To Tempt Highland Fate (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (67 page)

             
He kicked a chair, sending it flying across the room and crashing into the wall.  It shattered into several pieces.

             
Bren pulled his wife protectively into his arms and glared at his brother.

             
“Pull yerself together, man!  What’s done is done.  Yer to be a father, and that’s that.  Everything will be fine.”

             
Drust returned to his angry pacing.  “I was so careful, only once!  I lost control just once.  One blasted time and this is what comes of it!”  He hit the wall again, uttering a stream of vile curses as he did so.

             
“Only once?”  Faith asked, incredulous.

             
Bren rolled his eyes at his brother’s outburst and sighed.  “I think he means only once did he spill his seed inside her, lass.”

             
“Oh.  Well, that’s all it takes.”

             
Bren smiled at his wife.  Indeed, that was all it had taken for them to conceive.  But unlike his brother, Bren was overjoyed at the new life he and Faith had created together.  He reached out to cup her slightly rounded stomach in one big hand, pulling her into his arms.

             
“Let’s give him some time.  He’ll come around… eventually.  I hope.”

             
The door cracked open and Maggie stuck her head in and beamed at Drust. 

             
“Ye can go in now.”  Her face was aglow with a joyful smile bright enough to light the room.

             
Drust wanted to wipe it away.

             
“I trust Faith has told ye the good news?”

             
Faith quickly intercepted whatever inappropriate thing Drust was about to say in return by taking Maggie’s arm and turning her around.

             
“Let’s go and give them some privacy, shall we?”

             
Bren shot his brother a warning glare before following the women out of the room.  Drust took several deep breaths, and waited several long minutes before he crossed the hall and opened the door to the room he shared with Willa.  She was sitting on the bed, fixing her hair where it had come undone from its ties.  She looked up when the door opened and her expression immediately turned to one of wariness.

             
He closed the door behind him, a little too hard.

             
“Did ye ken, before today?”

             
She looked down at her lap.  “Yes.”

             
His features tightened into a mask of rage.

             
“And ye didna see fit to tell me?”  He took several angry strides closer.  “Answer me, lass!”

             
She stood and faced him, hands clenched in small fists at her sides.  “How dare you speak to me like that!  I tried to tell you, more than once, but you haven’t exactly made it easy!”  She stood, trembling with so much strong emotion.  “I will not be sorry for this!  I want this child, whether you meant to or not, you gave me this child!  This is supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life, damn it, telling the man I love that he’s to be a father.  But instead I get nothing but your anger!” 

             
Aye, he was angry.  Yesterday he had everything, and today he found out he could very well lose it all.  He felt it churning inside him, bubbling up to the surface, making him want to strike out at something.  He turned and put his fist through the wardrobe, the thick wood splintering.  His knuckles came away bloody, but he didn’t seem to notice.  “Aye, my anger!  I didna want this!  Everything was perfect, and now it’s gone all to hell!”

             
He turned and stalked out of the room, slamming the door in his wake.  Willa heard his heavy footfalls on the stairs and collapsed back onto the bed, finally letting the tears come.  It was only a short time before the door opened and she looked up to see Faith, concern etched on her pretty face.  She took one look at Willa and hurried to the bed, sitting down and enfolding her in her arms. 

             
“I saw him go.”

             
“He was angry.  As angry as I imagined he would be.  No, angrier.”

             
“Oh Willa!  He’s not really
angry
, he’s frightened.  It will all work out, I know it will.  He will think about it and calm down.  He loves you so very much,”

             
“I know.  He’s afraid, that’s all.  Afraid of something that he can’t fight against.  Something he’s already convinced himself is going to happen.  I can understand that.”  She wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand.  “I can understand… but it still hurts.”

             
Faith smoothed her hair, and Willa sobbed into her shoulder.

             
“I’m sorry”, she said after a time.  “I don’t mean to cry so.  It’s just that I’ve been dreading this moment since I found out, and…”

             
“Hush, you let it all out now.  A cry is good for you.  You shouldn’t keep anything bottled up inside.  And it’s normal, for being pregnant I mean.  The hormones; I cried for days at a time in my first two months.  It’s only just started getting better.”

             
“Hormones?”

