Page 84 of The Eagle

One morning, Cait walked in from breaking her fast to find Lady Mariel attempting to feed Stuart. The liquid was spilling from his mouth down his chin.

“He does not like that,” Cait snapped, taking the spoon and bowl from the startled woman. “Ye must feed him slower.”

Cait put the items aside and wiped Stuart’s chin with great care.

“Have ye told him that he can go?” Lady Mariel asked, her eyes tearing up. “He may be waiting to hear those words from ye.”

“He cannot go,” Cait replied curtly. “He will recover. It will take time, but that is why I feed him and have the guards come in daily and sit him up in the chair. The healer told me it is important that he be able to sit and use his legs.”

Lady Mariel studied her son’s face and smiled at him. “I wish ye would open yer eyes.” She told him. And then looked to Cait. “He has the most beautiful eyes of all my sons. They all have bright green with bits of blue and gold, but Stuart has the most gold of all of them.”

“Aye, he does,” Cait replied glad Lady Mariel did not speak again of allowing Stuart to die.

When Cait began to feed him, the woman walked out to give her time alone with him.

Moments later, she placed the bowl and spoon aside and lifted his right arm and flexed it several times. His limbs were heavy, and she loved that about him.

Cait bent and placed a kiss on his mouth. “Why do ye not waken my love?” She lowered his right arm and began working with the left. “It has been four weeks. Ye have had yer rest. I need ye to wake.”

His eyes fluttered. Sometimes when she spoke to him, they did that, but they never opened.

“I was hoping to tell ye once ye were awake and looking at me, but I cannot keep it to myself any longer,” Cait said releasing his arm.

Cupping his face with her hands, she studied his face. “Ye are going to be a father, Stuart. I am with child.”

Her breath caught when he didn’t respond. “Waken my love, I cannot do it by myself. I do not want to raise our bairn alone. Please do not leave me.”

She wiped tears away, but more followed so quickly in their wake she gave up. “Now that I found ye, I do not want to be without ye. I cannot let ye go. I refuse to do it.”

Unable to withstand the silence and lack of reaction, she raced from the room and out the front door into the nearby trees to cry in private. Rain began to fall but Cait didn’t care. She could not return to the house. To the reality that her husband was dying. And to the family who walked about draped in grief waiting for the inevitable.

It was a long while later that she trudged back to the house. Straightening, Cait did her best to gain strength to face what was her life now.

Darach Ross stood in the doorway looking in her direction. His blond mane was being tossed in the wind making him look like his moniker. A lion.

That he watched her approach could only mean there was news and she braced herself.

“Something happened?” she asked just a few paces from the doorway, unwilling to take another step.

“He was thrashing about violently,” Darach replied and wiped a tear away. “We had to tie him down.”

Cait began to cry. “I must go see about him.”

“Do ye really believe he will recover?” the proud laird asked, searching her face. “Ye cling to a hope that I wish I had.”

“Hope is all I have.” She fell against him, and he hugged her. The feel of the large man’s body was so much like Stuart’s that she wanted to cling to him and pretend it was Stuart if only for a little while.

Letting out a sigh, she pushed away and went into the house and straight to her and Stuart’s bedchamber.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The surroundings did not resemble anything he recalled. His body felt heavy and cumbersome, and when he tried to roll to his side it was impossible.

He had to relieve himself badly, but when he tried to sit, it was as if he was held down.

Stuart tried to lift his right arm. He could not, it was so heavy that a grunt escaped.

Cait slept soundly next to him, with her back to him. He hated to wake her. However, it was better to wake and ask for help than to urinate on her.