“Aye, fare thee well, hurry back to me, my love... to us!” She held her hand to her belly and he placed his over hers, kissed her quickly once more and was gone.
Alainn spent nearly the entire day in her bedchamber, she read and slept and scarcely moved from the bed. When she’d woken from her sleep midafternoon, she was dismayed to find she had begun to experience discomfort again. She went to the enclosed privy and was relieved to find there was no bleeding, but she couldn’t dismiss the fact she was troubled. She had little appetite for her evening meal and when the servant came to collect the tray, Danhoul stepped inside the room as well.
“Are you unwell Alainn?” he asked immediately concerned by her paler than normal complexion. “Are you ill?”
She waited until the servant had left them to reply.
“Not ill, not entirely, but I have noticed a slight pain in my belly that causes me some consternation, for the babe is not to arrive for at least a moon and a fortnight. I am aware a child can arrive early, and all can be well, but I fear ’tis too soon.”
He walked into the chamber leaving the door ajar so no rumors of indiscretion or infidelity could be started. He placed his hand on her middle and he couldn’t conceal the concern when his eyes met hers. He kept his hand there and she immediately felt some relief. When the young servant-girl Nellie O’Shea rapped on the door, she seemed startled to find another man with his hands on the chieftain’s wife’s blossomed belly. She barely looked at Danhoul and acted shy toward him as she had with Killian in the morn.
“You may set the milk on the table, Nellie, thank you!”
“And has it been tasted?” Danhoul asked the very same inquiry Killian had issued that morning.
“Aye, the castle’s taster checked it nearly an hour ago. He remains well, and has declared it fit.”
Alainn took the mixture and drank it making the usual disagreeable face when drinking milk.
When Danhoul was satisfied that he’d healed her to the best of his capabilities, he insisted Alainn enlist her own many healing abilities as well, and then he ordered her to go to sleep and not to move from the bed until morning.
“And if I should need to pass water, which only occurs perhaps half a dozen times each night?” She jested, trying to ease the young man’s mind.
“Call me and I’ll carry you to the chamber pot!” He returned the humor.
“And how would I summon you for the charming deed?”
“You can throw your thoughts to me from many miles away, in truth I suspect you can throw your thoughts to me wherever you might be. I think even you are unaware of the capabilities you possess!”
“Aye, well, if I’m throwin’ my thoughts to you, I’ll make certain it is of greater importance than my bodily functions.”
He smiled at her as he left, but if she heard his present thoughts, he knew she’d realize he was gravely worried about her and her unborn child.
For three days, Alainn went through the same discomfort and uneasiness. The midwife was called and confirmed that there was a possibility the child would come early, but she assured Alainn no seeping had happened yet, which was surely a fortunate omen. She told her to keep to her bed and to keep rested and nourished.
Eireen had been most fretful about her and fussed about constantly. Danhoul hung about her nervously as though he was the father of the child. Even Connor MacLain and MacKenzie MacArthur had been to her bedchamber. Cookson had insisted on bringing her the milk-mixture himself the past two times. He even revealed that he, personally, had tasted her food and the milk to make certain no one had been trying to harm her.
Mary had also come to visit and though she hadn’t been aware of Alainn’s condition, she was sorely vexed when she learned of the development as well. Alainn thought as a healer she should be able to decipher why the pain would come and go. It was most mysterious to her.
When she fell asleep on the third night after Killian had left, she was awakened by severe cramping in her belly. She cried out and Danhoul was beside her almost immediately. She insisted on him helping her to the privy closet and when she came out he knew by the look on her face, the news was not of a positive nature.
“Danhoul you must summon the midwife, but in the chamber next door where I keep my potions, you must get the vial next to the heal-alls. It is a honeysuckle mixture, a remedy to assist women with discomfort during their monthlies, but it has been known to stop a child from coming before it’s time. I tried to summon it to me, but when I am in pain it is much more difficult for me to clearly direct my powers.”
She was startled to see him close his eyes and it appeared in his hand. She reached for it as she felt another pain grip her belly. He administered the dosage and then placed his hand to her belly again. Alainn was trying to keep herself from becoming panic-stricken. She’d not felt the child move often in the last hours which was not a fortuitous sign for often when a babe was about to be born they grew quiet.
Finally, even before the midwife arrived, she felt the pain subside and she fell asleep with Danhoul still holding her hand. The midwife observed her condition and once more told her to keep to her bed and perhaps the progression of the labor would not advance further.
That night, Alainn had a most telling dream. The spirit woman she had seen within the round tower came to her in great clarity. She was encircled in a glowing light and though she spoke not a word, she clearly revealed to Alainn why she’d felt pain in her belly. In the dream Alainn had calmly nodded in understanding to the spirit woman, and trusted her without question. When she awoke in the morning, she was not only fearful, but furious.
Alainn called out to Danhoul in her mind and he came to her as surely as if she’d screamed his name. She told him of her suspicions and when the servant girl brought her the milk, she did not drink it. She had one of the other servants send for a worker from the dairy shed. When the chieftain’s wife asked to have the extremely ornery female cat now heavy with kittens brought to her bedchamber, the servant thought she’d possibly lost her mind, but he did as instructed.
