A furor erupted as Ronan left Duncan staring after him to stride grim-faced through the throng of O’Byrne clansmen who rose as if to join him. Niall made to follow him, too, yet Ronan gestured for everyone to retake their places. Clearly, he meant to go alone and for the rest of them to make the best of what remained of this ill-fated visit.
Then Ronan was gone, the great doors to the feasting-hall closing shut behind him.
Niall was tempted again to go after him, but his instincts told him the thing was done. He knew Ronan well enough to know that nothing would sway him.
In truth, too, he did not dare leave Duncan and his men surrounded and outnumbered by O’Byrnes that looked ready to pitch a battle at any moment.
Instead Niall sighed heavily and retook his seat as Ronan had indicated. As his brother’s Tanist, his clansmen followed his lead, albeit reluctantly.
“Well, Triona’s not going to be pleased about this turn of events,” he said almost to himself, although from Duncan’s low curse he guessed that his Norman brother-in-law had heard him and was thinking about Maire’s reaction, too.
Damn it all, had there ever been such a thing as a peaceable family reunion?
***
“Begorra, ladies, I fear we’ve lingered here too long. Ronan will surely be wondering what’s become of us,” Triona said as she rose heavily to her feet. At once Aud was at her side to help her, which made Triona erupt into laughter at herself. “Oh, Aud, have you ever seen such a sight? I’m big as a cow and with two weeks or so to go by my reckoning!”
“Mayhap not, sweeting.” Aud clucked her tongue and shook her dark head. “By my reckoning, I’d say you’ve a day or two left before you’ll have a newborn babe at your breast.”
“Would you like Maire and me to go ahead and tell them you’re on your way?” Nora asked, carrying Deirdre. Triona smiled as she shook her head and reached out to caress her daughter’s cheek.
“No, let’s all go together…the three O’Byrne brides!” Then she laughed again. “Aye, and an O’Nolan bride with us, too, my beloved Aud, and one day my sweet Deirdre!”
As they all donned their cloaks and moved to the door, Maire fell behind and Triona glanced back at her.
“Maire?” Triona saw that her sister-in-law’s lovely gray eyes were misty again with tears, but she knew they were happy ones as Maire gazed around the candlelit room and then caught up with them.
The door swung open, and Triona wasn’t surprised to see that a foot of snow covered the ground and spilled across the threshold…with more coming down. The wind had grown fiercer and the air colder, and she at once covered her head with her warm hood. So did the others, Nora holding Deirdre close and making sure she was well bundled up.
As they moved together in a huddle into the torchlit yard, Triona was surprised, though, that the inner gates to the stronghold were wide open and a group of clansmen clustered there.
At once she felt a niggling of alarm, although she told herself to remain calm. Yet it was a strange thing for the gates to be open when everyone had gone to the feasting-hall…
She saw it then, fresh tracks in the snow leading from the stable to the gates.
A single rider from the looks of it, riding hard and fast. Jesu, Mary, and Joseph, whatever could have happened to make someone gallop out into the night?
Triona began to trudge faster through the snow toward the feasting-hall, her heart suddenly pounding in her chest. She felt a sharp pain across her belly, but bit it back.
The same plaguing question taunted her. Whatever could have happened to make someone gallop out into the night?
Intuition gripped her. She was scarcely aware that she’d turned away from the feasting-hall to make her way instead to the gates until Aud, Maire, and Nora came hurrying after her.
“Triona, where are you going?” Aud cried out, but Triona ignored her former maid, her pulse racing now.
Her heart thundering.
Something telling her that events had suddenly gone terribly, terribly wrong though she yet had no basis for it.
She didn’t see Nora turn back with Deirdre to hurry through the snow toward the feasting-hall. Triona didn’t stop until she’d reached the massive gates, struggling to catch her breath as the clansmen there had begun to close them.
“No, wait!” Triona shook off Aud’s hand upon her arm, and ignored Maire pleading for her to accompany them to the feasting-hall where it was warm. As the clansmen ceased their task to face her, Triona saw from their grim expressions that her intuition was not unfounded. “Why are the gates open? Who rode out?”
