She grinned at them. “Oh, all right. Yes. Eian and I are expecting a child too.”
After a round of excited giggles and womanly bonding, the three of them spent several hours in the parlor, playing with the babies, talking, and just getting to know one another. It was nearly dinner time when she heard Eian calling her name, sounding almost frantic.
“I’d better go and see what he wants.”
The other two women raised their eyebrows and exchanged knowing smiles, as if they could guess exactly what a newlywed Mac Coinnach man wanted with his wife. When Allia left the room, they had erupted into another fit of happy laughter. She found Eian in the hall, and she stepped quietly up behind him from the doorway and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm right here, what's wrong?"
He turned and pulled her to him, holding on tightly as he kissed the top of her head and nuzzled her hair. "I couldn't find ye. I was worried."
"I'm not going to run away, Eian."
"I should hope no’, because I’d only find ye and drag ye back home again. I just want ye with me, always. I canna stand to be without ye."
"Well, you'll have to be without me sometimes, I can't be chained to your side."
"Oh, aye, ye can. Dinna tempt me." He bent to kiss her lips. "I willna lose ye, ever again. Especially not by my own foolishness."
She kissed the masculine line of his jaw. "Didn't you have a philosophy about women... I think I heard it from some of the men at Lochain… something about there always being another one..."
He pulled her even tighter to him. "That's all changed now. From the moment I saw ye." He bent to place light kisses on her nose, her eyes. "There will never, ever be another woman for me."
Already her heart was racing, and her body felt restless. The man only had to look at her and she wanted him. Her hands slid over his shirt to feel hardness of his chest beneath the fabric. He growled low in his throat and pulled her hips hard against his so that she could feel his desire for her.
"I need to have ye, right now”, he growled near her ear. “Let’s go upstairs.”
“But it’s nearly time for dinner, and Faith planned a kind of welcome home party for us.”
He was already dragging her toward the stairs. ”Ye can walk or I can carry ye lass, but dinna worry, it will only take a minute. Then we can go to dinner.”
The next morning, after a blissful first night together at Creagmor, Allia woke to find Eian already gone from their bed. She sat up just as the door opened, and he came in bearing a small wooden box and a mischievous smile. He put the box down on the bed before her. “Open it.”
A strange scratching sound was coming from inside. Confused, she have him a questioning look and lifted the lid gingerly. Looking up at her was a tiny, adorable ginger colored kitten. She lifted it from the box and held it against her cheek, tears forming in her eyes.
“Oh Eian, thank you!” He had listened to her story about the kitten she had left behind, how it had been a symbol of some semblance of permanence in her life, and how she had had to leave him to come here. By giving her this new kitten, he was saying that her life was here with him now, forever.
And it was.
Epilogue
Eian flew down the stone steps of the keep, nearly taking out Bren on his way.
"Hell Eian, where are ye going with the devil at yer heels?"
"Allia wants cold water from the well."
"Ah." Eian's wife had been in labor with their first child since the wee hours of the morning, and Eian was a bundle of nerves. Bren understood, he had been there not that long ago with his own wife, and he had nearly gone mad with the helplessness of waiting and being unable to do anything to help. He followed Eian to the well while he drew up the water so fast that the bucket hit the winch at the top and sloshed water over the edges. "Easy, brother. Allia is doing well?"
"Aye, the other women say it's likely my son will be born within the hour." He was so glad his brothers' wives were there to help Allia through the birth, because he himself was clueless in such matters. He knew exactly how to put a childintohis wife, but really had no idea how they got back out again.
Bren grinned at him. "Yer so certain it will be a son?"
"Of course, Bren. Three sons for three brothers, remember? If Allia weren’t carrying a son, she wouldn’t have been able to kill Mored.” He beamed with pride at what his courageous little wife had done. “But my next bairn will be a pretty little girl that I can coddle and spoil."
Bren took the water jug from Eian's slightly shaking fingers and filled it for him with a wry smile. He would have never imagined his devil-may-care little brother could be held by one woman, and happily anticipating fatherhood. Truth be told, he would have thought it practically impossible, but just look at Eian now, so nervous and excited over becoming a father, something he had spent most of his adult life trying to avoid at all costs. Miracles did happen.
Just then a woman's scream of agony rent the air, and Eian took off at a dead run for the keep. Bren shrugged and followed with the forgotten water jug. His brother would thank him later if Allia still wanted the water. Bren had learned quickly that when a woman is in labor, it is best to do whatever she says and do it quickly, or at least keep your ballocks well out of her reach, as she was quite likely to blame them or their owner at some point in time. He passed Drust on his way through the hall.
"Willa says it's almost time." He grinned, something he had been doing a lot more often now that he had Willa in his life. "I've never seen Eian so... crazed."
