Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
He looked lost and helpless, his eyes resting on his wife.
“I’ll be fine,” Fiona assured him. “Do as Aliss says.”
He nodded, hesitated, then reluctantly left the cottage.
Aliss turned to see her sister crying and hurried over to her. “Everything will be fine.”
“Will it?” Fiona asked, as if she expected a promise.
Aliss leaned over and combed her sister’s hair with her fingers, gathering it in the back to tie with a ribbon. “You and Tarr will be the parents of a fine babe this day. Do not worry.”
“If our husbands don’t kill each other first.” She sniffled.
“I ordered Raynor to keep watch over them.”
“That is good,” Fiona said with a modicum of relief.
“Now relax, you will need your strength as the pains increase.”
Rogan sat, with Raynor to his right, beneath the tree that shaded the cottage, watching Tarr pace in front of the closed door.
“Aliss is an excellent healer,” Rogan said, hoping to ease his concern.
“Don’t you think I know that,” Tarr snapped, never missing a step.
“Then there is no need for you to worry,” Rogan said.
Tarr spun around. “Tell me you would not worry if it were Aliss giving birth.”
“She is a healer who—” The sudden clarity of his remark made him think. There would be no one as experienced as Aliss to deliver a babe when she eventually gave birth. He would need to remind Aliss to teach Anna all she could about birthing.
“Worry all you like,” Rogan finally said.
Tarr nodded. “I plan to.”
“You don’t give your wife enough credit,” Raynor said. “Fiona is stubborn and strong. She will do fine.”
A couple of hours later all three men weren’t so sure about that when piercing screams resonated from the cottage.
“You did not warn me that it would hurt this much,” Fiona accused, dropping back against the pillow exhausted after several hours of labor.
“It would not have mattered if I did. You would do what you wanted anyway,” Aliss said in jest.
“And you don’t? You jumped into marriage with a man you love, to discover he loved you only to be betrayed by him. You then enter a bargain with him giving the idiot time to prove his love, which evidently he’s done. But still you continue to worry if it’s all real.”
Aliss stared dumbfounded at her. Where had that come from? Her sister’s mind should be on her delivery and here she was pointing out Aliss’s problems.
“I know the way you think,” Fiona said with a shake of her finger.
“You seem to,” Aliss answered calmly, knowing this was not the time to discuss her and Rogan’s relationship.
“Why afraid to speak up?”
“This isn’t a conversation we should be having now,” Aliss warned.
“Why not? We have nothing else to do but wait for the babe, who will come in his own good time. Your words, not mine. If it were up to me, he would have been here weeks ago. Now tell me if I am right.”
Her sister would harp and harp if she didn’t speak, and besides, she ached to talk with Fiona. They might argue, but in the end, problems would be hashed out and decisions made. “Rogan has proven he loves me time and again. He confided much in me over the time we have been here . . .”
“But?”
Aliss knew she should not let it bother her, but it had been such a shock to find out, and even more of a shock that he had not told her about it before anyone else. “Rogan did not confide in me about Tarr being his half brother.”
“Understandably. It would have only caused more friction at a time Rogan was focused on getting you to realize how much he loved you. You came first to him. Damn, I hate taking his side, but the truth is—” A sharp pain robbed her of her words.
“No more talk, save your strength,” Aliss ordered, wiping her sister’s perspiring brow with a cool, moist cloth.
“No, this needs to be said,” Fiona insisted on a rolling breath. “The truth is, the man has put you first.”
“How so?” Aliss argued.
“Don’t sound like a spoiled child,” Fiona scolded. “He could have spilled his guts from day one and made everything worse.”
“He would have made it better.”
“That’s a laugh,” Fiona said. “Think of it. It would have sounded like you meant nothing to him and he did everything to get revenge. I imagine the idiot figured his only chance was to prove his love before he enlightened you to the truth. He actually put you first, thought of your feelings. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
That her sister made sense stunned Aliss to silence.
“My advice to you, dear sister? Feel love, accept love, live love, and stop worrying about all the extra nonsense.”
“I didn’t know you were such an authority on love.”
“I didn’t either, but I learned that you need to respect and honor love even if it doesn’t turn out exactly as you wanted it to. I’ll get used to the idiot, and the only reason why is because he loves you and will keep you safe. He’s—” She cleared her throat and rushed to add, “He’s a good man.”