Only one man seemed to have the heart to step forward even as he glanced uncomfortably at the others. “Your husband, my lady.”
Oh no, oh no, oh no! For a moment Triona felt her knees grow so weak that she feared she might crumple into the snow. Yet in the next instant she rushed past the men through the inner gates, though the second set built into a massive earthen rampart was already closed and barred. Just as the outer gates were already barred, giving her no way to run after Ronan.
For that was exactly what she was doing, desperation seizing her. Wildly she looked around her and saw the wooden steps leading up to the parapet atop the middle rampart.
Distantly she heard Aud screaming for her to stop. Maire crying out for her to stop.
She didn’t heed them, instead clambering up the steps even as another pain seared across her belly stronger than the last. Yet still she climbed, not stopping until she had hauled herself onto the parapet where she stared out into the dark and now blinding snowfall.
“Ronan!”
Hot tears coursing down her frozen cheeks, she cried out his name again and again but the howling wind seemed to suck away the sound. Her hood had fallen, a strong gust whipping at her hair. Frantically she ran along the rampart, stumbling and scraping her hands upon the rough timber as she caught herself.
“Ronan!”
Her voice now raw, hoarse, Triona had begun to sob so inconsolably that she didn’t hear a familiar voice behind her, shouting her name. Instead, she collapsed as a pain so fierce gripped her that she screamed in sudden agony, a warm wetness running down her legs.
“Triona!”
She barely recognized Niall who’d come up behind her, her eyes were so clouded by tears. She felt herself lifted into strong arms. As if from a faraway place she heard him breathing hard as he ran with her along the rampart and then carried her down the steps.
She heard more shouts and her wolfhound Conn’s frantic barking. Unknown hands reached up to take her from Niall and then another pair of strong arms held her fast as she felt the man’s powerful strides.
“Oh, Duncan, I think she’s having the baby!”
Maire’s voice, frantic, terrified…and then Niall’s voice again as a door was kicked open and commands to stoke the fire in the hearth and to fetch hot water filled the air.
“Ah, sweeting…my poor sweeting.”
Vaguely Triona felt Aud’s familiar touch upon her brow until blackness overwhelmed her, Ronan’s name upon her lips.
***
“No, Duncan, we cannot leave now! Triona needs me…needs all of us!”
Duncan sighed heavily at the tears brimming in Maire’s eyes, her gaze so desperate, pleading.
His gut instincts were clamoring to leave the stronghold no matter that Triona moaned in childbirth in the adjacent bedchamber.
No matter that the winter storm had dumped another foot of snow since she had been carried to her and Ronan’s dwelling-house several hours ago amidst frantic alarm and chaos.
Thankfully the wind had ceased to howl and a bright full moon had broken through the clouds, so they would have light to guide their way.
The worst of the snowfall was past and even now, his men awaited his command that they mount up and ride out of Glenmalure. The journey home to Longford Castle in Meath would not be an easy one, but they had ridden through worse.
Yet Maire had never traveled in such co
nditions, which had been the important consideration that had prevented him from ordering that they ride out hours ago in spite of the storm.
That, and Niall O’Byrne asking him to stay at least until after Christmas day for Triona’s and Maire’s sake. A far more reasonable man than his hotheaded brother, Niall had swayed him until Duncan saw the snowstorm had abated when he’d gone to check on his men. He’d returned at once to talk to Maire. If they were going to leave tonight, now was their opportunity…
“Maire, we’re no longer welcome here. I told you what occurred between myself and your brother—”
“Aye, because you asked Ronan an impossible thing! If I’d known you carried such a message from John de Gray, I would never have come here! How could you, Duncan? You knew how much seeing my family again meant to me!”
As tears tumbled down his wife’s lovely face, Duncan had to swallow hard at his sharp sense of remorse. He could have waited to share the Justiciar’s proposal with Ronan until the end of their stay—but God’s teeth, he had a duty first and foremost to the Crown! The vast barony he’d been granted in Leinster by King John depended upon his unswerving allegiance!
