Epilogue

“I will not speak to Angus when he returns from Edinburgh!” Lillianna shrieked as another pain gripped her. Where was he? She had sent a message to him that she would give birth on Hogmanay the very day she’d had the vision, and still, he was not home. She clenched her teeth on her ridiculousness. He was at war. What did she expect? She was a silly woman, who wanted her husband.

“Angus,” she bellowed, wishing him there.

A cool rag came to her forehead, and then Greer’s face appeared. “Ye will speak to him when he returns, and ye ken ye will. He’s all ye’ve talked about the last nine months, so much so that my ears and my head hurt.”

Lillianna gritted her teeth against another wave of agony, and when it passed, her eyes filled with tears, blurring Greer’s face. “Where is he?” she sobbed, unable to fight her longing for him in her haze of pain. She gave in to her sadness that he was not there. “He vowed to be here. He’d never break a vow to me.” She squeezed her eyes shut as another pain ripped through her, greater than any she had felt before.

“The bairn is coming!” Greer said excitedly.

A hand suddenly gripped Lillianna’s and squeezed it. “Mari?” she asked on a ragged breath.

“Nay,” came Angus’s deep reply. “Nae Mari, lass.”

Her eyes flew open to find her husband kneeling beside her. He had a dark beard and his hair was pulled back. His face looked thinner, his eyes harder, but then they softened completely as he gazed at her, and she knew that whatever he had seen had changed him, but not so much that he was not the man she loved.

Joy overcame her, and tears spilled from her eyes. “You made it,” she said on a strangled whisper.

“Of course I did,” he said, rubbing his hand gently over her forehead. “There is nae any war that could hold me back from seeing my bairn born.”

She opened her mouth to tell him she loved him, but another pain came, which made her feel she was going to be rent in two, so she screamed instead.

“I see the head!” Mari announced with glee.

Lillianna battled through the pain, squeezing Angus’s hand tightly. When she did not think she could push anymore, it was Angus who encouraged her and told her how brave she was. Then with one last push, their baby started to cry.

“It’s a girl!” Greer called out, and Lillianna looked to Angus just in time to see his eyes go wide.

“Don’t fear, Husband,” she told him as Greer brought their daughter to her. Lillianna took the babe and cradled her gently. “We will protect her together, and one day she will find a husband as good as you are.”

“Aye,” Angus agreed. “When she’s thirty summers at least, and nae one day sooner.”

Lillianna was too happy to argue, but as she held her new daughter and Angus leaned in to stare in wonder at her, a vision overtook Lillianna’s senses. Their daughter would find love, but it would be far sooner than Angus would like.

Lillianna smiled. That was one secret she would keep for now.