Redemption (Book Two of the Shipwrecked Series) (3 page)

“Yeah, love?” he
answered, still shaken from the surprise of what was happening.

“Can you please
cook some meat?  She’ll need it for strength…and make some broth too.”

“Aye,” he nodded,
glad to have something useful to do.

“Here, take her
too,” Quinn said, thrusting the sleeping baby into Rowan’s hands.

“No!  I…I doona
ken what tae do with that!” he protested, eyes wide with fear as he studied the
baby that he now clutched in his large hands.

“Ye’ll figure it
out.  It’ll be good practice” Quinn said dismissively, glancing at Anna’s
growing belly.  She was nearly four months along with Rowan’s first child.

As if sensing
Rowan’s frazzled nerves, the baby’s eyes flew open and she began to scream at
the top of her tiny lungs.  Her cries were frantic, her breathing sporadic as
she gulped for air in between screams.

“I doona ken what
tae do!” Rowan protested again, holding the screaming baby at arms length, his
green eyes wild with apprehension.

“Pull her tae yer
chest.  She likes that,” Quinn offered, pushing Rowan from the room and closing
the door dismissively behind him.

He would just have
to figure it out.

Anna’s pulse
quickened.  Fear boiled up inside of her.  She was pregnant and this could very
well be her in a few short months.  What if she died during child birth?  How
would Rowan be able to care for their child?  She swallowed hard and tried to
push the unpleasant thoughts from her mind.  Her hand had involuntarily gone to
her swelling belly, protecting the precious child within.  The child growing
within her was part of her and part of Rowan, the husband that she loved so
dearly.

Anna jumped into
motion.  “We need to massage her womb,” she said, settling herself next to the
pale, sleeping woman.  “Do you know her name?”

“Sarah,” he
whispered, swallowing hard.

“Alright, talk to
her.  Hold her shoulders in case she wakes up suddenly,” Anna coaxed.

Quinn lowered
himself onto the bed next to Sarah, worry making heavy lines on his ruggedly
handsome face.

“Sarah, we’re
going tae help ye,” he whispered, brushing the hair tenderly back from her
face.

“This will be
painful,” Anna offered, beginning to massage Sarah’s uterus gently by pressing
her fingers into the slack skin of her belly.  “It should help slow the
bleeding, though.”

Sarah moaned in
response to Anna’s touch and threw her head to the side in protest.  Her
green-brown eyes fluttered open and darted frantically around the room, trying
to get a bearing on her surroundings.

“Shh…” Quinn
soothed, whispering softly into her ear.  “This is Anna, my sister.  She’s
trying tae help ye, trying tae stop the bleeding.”

“Where’s my baby?”
Sarah asked, alarmed.

“She’s fine,”
Quinn reassured her, smoothing her hair back from her face.  “My brother has
her.”  Quinn bit his lip, hoping that the baby really was fine.  His brother’s
ineptitude with the child had been painfully obvious.

Sarah relaxed and
closed her eyes, too tired to protest further.  Her face contorted with pain as
the pressure of Anna’s massage intensified.  Her uterus was tender and Anna’s
small fingers were strong and relentless.

Sarah buried her
face against Quinn’s expansive chest.  His skin was warm against her cheek and
his presence was strangely comforting to her.  Quinn had been her protector
throughout the ordeal of labor.  Having him here by her side now felt right. 
Sarah fitted her arms around his waist and held onto him for dear life,
fighting against the pain that resounded through her small frame.

“Shh…, it’s
alright,” Quinn whispered, holding Sarah to his chest and kissing her lightly
next to her ear.

Shivers shot down
Sarah’s spine due to the sharp contrast between Anna’s tormenting massage and
the sweet tickle of Quinn’s stubble against the sensitive skin next to her ear.

He just kissed
me.

Anna’s fingers
stopped for a split second and then continued to deepen the massage.  Seeing
Quinn kiss Sarah had been so unexpected!  Quinn had not seen her notice the
casual kiss and now Anna worked hard to focus her eyes on Sarah’s abdomen.  She
had never seen Quinn be intimate with a woman.  In fact, she had never heard
him speak of a woman except for Mairi.

Anna’s heart
thundered in her chest as the idea crept into her mind.

Is this your
child, Quinn?  Do you love this woman?

