“I told you, the MacKeages kidnap their women and don’t let them leave until they promise to do whatever they say.”
“You said it was until they promised to love them forever.”
“Same thing,” he said, pressing her head down again so she wouldn’t see his grin. “Peg is obviously an obedient wife.”
That got him a poke in the ribs.
He trapped her hand against his side and touched his lips to her hair. “Will you go see Maude today? I will accompany you and sit outside while you two . . . talk.”
“I’ll see her soon, but not today. I want to give her a couple of weeks to get used to working with a doctor. There’s really no rush. I’m not the first woman in history to get pregnant at my age, and I’ve been taking very good care of myself.” He felt her shudder. “I’ve even been drinking that nasty ginger tea under the guise of showing my support for Olivia and Peg and Julia.”
Titus scowled at the ceiling, wondering at her reluctance. “But why not go see her today, before Dr. Bentley arrives?”
“He’s arriving today. And besides, I want some time to myself before she gives me an endless list of what I can and can’t do. Peg’s right; Maude is a bully, only no one realizes it because of her disarming smile.”
“Yet you felt compelled to bring her here to bully Olivia and Peg and Julia and Carolina?” he asked, knowing damn well that wasn’t the reason she was stalling. Could she suspect she wasn’t pregnant and simply didn’t want to hear the undeniable truth that she was aging? He stroked her back. “Would you consider seeing her today for my peace of mind, then?”
Her head came up again, her eyes studying his. “Are you going to spend the next seven months worrying us both crazy?”
“No,” he said truthfully, even as he wondered if he couldn’t rile her out of her stubbornness. “Are you worried she might tell you we’re having twins?”
All that accomplished was to make him bolt upright when she suddenly scrambled off the bed, and he slammed into the ceiling hard enough to leave a dent before falling back with a curse. “Poseidon’s teeth, I was joking,” he growled, rubbing his forehead as he glared at her.
“I knew that,” she said, her cheeks darkening as she brushed down the pajamas she’d put on when he’d been in the shower. “Are you hungry?”
That made him laugh as he carefully freed his feet from the iron footboard. Remembering he couldn’t sit up, he rolled off the bed, only to sigh when his head brushed the ceiling as he stood in the middle of the room. “Have you stocked your cupboards since I was last here, or are we going to have to ride your electric cart to the Drunken Moose?” he asked, looking for the towel he’d worn upstairs after his shower. Only he stopped looking when he saw her face redden even more.
“I can’t remember if I plugged it in to recharge the—” Her eyes suddenly widened on a gasp, and she ran over and touched his arm. “You’re hurt!”
He looked down as he twisted the skin on his arm and saw the bright red welt he knew came from preventing a large tree branch from slapping her on their flight up the ridge yesterday. He lowered his arm with a shrug. “It doesn’t hurt.”
“But you’ve never gotten as much as a mark on you before. Ever.” Her hands lifted to her mouth. “Sweet Zeus, you’ve already become mortal.”
He swiped the towel off the bureau, wrapped it around his waist and tucked it in on itself, then turned to her and silently nodded.
She slowly backed away, her face ashen. “I’m going to have to worry about you getting maimed riding your motorcycle. Or . . . or you can get sick and die.”
Damn. He’d hoped it would take her a while to realize she now had a new and unfamiliar worry to . . . worry about. He pulled her into his arms in a fierce hug. “That was the only thing that made me hesitant to renounce my immortality,” he said softly. “That I could very well die before you do.”
She kept her nose buried in his chest, saying nothing.
“Do your thinking out loud, wife.”
He felt her take a deep breath and finally lean away to look up at him—unable to believe his eyes when he saw a distinct sparkle in hers. “Would I be a widow for very long, do you think?” She batted those big brown eyes even as she tossed her head and ran her fingers through her hair. “I haven’t exactly let myself go to seed, and one rarely sees handsome, wealthy widows sitting on a shelf growing cobwebs.”