After Alainn allowed the cat to drink the milk intended for her, they waited. And sure enough not long after the cat ingested the milk she began to show signs of distress, and soon after that she’d already given birth to her litter.
“How could I have been so foolish? I am a healer and an herbalist; I was certain I knew herbs as well as anyone. I have been well schooled in their uses since I was a young child. How could I have missed the fact that the milk contained lesser skullcap, an herb known to induce birth? And it is often most bitter; how did I not notice it?”
“But placed in the sweet honey mixture and in the milk, which you admittedly dislike, it may have made it undetectable, Alainn, and it is odorless.” Danhoul tried to set her at ease and take away her feelings of guilt.
“Who would want to harm you and your child?” Eireen asked with great distress in her voice.
“Having a taster clearly did not help in this situation!” Mary, who’d be visiting daily, reasoned.
“Aye, well, I never thought to employ a woman with child as a taster, for it would only have been such a person that would have had any ill effects, and I would not put another woman with child at similar risk at any rate.”
“We must learn who has attempted this great injustice to you, Lady O’Brien!” It was Mackenzie MacArthur whose riled expression clearly revealed his anger at the situation. “And your husband should be alerted straightaway. I will have a messenger send for him, and advise him to return home at once!”
“No, Mac, there is little benefit in that. I believe all will be well now. The midwife assures me no further advances have been made toward the birthing and as long as I don’t consume any more of the concoction and I rest, all will be well, I’m certain. Killian would only worry unnecessarily and be taken from important matters he must attend to.”
“Aye, well, if you’re entirely certain, we’ll not send for him just yet, but I will be questioning everyo
ne who has been in the kitchen and the dairy shed in the past few days. Anyone who has touched the honey or the milk will be under great suspicion. The servant girl and even young Joseph will be made to explain much!”
Alainn wanted to inform Mac she was certain who might have had something to do with the nefarious deed, but she had absolutely no proof whatsoever that the Ciara McCree of the present or in the future would attempt anything as despicable as trying to cause her to miscarry. The woman had only acted violently toward her the once and that was when she was in a drunken state, and Alainn thought she’d not been without fault that night either.
The meeting by the lake had not been friendly and had irked Alainn without question, but Ciara hadn’t seemed dangerous. The vision had no concise certainties simply more mysterious questions. But who else would benefit from her losing the child, she wondered? Why had her intuitive powers not alerted her to the herbal concoction placed in her milk? Perhaps it was a person with supernatural powers of their own who had created the mixture or somehow veiled the truth.
Her mind once more went to the unpleasant and disparaging image of the woman from her vision that so closely resembled Ciara, or perhaps was Ciara in the future. Was it simply a vision, a warning, something untoward may happen perhaps two decades in the future when Ciara was older? Was the woman in a pact with the demon as the vision implied? Did it indicate that Ciara would try to harm her son when he was a man? Thinking of all of this simply made Alainn wearier, and no more close to learning the answers. She decided to leave it to Mac to discern what had happened, for she wanted nothing more than to go to sleep and forget all this unpleasantness.
She was undoubtedly much relieved the spirit woman from the tower with whom she felt such a deep connection seemed inclined to want to assist her. In her dream, she had pointed to both the containers that held the honey and the milk. She had shaken her head in stark warning and then knocked over the contents spilling them entirely. As the liquid had fallen to the floor it had soon turned to blood. The spirit woman had simply vanished once she was aware Alainn had understood the ominous warning.
Alainn now drifted off and she placed her hand to her belly, felt the beloved movement in response and went to sleep in peace, hoping this night held nothing but restful slumber.
When the morning sun filled the bedchamber, Alainn yawned and stretched and was relieved to find she felt almost entirely improved. She rose and had a bath prepared for her. After she’d bathed and dressed and brushed and knotted her hair, she started downstairs for she felt nearly famished, which had to be a good omen. She’d barely had an appetite the last few days, and now she felt undeniably hungry.
When she sat down at the long table in the gigantic chamber, she thought it was a ridiculous notion to be seated here at this immense table when she would be dining entirely alone. She envisioned the kitchen and to her delight she learned through her powers Ciara McCree was not in the kitchen this day. She opened the door and found the entire lot of servants staring at her when she entered. They all grew noticeably quiet and some bowed to her nervously, others nodded respectfully, but no one spoke. She walked toward Cookson and she noticed even he wore a grim expression.
“What is it, Cookson? Why is everyone acting so oddly toward me?”
Cookson placed his hand on her arm and attempted a smile. “Ah, well, sorry I am about what nearly transpired, Alainn. I don’t know how it could have happened. We’ve all been careful here in the kitchen. I trust all the servants, and I kept the honey supply in a cupboard few had access to. Only Nellie and I added the mixture. Mac has been in a temper and on an uncommon rampage this morning. He’s been grillin’ anyone who has ever set foot in this kitchen since the day you arrived, I’d wager.
Everyone is worried they’ll be placed under suspicion. He has threatened to have the entire staff turned out and have a whole new lot of servants brought in if the culprit can’t be found straightaway. He was even lookin’ at me with a hint of ill-temper. I told the man I’ve known you since you were born, that if I’d ever wanted to harm you, it would surely have been when you told my father I’d swatted the fly and it landed in the pot of soup back when I was still a young lad!”
