A Highlander's Home (30 page)

             
Swallowing, Raine said with regret, “I know.  I am sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you.”

             
He kissed the backs of her hands, still holding them tight.  “Aye, trouble ye have been.”  He smiled.  “But it is a trouble that I have long been without and will be hard pressed to live without it.  Ye have been a good wife, Raine MacGregor.  Ye have been a
beautiful sight to have in my keep.  A sight that I will not soon be forgetting.”

             
Tears welled in Raine’s eyes as he spoke.  She knew how difficult this must be for such an oaf to profess.  She hiccupped.

             
A playful glint briefly replaced the sadness in his eyes as he said softly, “And ye have been quite a remarkable bed partner if I do say so myself.”

             
She gave a short laugh, tears rolling down her cheeks.  He wiped one away with his finger. 

             
In a voice so soft so that only she could hear, he said, “I love ye, lass.”

             
He dropped her hands, spun on his heel, and walked away swiftly.  Her hands were so cold without his large ones covering them.  Her chest ached from inhaling the freezing air too quickly.  She wiped her nose on the back of her hand.
  He loved her?

             
She was going home.  These stones were her ticket out of here and back to her time.  Her job, her apartment, her….her….her what?  Her loneliness?  Her aloneness?  Her job of
reading
about history?

             
Her eyes scanned the hillside taking in the soft mounds and shapes of the countryside meeting with the cold gray sky.  She listened to the stillness of the day, the silence buffered even more so by the falling crystal flakes that gently floated through the air until reaching their predestined patch of earth.

             
Her hands cupped her stomach.  Even through her layers of skirts she could feel the rounding of it.  She looked back to the three of them – Leith, Lady MacGregor, and Mac – as they watched her.  Lady MacGregor’s eyes were set on Raine’s belly almost desperately as if trying to burn it into her memory.  Suddenly Raine
had a revelation. 
She knew! Lady MacGregor knew about the
pregnancy
!
  And she was letting her go anyway. 

             
Leith’s turned from her and started making his way to the horses, not wishing to see the final moment of his woman as she disappeared into the stones and their strange magic of time travel.

             
Raine panicked.  He was leaving!  Where was he going? Wait, she was the one who was leaving!  The breathtakingly handsome lord of a castle in ancient Scotland had professed his love for her and she was leaving him?  Was she crazy?

             
“Wait!” she yelled, running towards him.

             
Lady MacGregor gasped, her hand going to her throat.  As Raine ran past her, she noticed the tears streaming down her cheeks and felt a stab of guilt.

             
“Leith!” she called again.  The snow was deep and her skirts were hindering her.  She grabbed two fistfuls and hiked them up as far as she could hold them and ran to him.  Her face was buried in the flying material so she didn’t notice that she had closed the gap between them so soon.  She slammed into him, causing him to stagger backward and lose his footing.  He tumbled backwards, grasping her to him as he went down.

             
They landed with a huff and a billowy cloud of powdered snow rose around them like a large
cotton ball
.

             
“What are ye doing, lass?  It’s almost time,” he told her, his voice confused.

             
She shook her head and said in quick breaths, “I can’t go.  I can’t leave.  I don’t want to leave you.  I don’t want to go.”

             
Her lips found his and she gave him a hard kiss while holding his face with her hands.  When she came up for air she said through tears, “I love you. I love you, you big
Scottish
oaf.  I don’t want to leave you. 
You make me crazy, but I love you.”

             
She covered his face with kisses, periodically landing on his lips.

             
He pushed her off and rose to his feet, pulling her with him.  “Do ye mean it?  Lass, ye must be sure.”

             
She stepped towards him, her gaze deep.  Through her tears, she informed him strongly, “I can’t go home.”  She looked at the stones.

             
“Lass
…
” he began.

             
“Because I already am home,” she finished.

             
Lady MacGregor
, with the energy of a woman half her age,
screamed in joy and jumped up and down, smacking Mac repeatedly on the arm.  Her laughter echoed through the silence.

             
Leith and Raine smiled as she hiked her
skirts up in a very unladylike manner and hopped through the snow.  Raine held out her arms, anticipating a smothering hug.  Lady MacGregor stopped short of Raine’s arms and dropped to her knees and threw her arms around Raine’s middle. 

             
“Oh, thank the Lord!  I’m going to see my grandson!!” she said through more tears.

             
Leith laughed and helped her rise to her feet.  “Easy, Mother.  Ye’ll get a grandchild sooner or later.”

             
Raine’s eyes twinkled as she exchanged glances with Lady MacGregor.  Through her lashes, she gave Leith a secretive look.  “It might be sooner than later.”

             
It took a moment for her words to sink in as he stared at her blankly.

             
Mac slapped him hard on the shoulder and shouted, “She’s with child, mon!”

             
Leith cocked his head at Raine, looked at her abdomen, then back to her eyes. 
“What?”