“The storm is past, Maire. I hope one day you will forgive me, but we must go—”
“God help us, Niall! Where’s Niall?”
At Aud’s desperate cry as she burst from the bedchamber, her husband Taig O’Nolan lunged from his chair by the hearth.
“He’s ridden out after Ronan. Said he knew where to find him. What is amiss, wife?”
“Oh, Taig, I fear for Triona! The pains grow worse but she’s losing her strength. With Nora and Maire’s help, I’ve done what I can for her but she needs her husband. I came out to tell Niall that he must find him. Ah, God, may he bring Ronan home in time!”
His ruddy face gone pale, the stout chieftain glanced to where Duncan and Maire stood near the door to the dwelling-house.
“It wasn’t my thought to overhear you and your lady, Lord FitzWilliam, but Niall left me in charge while he’s gone. If you wish it, I’ll have the gates opened for you straightaway.”
From Maire’s stricken look, once again her eyes pleading with him, Duncan knew that they would be riding nowhere this night. He nodded toward the bedchamber. “Go. Be with Triona.”
“Oh, Duncan!” Maire flung her arms around his neck to hug him fiercely, and he pulled her against him to hug her back.
Yet only for a moment before he released her and she hastened as best she could away from him to disappear into the bedchamber with Aud.
Chapter 3
Ronan stared into the flickering flames, the peat fire he’d built in the hearth finally warming the stone hut he and Niall sometimes used when hunting.
The shrieking wind had subsided but up here in the forested hills beyond Glenmalure, the snow was piled thick and deep.
He had no food and no water other than to melt some of that snow, but damn it all, what did he care? At least he was no longer among enemies who yearned to make the O’Byrnes their vassals like so many other Irish clans who had ceased to resist the invading Normans.
By God, he would not yield as long as he held breath and life to fight them! To raid against them if any dared to step foot upon O’Byrne lands and attempt to settle there. He prayed Duncan FitzWilliam and his men had already left the stronghold to carry his response forthwith to Dublin Castle, and that the Justiciar John de Gray would choke upon it!
Ronan swore under his breath and drew his heavy cloak more tightly around him, the copper-colored flames reminding him of Triona’s fiery hair.
Aye, her fiery temper, too, which no doubt she would unleash upon him as soon as he returned to the stronghold. That, and her tears…for if Duncan was gone, then Maire would be gone, too, and never to return.
Ronan felt a sharp pang at that thought, but he quickly hardened his heart against it and scowled into the fire.
This disastrous reunion had been folly from the start, but he had surrendered to Triona’s appeals for such an event because he knew how much it would please her. These last few months of her pregnancy had taxed her greatly…so much more than anything she’d suffered with Deirdre. It seemed her tears were always at the ready, unlike anything he’d seen from her before, and he couldn’t bear to see her cry.
Ronan shifted uncomfortably upon the bench, imagining how she must have taken the news of his sudden departure—damn it, no, he didn’t want to think about it!
Instead he glanced at the straw-filled pallet in the corner where he might as well attempt to get some sleep. Or he could step outside now that the snowstorm had subsided and check upon his horse sheltered beneath a lean-to built against the hut. At least there was a bag of oats left from a previous visit to feed the beast.
As for himself, he would have to go hunting in the morning if he wanted to eat, which made him think of the magnificent feast Triona had arranged for Christmas day. Roasted meats—venison, beef, and wild boar—and savory pies of mince and currants and crusty loaves of bread, all to be washed down with ale and honey mead.
Aye, it must be near midnight now, a holy night. A night of peace that he might have spent with Triona and among his clansmen if he had not agreed against his better judgment to share it with hated Normans!
“Enough!” Ronan shouted to the four walls. As furious as when he’d ridden away from the stronghold, he rose from the bench even as he heard his stallion neighing and snorting…and then someone shouting his name.
“Ronan, are you here? By God, answer me!”