Anna deepened the
pressure of her massage, working with a renewed purpose.  If this was indeed
Quinn’s child and Sarah was Quinn’s lover, Anna would do everything in her
power to save Sarah.  Quinn was already broken from the loss of one woman and
Anna knew that losing another woman that he loved would kill him.

A deep groan of
pain escaped from Sarah’s lips.  Anna’s touch was torture.  Quinn gathered her
in his arms and held her more firmly against his chest.  He made gentle shushing
noises against her hair.  His touch soothed her.

“Can I look to see
if the bleeding has slowed?” Anna asked cautiously, letting up on the pressure
that she applied to the Sarah’s belly.

“Go ahead,” Sarah
whispered breathlessly.  At this point, she didn’t care who looked at her.

Anna peered
cautiously between the woman’s legs and breathed a sigh of relief.  “It’s
working, Sarah,” she beamed, nodding her head reassuringly.  “The bleeding has almost
stopped,” Anna declared, continuing to massage Sarah’s womb for good measure,
but now using less pressure.

Quinn kissed
Sarah’s hairline, unaware of what he was doing.

“Thank-you,” Sarah
whispered, closing her eyes in a combination of relief and exhaustion.  She
relaxed against Quinn’s warm, naked chest and her eyes glanced up at his
strikingly handsome face.

The planes of his
face were dotted with stubble, lending him a rugged look.  His face was riddled
with concern. He was worried about her and hearing Anna’s assessment that her
condition was improving had softened his expression.

Rowan knocked
gently on the door and then opened it.  In one arm, he cradled the sleeping
baby and in the other he balanced a mug of steaming broth.

Anna’s heart
swelled when she saw her beautiful, shirtless husband holding the sleeping
baby.  His eyes flashed proudly to her and he gifted her with a fleeting
smile. 

He had survived.

“There’s one more
thing,” Quinn muttered, watching his brother carefully set down the broth on
the table next to the bed and smirking at how slowly he accomplished the task. 

Rowan was
obviously terrified of waking the sleeping baby.  Rowan clenched his teeth
together in concentration and looked as if he thought the baby might explode in
his arms at any second.

“What?” Anna
asked, eyes still fixed on her capable husband, her hand now resting
protectively over their growing child.

“I had tae cut
her,” Quinn confessed, color flushing his face as he thought about how
intimately he had touched Sarah.

“You what?” Anna
and Rowan exclaimed simultaneously, faces revealing their shock.

“You cut her
there
?”
Anna asked incredulously, hazel eyes bulging in disbelief.

“Aye.  The baby
was stuck.  I had tae…” Quinn explained defensively.

“Jesus, Quinn!”
Rowan exclaimed in disbelief, jostling the sleeping baby and then freezing in
panic when he realized what he had done.

Her eyes flew open
and she let loose a wail fit to bring down the roof.  Rowan looked frantically
about the room, unsure of how to react.

“Take her!” he
said, thrusting her at Quinn.

 Quinn settled
Sarah gently back against the bed and reached out and took the screaming
bundle, chuckling softly at his frazzled brother.  Rowan was usually so
collected, so rational.  Who would have thought that it would be a tiny infant
that would cause him to lose his nerve.

“I need to feed
her,” Sarah said, reaching to take the screaming bundle from Quinn.  She
settled the baby and leaned back against his massive frame.  Something about
Quinn made her feel safe, protected.  Sarah hushed the baby and the tiny infant
quieted in her mother’s arms.

“I ken that it
willna be pleasant for either of ye, but could ye check where I cut her, Anna? 
She may need a few stitches,” Quinn said, the burn of embarrassment heating his
skin.

“I’ll have a
look,” Anna responded, wincing slightly.  She couldn’t imagine what it would
feel like to be cut
there.
  Quinn had only done what was necessary to
get the baby out.  Anna said a quiet prayer in hopes that her own baby would be
born easily.

“We’ll leave ye
be,” Quinn said, helping Sarah settle in the bed and slowly standing up. 
“Holler if ye need anything,” he said, eyes soft as he looked down at the
women.  Both Anna and Sarah had been so brave today.

The door closed
softly behind the shirtless Murray brothers and Sarah was left alone now with
her baby and Anna.

“Thank you again,”
Sarah said, smiling at Anna, who still sat next to her on the bed.

“I’m glad that it
worked.  I heard a woman speaking of such a treatment on the
Mary Catherine,
the ship that we took over here.”

