The Elusive Highlander

by Ju Ephraime

  “I was upset with the way you gave me no choice in the matter. Also, I wanted to go home. And maybe I would’ve considered it if you’d asked nicely. I was attracted to you from the moment I met you. I was just a bit put out that I was in a strange place, with strangers, and no longer had control over my life. For a twenty-first century woman, losing control of her life was like kryptonite.”

  “Kryptonite. What is that?”

  “Something that’s bad for you.”

  “I’m sorry, mo muirnín, I didn’t mean to do anything to cause ye kryptonite. I was drawn to ye from tha moment I turned around and found myself holding yer hand in my keep. Ye mean everything to me.”

  He wrapped her into the fold of his body, and they went to sleep.

  The following morning, life went back to normal, as normal as it could be with her pregnant and Dair no longer training for war.

  The days blended into each other as summer gave way to fall, and the day for the baby’s arrival drew near. She had put off asking Dair what about him was different from other men because she had been unable to bring herself to interrupt their idyllic arrangement.

  She was thinking about a way to bring up the subject without appearing to be prying when one minute she was alone in the garden, and, the next, he was standing beside her.

  “How do you do this? You move like the wind… swiftly and silently. One minute I’m here alone, and the next there you are. I was just thinking about you too.”

  “Ye were? Something good I hope?” he said.

  “What else is there to think about you but good things? Unless you have something you want to tell me.”

  * * * *

  Alasdair knew he couldn’t put off telling her any longer. She had waited patiently and not pressured him. He felt it was time to tell her what her dad had been referring to about him.

  “Mo muirnín, do ye remember when yer dad was talking with ye? He was not sure about me, but he sensed something.”

  “Yes, I wanted to ask you what he meant. I waited because I knew you’d tell me in your own time.”

  “Yer da said he was Druid Túath. I am part fae and part Druid. I am also immortal.”

  “What do you mean immortal?”

  “When I was poisoned on the eve of my wedding, my mither was frantic and used magic to keep me alive. The trouble with that is, in her distress, she botched the spell. Not only did she send my spirit wandering through time and space, she also made me immortal how else could I account for all the wandering I had done… wandering with no direction and no end in sight until I met ye.”

  “What do you mean you were poisoned? Although, after learning about my parents, I’m no longer in doubt. I believe anything is possible when you combine magic with Druid occult and the fae who deal in spirit. You never know. Immortal? Are you saying you cannot die?”

  “I do not know. Maybe my immortality was until I met ye again. I will not know until the time comes”

  “What do you mean, ‘until you met me again’? Had you met me before?”

  “Aye. It was ye I was to marry before I was poisoned.”

  “You’re kidding me!”

  “Nay, I am not. Ye have little resemblance to the woman I was betrothed to on the outside, but inside, yer spirit is all her.”

  “Who was it you were betrothed to?”

  “The youngest daughter of the neighboring clan, MacDougalls.”

  “Are you telling me I’m the sister of the MacDougall?”

  “In another life, aye, ye were.”

  “Do you think they’ll recognize me?”

  “I do not know, but I could not take the chance of them seeing ye, when I myself did not know who ye were or how ye’d come to be in my keep.”

  “Is that why you hurried me away in the dead of night when they came to visit?”

  “Aye. As I said, I could not take the chance. There are a lot of traitors about. We are in the time of war. And the way ye were determined to leave, I did not want ye trying to leave with them.”

  “Oh, my darling, never! I would only accept one Highlander, and that’s you, my elusive darling. I would never try to go with strange men, and I suspected you wouldn’t cause me harm. Don’t ask me how I knew. I just did. My heart beats only for you.”

  She kissed him passionately. He returned the kiss and took over, showing her with his body how much she meant to him.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Coira paced the floor of her chambers in agitation. She had sent Imogene to get Dair because she believed the baby was coming any minute. She had been experiencing slight cramping for two days now.

  She hadn’t told her husband because she didn’t want him to worry, and it was nothing, though she stayed close to home. She hadn’t ventured into the village as she’d been doing a lot lately.