             
Faith smiled.  When would she remember that she was in a different time?  “Never mind.  It’s normal for you to feel especially weepy, that’s all.  Besides your husband being a complete ass, of course.  Do you want me to stay with you awhile?  I could sit here while you rest…”

             
Willa sat up and pushed her mussed hair out of her face.  “Thank you, but no.  I think I’ll go out for a walk.  I feel like I need some fresh air, and maybe some time alone to think.”

             
“All right.  I’m here if you need me.”  Faith stood and started for the door, but then turned around.  “And Willa, think of it!  We’ll both be having babies!  Little cousins that will grow up together.  I can’t think of anything more perfect.”

             
“Neither can I”, Willa said, smiling and sobbing all at the same time.

Chapter
19

              Faith looked up from her work and watched as Drust trudged up the stairs to the tower.  Then she watched him come back down again.  His jaw was still set and his shoulders stiff, but he seemed marginally calmer.

             
“Where is she?  Where’s Willa?”

             
Faith frowned at him.  She had half a mind to tell him what an idiot he was being, but decided it likely wouldn’t help matters any.  Men didn’t know that they were being idiots, even if someone pointed it out to them.  They had to figure it out for themselves, usually through the consequences of said idiocy. Still… she loved Drust like a brother.  And he had been willing to give up everything for Bren… and for her.  Drust Mac Coinnach was a good man.

              “She went out for a walk.”

             
“Alone?  Where did she go?”

             
Faith shrugged, turning her attention back to the little shirt she was attempting to knit.  Maggie was trying to teach her, but already she’d had to unravel it twice.  “I don’t know.  She said she wanted some fresh air.”  She looked back up and narrowed her eyes accusingly.  “And she was more than a bit upset.  I sat with her while she cried.  A lot.”

             
Drust groaned as if in pain and dragged a hand through his hair, pacing a few steps before running for the door.  “I really dinna need this…” he mumbled.

             
Faith sighed and set down her knitting.  Drust and Willa would work things out.  Drust was just a little confused… a little lost.  She smiled.  It was time to meet Bren for a private dinner for two.

              Faith had intended to walk in the gardens until her head cleared, but after a while she realized that just wasn’t going to happen.  Nor did she feel like she could go back to the confines of the keep.  When she noticed a narrow path winding through the woods, she followed it, still lost in her thoughts.  A small cottage came into view through the trees, and just as she drew close enough to see the door, it flew open.

             
An older man with white hair stood there, a strange grin on his face.  Shocked, Willa could only gape at him.

             
“Ah, lass! Ye must be the latest Mac Coinnach bride.  I’m sorry I wasna here to greet ye when ye arrived, but I was away on some verra important business.  I’m Dirc.  I’m certain ye must have heard of me.”

             
She had.  So this was Dirc… the sorcerer who was both beloved and reviled by all.  She walked closer, a tentative smile on her face.

             
“Yes, I have heard of you.  It’s good to finally meet you, sir.”

             
“Och, just Dirc to you lass.”  He moved out of the doorway and began to walk around her in a circle, looking her up and down all the while.  “So he kens?”

             
“What?”

             
“About the child.”

             
“Who?”

             
“Drust, lass.  Does he ken about the child?”

             
Why was she so confused all of the sudden?  “Oh.”  She couldn’t help but heave a frustrated sigh.  “Yes, he does.”

             
“And he wasna happy.”

             
“No.”  Though a small part of her had held out hope that he would be happy…

             
“And he’s upset ye, made ye cry.”

             
“Y... Yes…”  This man was strange… very strange, but somehow, she wasn’t afraid of him.  Besides, everyone in the keep spoke of him with affection.  She turned her head to watch him as he continued to circle her where she stood.

             
“And ye have it in yer mind to perhaps teach him a lesson… about what is important and what is no’.”

             
“No,  I…” 
Teach him a lesson?
  To be honest, it
had
crossed her mind.  She had trusted Drust with her heart, and he
had
hurt her.  Whether he meant to or not.  And he made her feel guilty for carrying his own child.  A child that she already loved with all her heart.  A child that deserved a father who loved him as well.  She had thought to maybe leave for a while, visit James and Maura… make him worry… but had quickly discarded the idea.  She would not risk the safety of her baby that way.  “Perhaps… but I…”

             
“Ye thought to leave for a time… make him fret and worry until he realized what he had and would do anything to have it back again?”

             
Willa’s eyes flew open in surprise, then narrowed in suspicion.  “How did you know that?”