Passion Light (12 page)

They nearly ran to the birthing chamber after going back through her room.

Heather was sitting up in a birthing chair, barely conscious. Her body was thin and much too young for the pregnant belly she was carrying.

Isabelle rushed to a basin of hot water and began to wash. Evan followed right behind her, stripping off his outer clothing. They scrubbed their hands and arms and then moved together to examine the wilting girl.

“She’s too young for this,” Evan said.

“Luther brought her here after he had already gotten her pregnant. She’s only 15 and has been undernourished, not that he cared. She seemed happy enough with him even though he would not marry her. He wanted me but I wouldn’t have anything to do with him. I think Heather was grateful to have enough to eat even though she had to put up with Luther.” Isabelle said as she bent to examine the birth’s progress.

“She is not dilated enough give birth yet. How long has she been in labor,” she asked Doris.

“Over 28 hours,” Doris answered. “She’s just not making progress and she’s exhausted. I don’t think she’s strong enough to push now even if it was time. I got her into the chair hoping gravity would help but it’s not enough. Every now and then a little foot comes briefly so we know the baby is turned wrong.”

Evan reached for the girl and pushed her head back until she blinked up at him seeming barely aware of what was happening. “Rest until I tell you to wake,” he commanded, and it was a command, not a request. The girl fell asleep immediately. Isabelle felt for her pulse and found it a bit stronger than it had been.

“You will assist me,” he commanded Isabelle. There was compulsion in his voice. It made Isabelle nervous that he might make her do almost anything, but she was there to help so she said nothing, while promising herself she would bring it up later.

Evan went to the water container and washed his arms and hands again and returned to the girl. He placed his hands on her belly and ordered the baby to turn. Light came from his hands and Heather’s belly moved as the baby turned, obedient to his command.

“Do you have something to cut the cord?” he asked. “The baby will come soon now. We need to get him out so we can feed the girl and get her started regaining her strength.”

The baby obligingly dropped into his hands within a short time after only a few contractions. Heather seemed to be immune to the pains and still slept. He cut the cord with the sterilized scissors Isabelle put into his hand.

“The afterbirth should come soon, too, now that the baby has been delivered,” he said.

He placed a hand on Heather’s forehead and told her to wake.

Isabelle washed the baby and cleared its nose and throat, but it did not breathe or move. She turned it bottom up and gave it a brisk massage hoping to encourage it to breath and it still did not move. She laid it on the bed and breathed into its mouth resulting finally in a thin cry, as he seemed to come to life in her arms.

“It’s a boy,” she said. “Did Heather say if she had thought of a name?” she asked Doris.

“Not to me,” Doris said. “She might have spoken to someone else, even that bastard Luther. It’s his. I suppose we could name him after him.”

But then Heather spoke up. “No, not him. I want him to have the name of the man who delivered him.” She was awake and seemed in much better shape than she had been just minutes ago. It seemed like a miracle.

“Call him Wolf for now,” Evan suggested. “It is our clan name and he can be part of the clan, too.”

“Wolf, he is,” Doris said as she bustled about getting food and drink ready for Heather.

Isabelle wrapped the clean newborn and laid him in Heather’s arms. “Let him nurse while we finish up.” She showed Heather how to introduce the baby to the breast. The baby was more responsive than she had feared. He and Heather had endured a long difficult labor. Both were lucky Evan had been able to salvage the situation with his magic hands and voice.

Heather looked worn out and she seemed worried so Isabelle asked her, “What’s worrying you? You seem anxious.”

“It’s Luther,” the girl said. “I don’t want to see him, especially alone. I’m afraid he’ll hurt us, me and the baby. I’m also afraid he’ll want me to have sex too soon since the baby is born now.”

Evan spoke up, “Don’t worry. You don’t have to worry about him any more. You and the baby are safe.”

The girl was not quite ready to trust in that without more reassurance. “He likes to hurt me and he does what he wants regardless of what I might want or feel. I really thought I would do anything to have enough to eat, but I no longer think that. He said if I would let him have sex with me, he would let me come here with him. Otherwise I could just starve. I wanted to be some place safer but having to put up with him was worse than I could have imagined. I would be happy to never see him again.”

“No one here will ever see him again,” Isabelle said lightly. “He left the castle shortly before Evan and I came here to this room. He will never return to hurt you or bother anyone else, either. You do not have to be afraid or worried any more.”

They cleaned the bed and the room and fed Heather, finally leaving her and little Wolf to sleep and regain their strength.