Sarah loosened the
string at the neckline of her dress and exposed a breast for her baby.

“I’ve seen other
women do this all my life, but it’s strange to be doing it myself now!” she
chuckled nervously, a pang of longing flooded over her as she thought of her
mother.  If her mother was alive, she would have helped her with this.

“Do you want me to
go out?” Anna asked, suddenly feeling like she was intruding on Sarah’s
privacy.

“No, stay…please stay. 
You’ve been so kind to me and in all honesty having another woman here makes me
feel better,” Sarah confessed, taking her breast in her hand and positioning it
for her baby.  The baby was frantic with hunger, nuzzling against her skin. 
“Oh!” Sarah exclaimed as the baby latched on to her breast and began to suckle
for the first time.  “That feels so strange!” she exclaimed, giggling softly.

Anna laughed
quietly, flooded with feelings of contentment from a job well done.  Watching
Sarah with her baby made Anna long to meet her own baby.  Her hand circled
lazily over the growing bulge of her belly.

“It’s amazing,
isn’t it?” Anna asked whimsically as she watched Sarah feed her baby.  “That we
can grow such a miracle inside of us, create a new person.”

“Truly amazing,”
Sarah said softly, relaxing now as the baby suckled her breast.  She stroked
her fingers gently over the baby’s head and down her arm.  The baby’s fingers
latched on to Sarah’s index finger and squeezed.

“Have you named
her yet?”  Anna asked.

“No, not yet.  I
want to talk to Quinn about it first,” Sarah said absentmindedly as she toyed
with her baby’s tiny fingers.

Lord have
mercy.  This is Quinn’s baby!
 

..ooOoo..

“Sae ye just came
across her in the forest?” Rowan asked, eyebrows arched as he interrogated his
older brother.

“Aye.  I was out
hunting and I heard her.  Nearly shot her with an arrow!  I thought that she
was an animal,” Quinn revealed, sitting in the rocking chair next to the fire,
shoulders slumped as the exhaustion of the day’s events set in.

“Where are her
people?” Rowan asked.

“I doona ken.  I
asked her if I could help her get tae them and she said no.  For whatever
reason, she doesna want tae go tae them.”

“She’s a savage?”

“I doona ken for
sure.  She’s wearing their clothes.  She looks like them with her dark hair and
all, but then again, she speaks perfect English.”

“Do ye think
they’ll come looking for her?” Rowan asked, alarmed as he thought of Anna and
the baby that grew in her womb.  “We canna keep her here if they will come
looking for her.”

“I doona ken if
they’re looking for her or not.  I was too busy saving her life and delivering
her baby tae ask her,” Quinn said sarcastically, pulling the leather tie from
his shoulder length chestnut hair and rebinding the unruly masses at the base
of his neck.  “I doona ken much about her, Rowan.”

“We need tae ask
her.  Let her rest awhile and then we need tae make sure that it’s safe for her
tae be here,” Rowan warned, always protective of his wife’s safety.  “I’ll no
have Anna put in jeopardy over this.”

“Aye, I agree. 
We’ll let her rest awhile and then ask her.  She’s had a hard day.  A right
braw lass she was,” Quinn said approvingly, his lips curling into a smile as he
thought about how brave Sarah had been.  She had nearly died.

“I want my bed
back,” Rowan said sternly, standing from his seat next to the fire and moving directly
in front of its heat so that he could warm his back.  “I’ll no have Anna
sleeping on the floor, not in her condition.”

Quinn noticed the
scars that spanned Rowan’s back and rage boiled within him.  Each place that
the Englishman’s whip had split Rowan’s skin had healed into a thick, corded
scar.  The scars spanned his little brother’s back, interlacing with each other
into a wicked web.  Rowan’s back was an ever present reminder of the suffering
that the English had brought the Murray family. 

Quinn vowed
silently that Murdock would die for what he had done to his family.  Murdock
would pay for what he had done to Mairi.  Quinn would avenge all of the wrongs
that the English had brought against those that he loved.  He forced Murdock
from his thoughts and brought his mind back to the conversation.

“Ye can have yer
bed,” Quinn muttered as he looked away from his brother.  “I’ll take her to my
cabin,” Quinn said, pushing out of the rocker and standing next to his
brother.  “Thank ye for yer help,” he said, clapping Rowan soundly on the back.