Three Years Later…

Ellie stretched her arms high above her head and let out a slow breath. “Och, when will my body be me own again,” she said, rolling onto her side.

“In about three short months if what I overhear from the kitchen maids is to be believed,” Aidam replies, dropping a light kiss on her rounded belly. “Oh, and if the wee bairn was conceived during a waning moon, he’ll be sure to be a lad.” Ellie playfully slaps him away.

“Aidam Sinclair, what have I told ye about luring the kitchen maids into gossip. Ye encourage them in their stories.”

“Och, my love, ye need not be jealous. As buxom as the old ladies are, I only have eyes for one lass.” He quickly removed his trews and climbed into bed with her, cradling her in his arms.

“Jealous, are ye daft?” She laughed along with her husband’s teasing. He loved sneaking into the kitchen after a meal for a sweet treat, and the Cook, along with her maids, were all old enough to be Aidam’s mother. They loved to dote on him, as the laird of their keep. He loved to listen to their stories. He never tired of the cackling of the old hens, as Ellie liked to say.

She rolled over and looked up at her husband. She would never tire of ending her days like this in his arms.

“How are you feeling, my love?” he asked as he stroked her growing belly.

“Tired mostly, Lyssa was a rambunctious one today. She had no desire to be inside. We spent most of the day down in the meadows identifying flowers.”

“She’s a lot like her mother, our little lass,” he replied. “I seem to remember another little minx who preferred to spend her days out of doors.” He playfully bopped Ellie on the nose. It was true, their daughter, Alyssa, Lyssa for short, named for Aidam’s mother, was more like Ellie than she ever imagined possible.

“Aye, she says she wants to pick all the flowers for the feast herself, and she will not be persuaded otherwise. She also is insistent that the babe growin in my belly is her brother, and she wants to name him William.” The little girl was nearing her third birthday, and Ellie liked to think the bairn was the best thing she and Aidam could have ever created.

“Ha! She may be right, ye ken. They say the wee bairns can see things we grown folk cannae. Perhaps our little Lyssa is a seer.”

“Nay, I think she is more like a dreamer or a warrior. But the bairn kens her own mind, of that I’m certain,” Ellie said, smiling at the memory of Lyssa’s insistence. She was a fierce and willful lass, but Ellie would have it no other way. She would never strive to raise a weak daughter. She wanted Lyssa to have choices. Choices that every lass should have from birth but took Ellie a long time to realize she could make for herself. She wanted Lyssa never to question her place in the world.

“So, she’s exactly like her mam,” Aidam laughed, kissing Ellie before she could object. “And how are the preparations going?”

“Ye would ken if ye didnae spend the whole of yer days in the village,” she replied.

“Och, woman, ye ken I’m helping the men with the harvest. We cannae run out of food for the winter.”

“Nay, of course, I just miss ye is all, husband.” She leaned up and returned his kiss. “The feast is going well, and I cannae wait to see Jemina and Evander. It has been too long.”

“It has. I hope yer brother is giving me uncle a run for his luck.”

“According to Jemina’s last letter, they’re getting along really well. Van is learning a lot. I cannae believe how quickly he is growing into his own man. He’ll make a fine Laird one day.”

“Aye, I never doubted it, and what of Jemina, has my cousin decided on a husband yet?”

Ellie laughed. Jemina was a whirlwind of beauty, grace, and stubbornness. She thought of that first crush the girl had those years ago. “She refused Colin MacGuire ye ken.”

“No, did he finally propose? I didn’t think the lad had it in him.”

“Aye, and Jemina told him no. She said he took too long, and if he truly wanted to marry her, he should have asked her years ago. I think she has eyes on another. On one in the clan.”

“Who?” Aidam asked. Ellie laughed again. Her husband was mischievous and loved his gossip. “Ellie, ye cannae say something like that and not tell me. Ye ken I need to ken.”

“Aye, but ‘tis not my tale to tell. Besides, I don’t think ye’ll like it if I tell ye,” she teased.

“Och, now ye need to tell me, lass.”

“I think she has a soft spot for Duncan MacDougall.”

“Duncan MacDougall!?” Aidam sat up in the bed and looked at Ellie as if he were going to get a horse and ride out to save his cousin from a beast. “The man who ties young lasses to trees?”

“The one and the same. But I think he has only tied me to a tree.”

“Och, ye are the only young lass I care about,” Aidam replied, his scowl creating a crease on his brow. “Why would ye ever think that? Surely, Jemina is smarter than all that?”

“Perhaps, but there is something in her letters, she mentions him more often than she should, and she seems to have true disdain for the man.”

“So why in Heaven’s name would ye think she’s soft on the man?”

“Because, Aidam, I am a woman,” Ellie said, pulling him down to lay next to her again. “And I ken what it’s like to love a man so much ye almost hate him.”

“Ahh, I see,” Aidam replied, kissing her gently. “Well, if Duncan is what me cousin wants, so help me, allow her to have him.”

“There’s my romantic husband.”

“Aye, romantic indeed,” he said. “And word of yer mam?”

“She and Sinclair are happy. I supposed that’s all that matters.” Ellie moved onto her back and ran her hand along the line of her extended stomach.

“Love, I thought you’ve forgiven yer mother.”

“I have. Sometimes I get melancholy, is all,” she said. “I miss my Da. It’s hard to believe he’s been gone so long. I ken it wasn’t her fault. He had his own demons. But sometimes thinking about it makes me sad is all.” A slight flutter of her quickening babe reminding her that there was more to the world than holding on to things long left better forgotten. “I ken it wasn’t her fault, what happened to me Da. She was hurting as much as me. I just wish things could be different, is all.”

“Aye,” Aidam said, moving to place her hands in his own. “But, lass, we must trust that all things happen for a reason. And yer Da is smiling down on ye now, to look at the woman ye’ve become, the mother ye’ve become, and the wife that ye’ve become. I wish he were here with us too, but I would not trade our lives for any such magic in the world.”

Ellie smiled. She knew he was right. Their lives were magical as they were, and every bad thing that had happened to lead them to this point was made more bittersweet as they enjoyed their happiness now.

“I love ye, Adam Sinclair, always and forever.”

“I love ye right back, Ellie Sinclair, always and forever.”

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