“Wake her in two hours. The baby is underweight and so is the mother. They both need to eat every two to three hours for the foreseeable future,” Evan said. “She’s going to crash pretty hard, so she is not out of the woods yet.”

“What did you do to bring the baby?” Isabelle asked.

“It’s a kind of compulsion. He was aware of what Luther did to his mother. He did not feel life would be at all good with the kind of man they would have to tolerate. He was literally afraid to live, to have to exist in such conflict. Babies are impressionable. They often sense conflict in the womb. Everyone needs a sense of hope and the baby only sensed fear and pain. He can also sense that his mother is in trouble or in physical distress. Part of what I do is to calm his fears of whatever he’s noticed in the world. His father was a rough, even cruel man. His mother was having a lot of physical stress, which I was able to relieve through the compulsion I used on her. I’m glad I killed Luther, for Heather and the child as well as for you. I sensed he abused the girl and used her for rough sex. The loving attention and touch you gave him helped, too. The kindness of the touch brought him into this world…made him want to live, unlike his father.”

“They will be better off without him, but she will still have to raise the child alone,” Isabelle said.

“We will help them,” Evan said. “Plus she will become more educated and independent as she matures. It will take a long time for her to recover from what Luther did to her. She may never wish for a mate after being with him.”

“I felt pretty much the same until I met you,” Isabelle said. “I was really starting to think all men were scum except maybe Albert.”

“Things are changing here,” Evan said. “Changes always happen. Influencing change and making changes happen can be one way to help people.”

It excited Isabelle to think that she could bring good things to Heather as well as lots of other people. “I’m really starting to like this.” She told him, unwilling and unable to hide her excitement. “What you did was remarkable. I’m afraid we would have lost her and the baby without your help. How did you learn to do it?”

“It came to me when I needed it the first time I had to deliver a baby,” he told her. “It’s like your visions of illness. It also is something more hopeful than just being a warrior. I know I have to be a warrior, but I can be something else, too.”

Isabelle thought she understood all too well. She really wanted to be something else besides a brothel keeper. Detecting illness wasn’t something she could tell people in her society without putting herself at risk, but Evan didn’t seem bothered by it at all. He seemed to think it was pretty normal.

It was full morning. “Let’s get some breakfast,” she suggested. “They should be serving now.”

Evan replied with his standard grunt and nod and they headed downstairs together.

Chapter 11

Uncle was there along with many other people. “So how are our newly weds?” he shouted. “Tell me man, have you tamed the witch yet?”

“I like her as she is,” Evan said. “Why would I want to tame her?”

It seemed best to change the subject and she rushed to say, “We’ve been busy delivering Heather’s baby…a boy,” Isabelle replied.

Uncle looked at Evan with disapproval. “I would have thought you’d have her within your control by now,” he said. “I don’t see why she has to attend births. We don’t need more mouths to feed. It just means we all get less to eat.”

“I see it as one of her virtues,” Ethan growled.

Albert sent servers to put food before them and the discord was interrupted before anything more was said. Isabelle and Evan ate well and left the great hall to go back to her room.

A guard approached them as they neared her room.

“Angela wants you immediately,” he said.

“Of course,” Isabelle replied. She turned and looked at Evan. “I’ll see her and return as soon as I can.”

“I’ll come with you,” he said.

They headed for the steps and hesitated outside Uncle’s room while the guard announced them.

Angela was alone in the room.

She turned and looked at them with haughty disapproval. She wanted to be arrogant but wasn’t capable of pulling it off. Isabelle and Evan were natural commanders, but Angela was just an unlucky woman who survived because she had big breasts. “I want your keys to this place. It’s my right to have them as the leader’s woman.”

“There are keys here and there,” Isabelle said. “I’m sure if you just make an effort you can gather them up and have them in one place if you want.”

“I want you to gather them up and bring them to me immediately,” Angela said. It was an order, not a request.

“This place belongs to me, not Uncle,” Isabelle said.

Angela smiled with obvious satisfaction, “But you failed to keep control. Now it’s ours and there is nothing you can do about it. Bring me the keys!”

“I’ll work on it,” Isabelle said, not intending to do any more than keep the peace.

“I also need all your notes and plans for our guest weekends,” Angela said. “We have one coming up next weekend and I will be running things in your place. I know a lot more about entertaining men than you do.”

It was probably true. Isabelle knew Angela knew a lot more about arousing men than she did. While Evan seemed to like her, most other men thought she was a demanding, nagging pain in the ass, plus she refused to do what they wanted her to do.