It took him a couple of heartbeats to remember what a stubborn, opinionated, irreverent, terrible wife she was before he draped her backward over his arm and dropped his nose to within an inch of hers. “I will do more than haunt you, Mrs. Oceanus,” he said ever so softly. “I will set a pox on any suitor who comes calling.”
“Such a possessive man you are,” she whispered, pulling him down the rest of the way, her delicious mouth reminding him he’d left off lusty.
No, their marriage had never, ever been boring.
• • •
Rana sat up on the narrow table and pushed the hem of her blouse down over her elastic-waist pants with trembling hands. “But I’ve gained nearly ten pounds,” she whispered so she wouldn’t shout. “And my bosom has grown.”
“It’s your body adjusting to the change,” Maude returned just as softly.
“But I haven’t had my woman’s flow for over two months now. It wouldn’t just stop all of a sudden with no warning, would it? Maybe . . . is it possible you just can’t feel the baby yet, or that I’m only a few weeks along instead of nine or ten?”
“You’re not pregnant, Rana, and you never will be again.”
“You’re absolutely certain?”
The midwife started to give her a disarming smile, but then dropped her gaze and merely nodded—only to flinch when Rana jumped off the table with a shout and ran out of the cubicle. She sprinted through the church’s freshly painted basement full of shiny new equipment and, ignoring Maude calling to her, threw open the outside door and didn’t even wait for her startled husband to finish turning before she hurled herself at him. “We’re not having a baby!” she cried as he lifted her off her feet and buried his face in her neck. “Not now and not ever again!”
“Ah, Stasia, I’m sorry,” he said gruffly, squeezing the breath right out of her as she felt him also start to tremble. “I’ll give you one if you wish,” he rushed on thickly. “Just don’t cry. I don’t want—”
“Are you insane?” she yelped, rearing back. “I’m too old to have a baby!”
He went as stiff as an oak, still holding her off the ground. “You don’t . . . But you were so . . . Then why in Hades are you crying?”
She smacked his shoulder. “They’re tears of relief, you idiot.” She laughed and hugged him again. “We’re both too old,” she whispered against his hair, “for nightly feedings and changing diapers and chasing toddlers.” She squeezed him tighter. “We just got our children grown and settled, and now all I want is for us to be Granddad and Gram as we grow old together.” She leaned away to clasp his face and searched his eyes. “Are you very disappointed we can never have more children?”
This time he did the laughing. “Sweet Zeus, no! I barely survived the two we have!”
Rana gave him a big noisy kiss on his mouth, wiggled for him to put her down, then turned to Maude standing in the doorway gaping at them. “Yes. Well,” she said, tugging down the hem of her blouse and then wiping her cheeks on her sleeve. “Thank you for the news, Maude. Oh, and the clinic is beautiful. I can’t wait—”
A compact car covered in road dust—the front and back seats loaded to the roof with what appeared to be trash bags and mounds of clothes—came rattling down the driveway beside the church and braked to a stop when the driver spotted them. He shut off the engine, which rattled even louder before finally dying, then opened his door and slowly contorted himself out of the tiny car. Rana watched with amazement as the blond-haired, red-bearded, thirtyish-year-old man stood with one hand on the door and the other on the roof, and slowly finished unfolding hi
s lanky body until he reached his full height of somewhere just over six feet tall.
“Please tell me one of you speaks English and that I’m not two hundred miles into Canada,” he rasped, sounding as tired as he looked.
“Dr. Bentley,” Maude said, rushing to him with her hand extended. “I recognize you from your picture,” she added when he looked startled. “I’m Maude White-Cloud, your midwife.”
Roger Bentley grabbed her hand as if it were a lifeline. “Oh, thank God. I really thought I’d overshot Spellbound Falls and was about to drive off the edge of the world.”
Maude gave a laugh. “Yes, I imagine it might feel like that to a man from the city.” She led him over to Rana. “Dr. Bentley, this is Rana Oceanus, our clinic’s benefactress, and her husband, Titus.”
