Chapter 28

Nearly nine months later.

Slayer plowed through the snow,nearly half a foot having fallen since last night. He silently berated himself for not listening to his own warnings. He did not care if his wife wasn't due to deliver their bairn for another month, he wanted Mother Abbess here in case anything happened sooner, but Sky had thought it unnecessary. After all, her two sisters would arrive in a week to be here for the birth. Elsie's son, barely a month old, would be with her and Cavell. And though Leora was two months away from delivering her first bairn, there was no stopping her from attending Sky's delivery.

Yet who had been right about Mother Abbess arriving early… he was. A lot of good it would do him now with this snowstorm. There was no way Mother Abbess would be able to travel here now and possibl;y not even her sisters.

He practically flew up the steps and into the Great Hall and stopped abruptly when he spotted his wife, her hand braced on a table, bent over, rubbing her back, and grimacing.

"Bloody hell!" Slayer cried out and rushed to his wife, having received word while in the village seeing that everyone would be safe from the storm that she had started labor.

Sky leaned back against him when his arm wrapped around her, and her hand shifted to rub her stomach.

"Now what do we do without Mother Abbess?" he asked, feeling utterly helpless and not liking it.

"Women have been having bairns with the help of other women for ages. We will do just fine," Euniss said. "Besides, I have sent for her Aunt Ruth. She helped your mum deliver Sky and many other bairns. Now she will help Sky deliver her bairn. Now get your wife to her bedchamber."

Slayer glared at Euniss but lifted his wife gently into his arms.

"You can berate me later for dictating to you. The only thing that matters now is your wife," Euniss said.

"I would much rather see you smile on this day," Sky said with a tender smile of her own as her husband carried her up the stairs.

"When it is over and I see that you and our bairn are well I will smile," he said, letting his worry be known. Her mum had died giving birth to Sky. He did not want that to happen to his wife.

"I will be fine," she assured him.

Her confident remark, however, did nothing to ease his worry.

"Nay, not the bed. Not yet," Sky said when he went to place her on it. "I want to walk a bit yet." She rubbed her arms after he placed her on her feet. "It is chilly in here. Can you stoke the fire?"

He wondered if she was truly cold or if she was keeping him busy so he would not worry, but when he saw her shiver, he hurried to add logs to the hearth and get the room warmer.

His arms went around her again once he was done, knowing it would not be long before he was chased out of the room. She shivered again and he realized the problem.

"You are fearful," he said softly.

"A bit," she admitted, "but it is not the birth itself I fear."

"Then what?" he asked anxiously.

"What if I deliver a lass with eyes like mine?" she asked. "The first lass to be born in my family to one like me is doomed to the same fate."

Slayer went to dismiss her fears, letting her know it would make no difference but realized she knew what life could be like for their daughter if she was born with two different colored eyes.

"I would say it doesn't matter but I know it does to you. But look how different things are for you now. The clan has come to know you and they care for you. No one turns their back on you. No one refuses to talk with you. When travelers or merchants stop here and dare make a disparaging remark about your eyes, the clan is quick to defend you. Our child will be well-loved and accepted by the clan and that will become known throughout the Highlands, unlike how the color of your eyes had to be kept hidden. Besides, do you really think anyone would go against a Gallowglass warrior and not just one. Our daughter would have a whole army behind her."

"You promised you would not fight as many battles now that you lead the clan," she reminded, the thought of him riding into battle terrifying her.

"I promised, but I told you that there may be times I cannot avoid that, but I will do my best." Slayer kissed her cheek. "I love you, Sky, and I will love our daughter just as much. So, there is nothing for you to fear."

"Nothing to fear? Of course, she is going to be fearful. She is about to endure a whole lot of pain," Euniss said, entering the room and Ruth following in behind her. "Now go and leave us women to our work."

Another pain struck Sky and she grabbed her husband's arm tightly, trying to breathe through it.

Once again Slayer felt helpless, keeping hold of her, the only thing he knew what to do.

When the pain finally passed, Sky managed to smile at him.

He rested his brow against hers and whispered, "I love you and I have loved your different colored eyes from when I first saw them. They grow more beautiful to me every day."