“Aye, well, it was the chieftain’s soup, and if he’d spotted it, sure your father would have found himself in a more severe predicament than you were.”
“Aye! That’s what my da said, then, too.”
“I’m certain Mac will get to the bottom of this, Cookson. Sorry I am that it has to be unpleasant for you and all the kitchen staff until it’s sorted out.”
“Aye, well, I’d like it settled too, Alainn, for you know how dear you are to me. Sure you’re like a sister to me, and I would want no harm to befall you or the babe. But, here, sit you down and have some ham and eggs. I’ve freshly baked scones, as well, and I’ll make certain to show you no milk or honey for a day or two, I promise you that.”
Cookson pulled up a chair and took the time to sit down beside her. For the first time in a long while, she felt like she was free to enjoy a conversation with her good friend.
Upon returning to the sitting room in her chambers, Danhoul soon came to locate her and he appeared relieved that she was noticeably improved and in brighter spirits.
“You’ve taken this position my grandfather has assigned you very seriously, Danhoul. Sure you’d like a reprieve from the great consternation I have become?”
“I do not dislike my present task. ’Tis true you can be a most difficult woman at times, magical beings almost always are,” He smiled as he spoke. “But I prefer watchin’ over even the likes of you and sleepin’ in a castle to fightin’ the English and sleepin’ on the ground every night... never certain I’d live to see tomorrow.”
“That must have been a difficult life, Danhoul, especially for a man so young.”
“Well at least you didn’t refer to me as the boy!”
“You are able to hear my husband’s thoughts then, are you? His thoughts seldom come to me.”
“Aye, I hear them and I am aware he resents me and he appears to claim an aversion to my age, though he is not so very old himself. Not many men at two and twenty are highly regarded chieftains and elected to the council of the clans. I’m certain there are men at council who might refer to him as the boy.”
“If he actually thought of you as a boy, he’d not think of you as a source of temptation, so do not take his thoughts so personally, Danhoul! And he clearly does not truly think of you as a boy or he’d not leave me in your guard. I know he does appreciate your abilities and your visions that have proven invaluable in seeing no great harm come to me thus far. But he resents them as well for ’tis something you and I share that he can’t be a part of.”
“But I did not foresee you nearly losing the child! I had no inclination whatsoever there would be such uncertainty.”
“Nor did I; no seer can see all, Danhoul. It is presumed I am a woman with unusually strong magical abilities and I am not capable of seeing everything, especially when it pertains to matters regarding me. Sometimes I suppose it is best we don’t see everything. ’Tis difficult enough to see all that we do!”
“You should not turn from your abilities as you’ve done, Alainn. I understand your reasons, but I disagree. They are an intricate part of you. You have rarely used your magic except in a temper, not gone to a fairy glade or conversed with any magical creatures in all the time you have been here at Castle O’Donnel.”
“I’ve talked to you and you are magical. Well, you have magical abilities at any rate. I saw the spirit woman by Castle O’Rorke and thankfully she was the one who came to me in my dream and warned me of the potion in the honey and milk mixture. I feel a strong connection to her. She seems to dwell within the round tower by the old castle ruins. You spoke of the place, of a great battle between good and evil? How do you know of this and who is the woman?”
“I do feel a deep connection to the place, and to the woman, as well, but I tell you plain, you must
not go there, not yet.”
“What is it you know and do not speak of, Danhoul? Is it something you have been informed of by the gods?”
He immediately felt he had misspoken. “When the time is right, I suspect we will both know more of the happenings there and the reason for our connection to the location.”
“But there is a fairy realm near that location, I sensed that as well. I hope to go to a fairy glade during Samhain for ’tis a most magical time. ’Tis only a little over a moon away.”
“Aye, but I would suggest you avoid that area entirely for even the dolmen near the round tower was once a dark place. Many barbaric druid rituals took place there. I have witnessed the dark memories there. It was a morose time. One you would not wish to see.” Danhoul’s eyes filled with a far-off expression as though he was reliving what may have taken place there. Alainn cleared her throat and he continued speaking once more.
“There is another glade nearby as well; go there if you must! It lies near the oak grove that borders your grandfather’s and your husband’s land. It, too, was a place where ancient druid rituals were held that predate history, but more celebratory and less somber happenings.”
She was well aware of the seriousness in his tone and she felt inclined to listen to his wisdom and not question him further, which she surmised completely surprised him. She simply spoke on of other magical locations.
“I have sensed there is a fairy glade and portal to other realms in the caves near the coast. I have walked there often, but never entered for ’tis only accessible when the tide is out. It would be dangerous to go there during high tide. The spirit woman in the tower is somehow connected to that location as well.”
“Her name is Deidra.”
“So you know much of the woman?”
“I know some, but what puzzles me is why she came to you in a dream to warn you? Why would she not come to you in daylight then, during waking hours for you have the ability to see spirits at all times? Sure you’d more readily believe her and know it was not simply a disagreeable dream.”
A Chieftain's Wife Page 21