Roger Bentley shook Rana’s hand with a polite smile, shook Titus’s hand, then frowned at Maude. “I’m sorry, but I thought Olivia was underwriting the clinic. Or that’s what I assumed when she and Mac came down to Boston and interviewed me.”
“Our daughter-in-law’s support,” Rana said, drawing his attention again, “is more in the way of administrative help, as well as providing you with housing at Inglenook. Welcome to Spellbound Falls, Dr. Bentley.” She gestured toward Bottomless and then at the cluster of buildings behind him. “This might truly be the end of the road, but I believe you’ll be happy with your decision to practice medicine here once you meet the townspeople. In fact, the ladies of our local grange are planning to host a welcome reception for you next weekend.”
Roger set his hands just above his hips and surreptitiously stretched the kinks out of his back as he turned to look at the waves gently lapping the shoreline not a hundred feet away. “It really is an inland sea,” he murmured, shaking his head in disbelief, “with actual tides and the smell of salt in the air.” He took a deep breath and looked over his shoulder at them. “Is it true it has whales and sharks?”
“And orcas,” Titus added.
“Friendly orcas,” Rana clarified. “They don’t much care for the taste of humans.”
“What about the sharks?” Roger asked, looking at the water again.
“In the four years since it formed,” Titus said, “there have been no reports of any unpleasant encounters with any of the sea creatures.”
“Would you like to see our clinic, Dr. Bentley?” Maude asked.
“Please, call me Roger,” he said, turning back to them—his eyes widening when Maude gestured toward the small door in the granite foundation before he lifted his gaze to the building above it. “The clinic is in a church basement?”
“Temporarily,” Rana said. “We’re having difficulty finding a building right in town, which is where we want the clinic so it will be easily accessible to the women.”
Roger sighed tiredly again and started toward the church, only to stop when a four-door pickup, its bed loaded with camping gear and towing a sleek-looking boat, came down the driveway.
“Oh, Carolina and Alec are here,” Rana said excitedly. “Our daughter and her fiancé,” she clarified for Roger.
“And the first one of our patients who will give birth,” Maude added as they all watched Alec drive past with Carolina waving wildly at them. He turned the pickup in a large circle and backed it down the boat launch, stopping just at the water’s edge.
“Mama!” Carolina cried as she threw open her door. “Oh, thank the gods,” she said as she ran—or rather waddled—up to them and leaned over her bulging belly to hug Rana. “I called your cell phone for two days before finally calling Mackie, and he said you went camping with Daddy,” she continued in a panting rush, her gaze darting to Titus then to Rana again. “Are you two back together?” she whispered.
“We were never really apart,” Titus said before Rana could answer. “MacKeage,” he went on, shaking Alec’s hand. “Have you come to your senses yet about my offer?”
“What offer?” Carolina asked before Alec could answer.
Rana reached over and pinched her husband’s arm, but to no avail.
“I offered to make him a wealthy man if he persuaded you to run off and get married before you became parents.”
Carolina gasped so hard she took a step back—just before she stepped up to Alec and poked him in the belly. “You better not even be thinking about it.”
“Of course not,” he said, rubbing his belly with a grin. “I like being a kept man.”
Carolina then rounded on her father. “We’re getting married in two weeks, on the top of Whisper Mountain, in a beautiful ceremony with all my friends as witnesses.” She then turned to Roger and held out her hand. “Jane Oceanus.”
“Roger Bentley,” the good doctor said, shaking her hand and then continuing to hold it as he frowned. “Is it Jane or Carolina?”
“That depends on who’s doing the— Wait, you’re Doctor Bentley?”
He nodded, finally letting go of her hand. “You’re cutting it a bit close, aren’t you?” he asked, nodding down at her belly.
“Yes, I am,” she said smugly, shooting Rana a wink then giving Maude a frown before looking at Roger again. “So, Doctor, do you see any reason a perfectly healthy woman can’t camp out in the wilderness the last two weeks of her pregnancy?”
“How deep into the wilderness?”
She waved toward Bottomless. “It’s about four miles to the fiord, then another twelve miles to where we’re going to spend the summer camping out while our home is being built.”
