“I know.” My best friend’s mother’s words were a high, happy screech, and she latched on to my arm in her delight. “This…” we turned in unison, “is my husband, Hew.”
I extended a hand in his direction and he took it gladly, his giant hand swallowing my own. “It’s very nice to meet you. You must be quite something to have wrangled in Adelle.”
He laughed a deep, friendly laugh, and his smile reached his eyes. The best smiles, from the kindest people, always did.
“Ach, I am verra pleased to meet ye. I have heard much about ye.”
“Oh no.” I laughed as I shook his hand, unable to draw my attention away from his beautiful brown eyes and shortly cropped hair. He stood out from all the other men in this time, and it suited him.
“All good things.” He retracted his hand and nodded before turning to leave us, sensing, I suppose, our desire to talk about him.
“Adelle, you hooked a good one.” I tried to whisper, but so tickled with the shock of seeing her so settled, my attempt at a whisper failed. Both Bri and Blaire laughed and scooted in closer to join the conversation.
“I think somebody’s got a little crush, Mom.”
Bri winked at me, and I reached out to run the side of my hand across little Ellie’s sleeping face. She looked beautiful with a baby in her arms.
“Oh, give me a break. It’s just that I’m happy for her is all. I’m happy for all of you.”
“Ditto.” Bri lifted the baby and nudged her head in the direction of the staircase. “Will you show me where I can lay her? Then, we can all resume our visiting while Baodan and the men sit down to their planning.”
“Yes, of course.” Together we walked up the staircase. “What did Kenna tell all of you?”
“Most everything, I think.”
Bri didn’t seem overly worried, which was very odd, but it did help to calm my anxious nerves. Motherhood suited her.
“Kenna said she told you two she was coming to see the baby, but she was really coming to ask for our assistance. I suppose she didn’t want to tell Baodan at the time. She wanted him at home to watch over McMillan Castle and, if he’s anything like the Conall men, he would have turned around to follow his mother had she told him.”
“Yes.” I nodded. “He would have.”
“We were readying to leave when Nairne showed up, exhausted and sick from traveling by foot for days. She is grief stricken but mainly she’s angry as hell. She watched her son die before her eyes, and she knew instantly Niall was to blame. Kenna told her all she knew before she headed our direction.”
“God, I can’t imagine. Witnessing the death of her son, unable to stop it, then dragging herself all the way here. It’s terrible.”
“Yes.” The baby stirred in her arms, and she bent to kiss Ellie gently on the forehead before continuing. “All of it is, and he must be stopped. It’s scary, you know, how you can spend time around someone and just never see who they really are. Granted, I’ve not spent much time with Niall, but I always thought him rather harmless.”
I shivered at the thought of anyone thinking him harmless. Then again, I’d had a very different introduction to him than most. “No, that’s not the word I would use to describe him. Here.” I opened the door to Baodan’s bedchamber. “You can put her in here.”
I knew it to be much too early to know for sure, but I felt very different. As of late, the food here actually tasted good, and I found myself inexplicably dizzy at random times throughout the day. My body just felt weird.
I wanted to see what a sleeping babe looked like in the center of our bed. If my suspicions were correct, there’d be one joining us there soon enough.
Chapter 35
“Mitsy, lass, wake up.”
Baodan’s lips brushed my brow and I stirred, grinning into the blanket. I sat in a chair I moved next to the bed and only my top half lay on the blankets, my hand extended with Ellie’s precious little fingers wrapped around one of mine.
“There is a visitor in me bed.” He bent, wrapping his arms around me as his cheek pressed against my own, and I turned to kiss the side of his face.
“Yes. Bri needed to rest after the journey so I told her to leave Ellie with me, seems I needed to rest as well.”
“Aye, ye look lovely next to a bairn.”
“Hmm…” I wasn’t certain, and I would tell him nothing until I was. “What’s been decided?” Delicately pulling my finger from Ellie’s grasp, I twisted in my seat and stood so that I pressed flat against him, my arms wrapped around his waist.
“We will leave in the morning. Me own men, along with the Conalls and many of their men. It should end easily, but I canna say for sure with Niall. I doona believe many at Cameron Castle will follow him should he try to stand against us, but he is cunning. He willna go without one of his games.”
“What will you do with him?” I ran my hands up and down him, tickling his bare back with my fingertips. His week away seemed an eternity. I wanted nothing more than to stay with my arms wrapped around him forever.