  Suddenly, the pain intensified, and she screamed. She was still alone. This was not the same level of pain she’d been experiencing. It was so excruciating it took her breath away. No sooner was she able to breathe properly than she was hit with another one.

  Dair came running into the room, followed by Imogene and the midwife he had moved into the castle to be on hand for her.

  The midwife took one look at her and began issuing orders. “I need hot water and lots of it.” Imogene went scrambling downstairs. Dair lifted Coira and placed her in the bed. The midwife ordered him out, but he told her he wasn’t leaving. He climbed into the bed with her and placed his hand on her stomach. The pain lessened immediately.

  She felt another contraction coming on. She braced herself for it. When it passed, she turned to him.

  “I don’t think I can take much more of this. It feels as if my back is being split in two.”

  “’Twill be over soon.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know because my son is impatient to see the world.”

  “This is not a joking matter, Dair. This hurts.”

  Just then a stronger contraction hit her, and she screamed again. The midwife came to examine her. “It will be any minute now, m’lady,” she said.

  Sure enough, there was another contraction right behind the last one.

  “Get ready to start pushing down when I tell ye, m’lady,” the midwife said, applying slight pressure to her stomach.

  Coira was in agony. Her contractions were coming hard and fast now. She had been in labor for three hours, and her strength was ebbing.

  “Now,” the midwife said, and Coira held on to Dair’s hand as she pushed with all her might.

  “Good, the head is here,” she heard the midwife say.

  At the next contraction, she had to give only a slight push, and the baby flew out. He began screaming immediately. The midwife took the knife, prepared to cut the cord when Dair said he’d do it.

  She handed him the knife and proceeded to wrap the baby in swaddling before she handed the baby to him.

  He made short work of cutting the umbilical cord and securing the end with a knot before handing the baby to Coira.

  “We have a son, darling,” she told him, accepting the kiss he gave her.

  “Did ye doubt me when I said ye were carrying my son?”

  “Hmm, not really, but I was still hoping for a girl.”

  “Ye were? Ye did nae tell me.”

  “You were so set on a son that I didn’t have the heart to say anything else.”

  Imogene returned to the room. “It’s a boy,” Coira told her excitedly. Imogen came over to see the baby.

  “He’s beautiful.”

  “Aye,” Dair said. “He looks like his mither.”

  “No, he does not. He looks like his dad,” Coira told him. “Look at the shocking red hair and those startling blue eyes.”

  “Aye, I concede he does have some things of me, but his mouth is his mither’s.”

  Coira didn’t have the heart to tell him the baby’s mouth didn’t look like either of them. She handed the baby to the midwife to finish cleaning him up. When he was nice and clean
, the midwife handed the baby back to her, and she put him to her breast.

  She was so overcome to see he took to it so readily that tears of happiness filled her eyes. She couldn’t stop looking at the perfect little person she and Alasdair had made. Exhaustion soon claimed her, and she fell asleep with the baby still nursing at her breast.

  When she woke, the baby was in a cradle next to the bed. “Where did you get that cradle?”

  “Imogene remembered it was in the nursery. We were scared ye would roll over on the baby.”

  “That’s a good idea,” she said, smiling.

  “Would ye like something to eat?”

  “I’d like some tea. I’m very thirsty.”

  “Tea it is, then, mo muirnín.”

  She was sipping the tea when she felt a presence in the room. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, and a chill went through her. She looked at Alasdair, and he looked at her. They both knew her parents had come as her dad had promised.

  Neither she nor her husband could see them, but when she looked at the baby, there was a blue swaddled cloth over the white one the baby had been wearing, and his bright blue eyes were staring at something beyond his dad’s shoulders.

  Just then he waved his arms and made a wonderful gurgling sound and a wide toothless grin appeared on his face.

  Dair was not surprised his son was able to look into the spirit world and see Coira’s mom and dad. This ability to see into the beyond is a gift few people have. Only those born out of magic and the fae were so gifted with the sight.

  Coira and Dair glanced at each other again without saying a word. They both knew this baby would be even more powerful than his dad.

  “My little Highlander,” she said as she rubbed her hand over the red patch of hair on his head. He closed his eyes and went right back to sleep. She sensed her parents were still present in the room with them. She was about to call out to her dad when she felt a soft whisper on both her cheeks, and then it was gone.