"Out! Out!" Euniss ordered, giving him a shove. "We have to get her ready."

"I love you always," Sky said as his arms slipped off her and he stepped away.

Ruth gasped. "Those are the very words your mum said to Clyde before we chased him out of the room."

"You will not leave me, wife. I will not permit it," Slayer ordered as Euniss kept shoving him to the door. Before Euniss closed the door on him, he grabbed her hand. "Do not let her die, Euniss. I beg of you, do not let my wife or bairn die."

Euniss stared shocked. The mighty Gallowglass warrior never begged, not ever. Yet here he humbled himself to save his wife and bairn.

She tried to reassure him the best she could. "Lady Sky is strong and brave. If she and the bairn can survive a horrible fall, they both can survive childbirth."

Slayer stood staring at the closed door, praying that Euniss was right.

* * *

Hours passedwith no word from Euniss or Ruth. Ross sat at the dais with him waiting but as the day wore into night and Ross' eyes kept closing, Slayer sent him on his way. Once Ross was gone, Slayer went upstairs to sit on the floor outside his bedchamber door, needing to be as close to his wife as he could get. He would have liked to have had Fane and Angel with him, but he was warned both animals would not do well hearing Sky cry out in pain and so he had shut them away in his mum's solar.

He cringed each time he heard her suffer through another pain and he could only imagine what Fane and Angel would have suffered hearing her. He was glad he had paid heed to Euniss's warning. He continued to cringe, hearing his wife cry out and did not think he could take it much longer when finally, he heard the cry of a bairn. It was finally over, and he could not be more relieved and ready to see his wife and meet their bairn, lass or lad. But his wife cried out again in pain and fear gripped him. He bolted to his feet and swung open the door.

"Get out!" Euniss ordered. "She delivers another bairn."

"Two?" he asked as if he did not understand and grimaced seeing how exhausted his wife looked.

"Two, thanks to you," Euniss said. "Now out!"

"You can do this, Sky," Ruth encouraged. "It will not be long now."

Slayer was about to leave when his eyes met his wife's eyes, and he saw in them her need for him. "I'm not leaving," he said in a tone that no one would dare oppose.

"Hold her hand," Ruth said with a smile. "Clyde did the same for your mum, refused to leave her."

Slayer sat at his wife's side, taking her hand. "We'll do this together."

Sky gave him a weak smile. "We have a son."

Slayer's smile lit his whole face as he glanced at Euniss placing his son in the cradle near the hearth for warmth, then she hurried to help Ruth.

"Never saw a smile like that on him before now," Euniss said with a laugh.

Sky groaned and Slayer was quick to brace himself behind her while keeping hold of her hand.

"A little bit more and you'll be done, Sky," Ruth encouraged and a few minutes later, she cried out, "It's a lass, a beautiful lass."

* * *

Later when Slayerand Sky were alone, the lad tucked in his mum's arm and the lass in her da's arm, they both smiled.

"He's handsome like his da and she is beautiful like her mum," Slayer said, glancing from one to the other with pride.

"She is just like me?—"

"With the same beautiful two different colored eyes," Slayer said, "and she has an older brother?—"

"Five minutes," Sky said with a laugh.

"Still, he is older, and he will protect her," Slayer insisted as if it would be no other way. "Now for names." Slayer looked from his son to his daughter. "I have decided on them."

"Have I no say in the choice of their names?" she asked, surprised he was so adamant about it.

"Nay, it is settled," Slayer said and looked at his son. "He shall be named Clyde." He looked at his daughter. "She shall be named Fawn."

Tears welled in Sky's eyes. "I love the names you chose, husband."

He leaned down and kissed her gently and felt a wet nose nudging his arm.

Fane had drifted slowly over to the bed to finally sniff curiously at the bundle in Slayer's arm.

Slayer patted his daughter, then his son. "Protect always, Fane." Then he looked at Angel asleep and curled against Sky's leg, and chuckled. "We may have to get a bigger bed."

Sky smiled. "We're family, all of us, and there will always be room for more."

"Aye, wife, just like there will always be room in my heart for me to love you more and more each day," Slayer said, and as if it were a promise, he sealed it with a kiss.