“Ye know I love ye dearly, lass,” David said. “But now you’re going to have to pay for scaring the Beast of Wedderburn witless.”
Alison smiled against his lips as he gave her a fierce Hume kiss.
***
With a sigh of regret, Alison broke the kiss and pressed her hand against David’s chest. “You’re in no shape to do what you’re suggesting.”
“Ye can see for yourself,” he said, “I’m up for the task.”
She rolled her eyes and laughed. He laughed with her, but then his expression grew serious again.
“After nearly losing ye,” he said, cupping her cheek with his big hand, “I need this, lass.”
Alison understood because she needed him desperately too. As they made love slowly, murmuring endearments to each other, she ran her hands gently over his battered body, every inch precious to her. It made her want to weep to see his cuts and bruises, but her husband was strong and would heal.
Afterward she drifted off to sleep to the comforting sound of his steady heartbeat against her ear. She awoke from a dream to the sun shining through the window. Spring had come at last to Blackadder Castle.
“I have good news to tell ye.” She took David’s hand and placed it on her stomach. “We’re having a babe.”
“Beatrix and Margaret are like my own daughters, and I would have been content if we’d had no more,” he said, his eyes soft and warm. “But a babe. Ach, this is a great blessing. Ye couldn’t make me happier.”
“You’ll be a wonderful father,” she said, “which is fortunate since we’ll be having so many.”
“And ye know this?” The corners of his mouth quirked up in a smile.
“Aye. The old woman who my mother saw when she found the magical stone appeared in a dream just now before I woke,” she said. “She told me we’ll have six children together.”
“Six!” He looked stunned for a moment, then he laughed and kissed her forehead. “I suppose every one of them will be as strong-willed and troublesome as my wife.”
“Aye,” she said, smiling up at David. “We’re going to have a joyous life.”
Alison rubbed her thumb over the black stone that was safely back in her pendant and reflected on how very lucky she had been since she found it.
EPILOGUE
Three years later…
“This babe needs to come soon.” Alison put her hand on the small of her aching back. “It was kind of ye to come for the birth, Sybil. I hope ye don’t have to wait long, for both our sakes.”
“I’m happy to get away from Court,” Sybil said. “The tension between our clan and the Hamiltons is simmering to a boil. And the queen has sided with the Hamiltons.”
“Is it true she wants to divorce Archie?” Alison asked.
“Archie’s spies informed him that she wrote to her brother King Henry hinting she wants a divorce,” Sybil said. “Henry replied with a lecture on morality, if ye can believe it, and he’s thrown his support behind Archie. Of course, that makes the entire pro-French faction adamantly against us.”
“Ye should stay here where David can protect ye until this trouble is resolved,” Alison said.
“I’m in no danger,” Sybil said, waving her hand. “I have friends on both sides. Besides, I expect Archie will prevail in the end.”
Alison was not so sure.
“Beatrix is turning twelve,” Sybil said as Alison’s daughters and Will entered the hall from the tower stairs with Jasper on their heels. “That lad is going to be one handsome man. Has she decided whether she’ll have him for her husband?”
“David won’t let her marry for years, so there’s no hurry,” Alison said. “But that’s Will you’re looking at, not Robbie.”
Will was nearly as tall as Robbie and David now. Alison had heard the men remark on his strength and skill with a sword, but Will was still a kind-hearted lad who seemed to be lost in his own world at times.
Alison watched as Isabella and Rob emerged from the stairwell and cast surreptitious glances her way. David had been disappearing for hours at a time and being very mysterious about it. The entire family was party to his secret and did their best to divert her attention. While she trusted her husband absolutely, her curiosity was getting the better of her.
