that happened.” Alexander picked up his son and led Jaime to the head table. Once seated, Jaime told Alexander the details of their imprisonment and escape. When Jaime was done, Alexander said nothing for a long while, then shook his head. “So, it appears I owe Sir Malcolm MacCordy two lives. I swear that he willna die by my sword.”
Not yet, Jaime mused silently.
“And I shall do my best to see that he isna cut down by my people. Although I still consider the MacCordys my enemies, I can no longer count Sir Malcolm as a part of that feud. By his act of saving the lives of Ailis and my son, Malcolm has washed my father’s blood from his hands.” He scowled as jealousy briefly leapt to the fore of his emotions. “I am very glad that Ailis was heavily swollen with our child, then newly upon her childbed, or no doubt Malcolm would have demanded some payment from her for his efforts on her behalf.”
