CHAPTER 5
“How long…how long have I been asleep?” Still muddled in her head, Tira stared at the wiry, hazel-eyed Scotsman whom she vaguely remembered had told her that his name was Brody. Everything felt such a blur to her, and she started when he jumped up from his seat to offer her a cup of water.
“Easy, lass, I’m here tae help you. It’s nearing midday, so you’ve slept for hours—a good thing. You have a wee bit of color in your cheeks, which I’m glad tae see. Shall I lift your head for you so you can drink?”
Tira nodded, the gentleness in Brody’s voice making her accept his assistance, though her hands shook as she tried to hold the cup. Cool water sloshed down the front of her tunic, which made the man cluck his tongue and raise the cup himself to her lips, Tira gulping thirstily.
“Aye, another good sign. You cried yourself tae sleep last night before I could get a drop into you—och, not too much too fast. Mayhap if you roll onto your side and raise yourself on your elbow, it will be easier for you…”
Tira pushed aside the blankets covering her and obliged him, grimacing at how every bone and muscle in her body seemedto ache, a strange pressure in her bulging stomach. She felt a rolling motion inside her, too, which made her press her hand to her belly as Brody gave a low chuckle.
“Och, your bairn is awake now, too, aye?”
She nodded, her new position on the cot allowing her to take the cup from him and hold it herself this time as she took small sips, Brody clucking his tongue again with what sounded like approval. Yet no sooner had she finished drinking than she gasped and tried to sit up, the man catching her by the shoulders before she pitched forward.
“Stay here, I know what you need.”
At once, Brody fetched a bucket for her, Tira glancing gratefully at him as he set it near the cot. Then he went to stand near the wooden steps, his back to her, and she didn’t wait another moment.
With some difficulty, she rose and lifted her tunic to squat over the bucket, her stomach so big that she feared losing her balance as she tended to her needs—though Brody never once turned his head.
Sighing with relief, Tira sank back onto the cot and only then did the man return to her side to remove the bucket, but not too far away.
“Let’s try some oatcakes now, aye? You must eat, lass, if you’re tae have strength enough for the birth. I’m hoping the bairn will wait until we reach Laird MacLachlan’s?—”
“Laird MacLachlan?” Panicked confusion seized Tira and she glanced around her, realizing as if awaking from a dream that she was aboard a ship—aye, Brody had told her as much while he had encouraged her to weep.
Aye, lass, cry your heart out, I dinna blame you. It’s a terrible time you’ve endured, but you’re safe now, Tira Cheyne. Soon we’ll be sailing home tae Scotland…
She scarcely remembered anything else, her sense of shock and exhaustion so great that she had fallen into a deep sleep that was more a stupor…though now everything had suddenly grown so much clearer?—
“Errol!” Her hoarse outcry startling her, Tira stared at Brody while he stared wide-eyed back at her, clearly as surprised.
“You…you wish tae see Errol, lass?”
“No,no, I canna see him!” Her hands trembling, Tira reached for the blankets and grabbed them to her chest like a shield. “Dinna let him come down here, please!”
Brody nodded with evident consternation on his weathered face, which only heightened the panic threatening to overwhelm her.
“Dinna you understand?” she cried out. “Look at what has become of me!”
Sobbing now, her eyes burning with tears, Tira fell back upon the cot and rolled onto her opposite side with her back to Brody.
She heard him heave a sigh, but he didn’t attempt to comfort her as he had done last night—ah, God,last night!
Clutching the blankets under her chin, Tira could almost feel again Brinda’s hand pressed tightly over her nose and mouth as the woman had tried to suffocate her at Thorgren’s order.
At Thorgren’s order! After everything he had done to her, he wanted her dead before anyone could rescue her, no matter his bairn growing inside her.
“Poor babe…p-poor wee babe,” Tira choked out, crying so hard now that she could barely breathe. Yet she was no better than him! She had told Brinda that she would rather die in childbirth and deny Thorgren his bairn than to marry him—and Tira had meant it at that moment. Heaven forgive her, what kind of heartless fiend had she become?
“Ease yourself, lass, if only for your child,” Brody’s plea came behind her, though Tira could not still her weeping as the memory of Errol’s stricken face flooded back to her.
The flames from the burning village illuminating the shock in his eyes when he had lifted her from the ground and realized that she wasn’t the same…aye, would never be the same—och,the pain!
Tira gripped her stomach as Brody swore aloud, and now she did stop sobbing and clenched her teeth at the cramping sensation that felt worse than anything she had ever experienced.
“Just as I feared—och, this is no place for a bairn tae be born, the dampness, the dirt, God help you, lass. Dinna move from the cot, do you hear me? I willna be gone long!”