Niall! What the devil…? Ronan threw open the door in a swirl of snow and rushed outside to see his brother dismount and lunge through drifts up to his thighs to reach him.
“Ronan, it’s Triona! The babe is coming but she was so distraught after you left! I heard her through the door to your bedchamber crying out your name and I knew I had to find you. I fear for her life, brother!”
Ronan felt the blood drain from his face, Niall’s expression so stricken that an icy chill gripped his heart.
Triona.
Cursing himself for ever leaving her and cursing even more the distance that separated them, Ronan ran for his horse.
God help him, if anything happened to his beloved wife or his unborn child, he would never forgive himself. Never!
***
“Hold her hand, Duncan! Tightly!” Aud commanded as Triona screamed in agony and bore down. “It doesn’t matter that you’re not Ronan. Your strength will give her strength—aye, I see the top of the child’s head!”
Jesu help her! Nora stood beside Aud, ready to assist if asked and feeling flushed from the warmth of the room. She had never seen childbirth before, but she didn’t feel afraid. Only terribly concerned for Triona who was in such pain, though Duncan’s presence had steadied her and made her so much more alert.
Aud had drawn him into the bedchamber only moments ago with an urgent cry—“We need you, Lord FitzWilliam! Ronan isn’t here so you must help us!”—and from then on, events had taken a miraculous turn.
It was as if Triona believed she was holding Ronan’s hand, which she gripped so fiercely that her knuckles were white. As white as the linen sleeping gown she wore that was now damp with sweat, her knees raised and shaking.
Maire stood next to her husband holding his other hand and looking quite pale, no matter she’d attended Deirdre’s birth and wasn’t as new to witnessing childbirth as Nora. Yet both of them were determined to remain with Triona, and murmured words of encouragement as Aud leaned closer to the edge of the bed.
“Aye, Triona, push! Push!”
Her eyes closed, her face bright red as she held her breath and grimaced with effort, Triona did as Aud bade her until suddenly, Aud gave a cry of elation.
“A son, Triona! You and Ronan have a fine son!”
Nora started at the sharp slap that Aud gave the babe’s bottom, and then the most outraged, lustiest outcry filled the room.
At once Triona collapsed backward upon the bed though s
he still gripped Duncan’s hand, everyone smiling their relief and grateful tears welling in Nora’s eyes. Maire too, had tears tracing her cheeks. She glanced up at Duncan with an expression of such love that Nora felt a pang in her heart.
When would Niall return home? Had he found Ronan? She hadn’t known that Niall had left the stronghold to ride out into the snowstorm until Aud had rushed into the adjoining room to beseech him to do just that.
Nora had felt such concern at the news…but intense pride, too, for her courageous and good-hearted husband.
How she loved him! How she longed especially now for his safe return with Ronan when such happy tidings awaited them!
Her eyes blurred with fresh tears, Nora watched as Aud expertly tied off and then dispatched with the cord, cleaned off the wriggling babe, and swaddled him in a warm blanket. She was just about to hand him to Triona, too, who smiled now through her own tears and reached out for her child when her face contorted with fresh pain.
“Sweeting?” Aud’s sharp intake of breath sent a chill plummeting through Nora as she found herself with Triona’s newborn son suddenly thrust into her arms.
“Triona, sit up again!” Aud commanded. “You must sit up and grab your knees. You’ve another babe on its way! I see a foot!”
At once anxiety filled the air as Triona, clearly exhausted from the first birth, struggled to oblige her. Duncan knelt with one knee upon the bed and threw his arm around her to assist her while Maire stepped away, looking truly frightened.
Triona bore down as best she could, but Aud’s worried frown made Nora send a desperate prayer heavenward. Even the babe in her arms with his downy midnight hair began to wail as if fearing for his unborn twin.
As the moments passed and still no birth though Triona pushed mightily, Duncan once more gripping her hand, Nora’s apprehension only grew.
On A Wild Winter's Night (The O'Byrne Brides Book 4) Page 2