             
She giggled.  “You’re going to be a father in about
five or six months.”

             
Still in shock, he scratched his head, frowning.  When he finally spoke, he only said, “Really?”

             
Lady MacGregor threw her arms up and punched him in the arm.  “Are ye daft, son?  Ye got her pregnant!  I’m going to be a grandmother!”  She took a step towards her horse, and threw over her shoulder, “Finally!”

Chapter 25

             
The guards came forward and offered their congratulations to him, their pleasure showing on their faces.  The laird was to have an heir.  Finally.

             
They rode the rest of the way back to their Scottish castle in a lighter mood.  Leith insisted that Raine share his horse and kept one arm securely wrapped around her middle with his hand possessively cupping her belly. 

             
“Are ye sure, lass?” he asked for the hundredth time.

             
Once more, she laughed and assured him, “Oh, yes.  Even the midwife confirmed it.”

             
“Oh?  She did?”

             
She nodded her head.  “I had asked her for some herbs that could prevent pregnancy since I thought I would be leaving eventually. But she gave me minted breath leaves instead.”

             
He chuckled.  “Aye, that sounds like the old hag.  I once fell off my father’s horse after he told me not to ride him, of course.  Well, I didn’t want to get myself a whipping so I went to her and asked for something to ease the pain and quicken the healing.”

             
“What did she give you?”

             
“Minted breath leaves.”

             
They both laughed.

             
“I’ve never felt such a burning in all my life as I did that day as I rubbed those blasted leaves over my open wound.  I’ll never forget that.”

             
“What happened after that?” Raine asked.

             
“My father came running when he heard me screaming bloody murder.  When he found out I had ridden his horse against his wishes, I not only had a scraped, minty fresh, swollen knee, but I also got a very red and sore bottom from his hand.”

             
Lady MacGregor had ridden up beside them and had listened to the story with a smile.  She added, “And he was almost in tears after he punis
hed you.  I had to force him not to give in to you and let you get away with it.”

             
“Och, Mother!  Ye
were the culprit then.  I could have been emotionally disturbed from that act of cruelty.”

             
“Pfff!  Act of cruelty, my arse!  You deserved that whipping and then some for being such a willful child,” she sniffed.

             
Raine laughed at the exchange.

             
Leith winced at his mother’s harsh choice of words and answered, “Mother, ye had best not be using such language when the babe comes.  I’ll not have him cussing like a common criminal.”

             
“Ha!  I’m his grandmother.  I can do whatever I wish.  I will
shower
him with all the love that I have to give, even more than I gave you and your brother,” she promised.

             
Leith shook his head.  To Raine he whispered loudly, “The child is doomed.”

             
She kept to herself the midwife’s prophecy that she was carrying twins.  That would be a surprise for later.

The
y
reached the
castle a
few days later and were all relieved to
be
home and safely back in Scottish territory.  A boy came running up to Leith before his feet had barely touched the ground.

             
“What is it?” Raine asked.

             
It was a large folded piece of parchment with a large wax seal.  He held it, almost gingerly, before breaking the seal.

             
“It’s from the
Queen
,” he announced.

             
Lady MacGregor asked, “What does it say?  Is she coming for a visit?”

             
He shook his head.  “No, she will not visit this Christmas.  The risk is too high for her with the instability of the realm as it is.  It is not safe for her to leave her lands.”

             
He turned to Raine, his eyes hard.  “She is sending her army to the north to aid me against my uncle.  We are to meet up in three days time.”

             
Mac spoke up.  “But that means you must leave immediately in order to reach them.”

             
Raine grabbed his hand and breathed, “No.  Don’t go.”

             
He said nothing, but stood there holding the
Queen
’s summons
and looked her.

             
She pleaded, “Please.  We just arrived home.”  She put his hand to her stomach.  “The baby.”

             
His gaze lingered along with his hand on the child they had unknowingly created.  He looked at their surroundings, the people with the their clothes that were getting to be threadbare, their cheeks slightly sunken in, the dogs that were once fat and lazy now were lean and on the lookout for any scraps that might befall them, the children with their runny noses and
red tipped
fingers from the cold.

             
“Lass, I have to go. 
We will not survive if I do
not. 
By spring, it will be worse
.
  We are dying here.”  He willed her to understand.
             

             
Her tears were frozen streaks on her cheeks.  She
tried
to bargain with him.  “But I stayed for you.  Won’t you stay for me?  For us?” She motioned to her belly.

             
Slowly he shook his head.  “What I do, I do for us. I go to save us.  Understand that, lass.”

             
Robbie emerged from the great hall.
  Jovially, he exclaimed with outstretched arms, “The prodigal Laird returns!” 

             
When he saw Raine was still with them, he stopped short and corrected himself.  “And he brought her back.”

             
The people had heard that their lord had returned from the dreaded and feared English territory and were cheering his safe arrival.  Since they were not aware that he should have returned wifeless, they cheered for her safe return as well.