“Am I expected to travel the sixteen miles for the delivery?” He shook his head. “It’s a moot point, anyway. So, Carolina-Jane, do you want to have your baby out here in the parking lot?” he asked—his smile even more disarming than Maude’s, Rana realized. “Or would you like to go inside and see if we can’t find you someplace more comfortable to ride out your labor?”
Carolina cupped her stomach with a gasp, her panicked gaze shooting to Maude. “I’m not in labor! My muscles are just tight because Alec hit every pothole between here and Pine Creek.”
Apparently surprised that Roger Bentley—who looked more like a vagabond than a doctor—had read the subtle signs that her patient was in labor, Maude finally stopped gaping at her new boss and looked at Carolina. “Sorry, but you’ve had at least two contractions since you’ve been standing here.”
Carolina smacked Alec’s arm, further paling the highlander’s complexion. “You made me go into labor!” She then clutched the arm she’d just smacked and looked at Rana. “Mama, I’m having my baby,” she whispered, her complexion also paling as she looked at Maude again. “But it’s too early.”
“Exactly how early?” Roger asked.
“She’s not due for another three weeks,” Alec said roughly, sweeping Carolina off her feet. “For the love of Christ, would it kill you to listen to me just once?” he ground out, heading for the basement door. “I told ye we should stop at Aunt Libby’s and let her check you out before we left.”
“But I can’t have the baby now!” Carolina cried over his shoulder. “Mama, I’m not married yet.”
“Because you thought you were smarter than Mother Nature,” Titus called after her, even as he stopped Rana from following when Maude ran ahead to open the basement door. “We need to go find the minister of this church,” he said, “and bring him here to marry them immediately.”
Despite being aware Roger had halted on the way to his car and was looking at them, Rana glared up at her husband. “You can’t possibly be serious. We have a huge wedding planned for Mayday up at Nova Mare. Everyone from the island is coming.”
“Then they’ll be attending a reception,” he snapped, “because the ceremony is taking place today.”
“Is this her first child?” Roger asked.
“Yes,” Rana answered.
He glanced at his watch and shot them a grin. “Then you don’t have to drag the minister away from his dinner, because this is probably going to take a while.” He turned serious. “They are planning to get married, righ
t? Because I think I should warn you that I don’t allow shotgun weddings in my delivery room.”
“I believe my wife paid for that delivery room, Bentley,” Titus said tightly.
“She may have paid for it, but I’ve got a contract saying it’s mine for the next five years.” Roger calmly began rolling up his shirtsleeves as he nodded toward the church. “You walk through that door, you play by my rules.”
Rana clutched her husband’s arm when she saw him stiffen, so excited by Roger’s response that it was all she could do not to jump up and down. “Behave,” she whispered when Roger turned away and opened his car door. She stepped in front of Titus, then had to clasp his face to get him to look at her—his glower turning to surprise when he saw she was smiling. “You have to admire the man for not caring who signs his paychecks when it comes to his patients,” she continued softly. “Oh, will you stop,” she said with a laugh. “You can’t have it both ways.”
He went back to glowering, this time at her. “What are you talking about?”
“You can’t hand over your authority to the next generation and then hold them to the standards of your generation. In this place and time, babies are commonly born out of wedlock. All you should care about is that Alec and Carolina are fully committed to each other, and will marry because they want to, when they want to. And if that means saying their vows while holding their infant, then so be it.” She brushed her thumb over his tight lips. “Be happy for them, Titus,” she said softly. “Our beautiful, stubborn, intelligent daughter searched all of time to find her match, and Alec loves her more than life itself.” She gave his face a squeeze and broke into another smile. “Although he went against MacKeage tradition and rescued his woman from kidnappers.”
“And then kept her for ten days,” he said in a growl. He pulled down her hands and held them in his as they both watched Roger sprint to the church with a bulging red backpack thrown over one shoulder. “I dislike it when you turn my words back on me.”
Spellbound Falls [5] For the Love of Magic Page 21