  Coira whispered to Dair, “Did you see them?”

  “Nay,” he whispered back, not wanting to wake the baby. “They left ye a gift,” and he reached down and showed her the necklace around her neck. It was a very delicate gold necklace with a pendant of two pieces of a fractured heart that had been fused together.

  Coira remembered her mom wearing this pendant from the time Coira was a child. She was never without it. She rubbed her finger over it, and she felt her mother’s presence. The rubbing released the scent she’d always associated with her mom.

  EPILOGUE

  The great hall of Inveraray Castle was full to overflowing as the Laird came downstairs to show off his infant son to his clan. A chorus of delighted exclamations greeted the sight of the sleeping baby wrapped in two blankets, one blue and one white.

  The first to reach him was Tris, followed closely by Garvin. The proud Laird surrendered his precious bundle to his brothers, who were too overcome to do anything but stare at the babe who was the exact replica of their beloved brother.

  “How did ye manage this, mon?”

  “Manage what?”

  “This babe has nothing of Coira. ’Tis all of ye.”

  Garvin was beaming from ear to ear. “This just means we will have two of ye to contend with.”

  As he looked at his brothers cooing over the baby, Dair couldn’t help thinking that he never wanted to go through this again. He had felt so helpless watching his wife suffer. He had tried wrapping his hand around her belly to try to absorb some of the pain; it did nothing.

  He could have given her a brew. He’d decided against it, not knowing if it would affect the baby. So, in the end, all of his magical powers had been useless when trying to ease her pain and suffering. After witnessing his wife in pain for hours, he had a newfound respect for her and all women.

  “Is Coira all right?” Garvin asked as he saw his brother had poured himself a large tankard of ale.

  “Aye. She’s sleeping like a babe.”

  “Was it a difficult birth?” he asked.

  “Nay. It was long in coming. Even the easiest of childbirths seem to take so much from the mither. I dinnae ken how she did it, but I was happy when it was over. I dinnae want to put her through this again.”

  Tris heard him though he was still carrying the baby around for every one of the clan to take a look at him. “Ye say that now, dinnae go making empty promises, as soon as Coira can walk properly, ye'll be at her again. Tha two of ye are bunnies, always hopping each other.”

  “Dinnae ye go talking about my good wife this way, or ye will have to answer to me.”

  Tristan just laughed as he continued parading the baby around. He walked back to Dair.

  He handed his nephew to his father and could not help asking, “How can he sleep with the ruckus going on?” Just then, as if the baby heard him, he opened his eyes and gave his uncle a wide stare out of bright blue eyes that were so much like Dair’s.

  “By th' gods, he haes yer eyes too, Dair.”

  “Whose eyes did ye expect him to hae, Tris? Yers?”

  “Dinnae be such a wise fool. He cuid hae had Coira’s eyes. 'Tis a fine color.”

  “Aye, and what color is that? Ye had better not know the color of my wife’s eyes, Tris. Keep yer leering eyes off her.”

  “I dinnae ken whats got into ye, but I wull take tha babe away from yer foul mood. Have ye settled on a name yet?”

  “Nay.” Just then the baby began to cry. Garvin offered to hold him. Tris didn’t want to relinquish the baby. They were haggling over the baby like two kids. Alistair gave them one of his stern looks and took the baby away from Tris.

  “He needs feeding,” he told them.

  As soon as the baby was in Alasdair’s arms, he ceased crying immediately. Thinking he was hungry, he took him to Coira for feeding.

  Coira was still asleep when he entered the room. To him, she looked so peaceful and bonny lying there, with no sign of the suffering she had just been through. She opened her eyes and looked at him with all the love shining in her eyes.

  “I believe he is hungry. Are ye up to feeding him again?” he asked her.

  “Yes, give him to me.”

  He brought the baby to her and watched in awe as he latched onto one of Coira’s nipples and began to nurse lustily. Alasdair could not leave. He sat down on the bed to watch his wife feeding the baby.

  “Have you decided on a name for him yet?” she asked him.

  “Nay, have ye?”

  “Give me a day or two to observe him, and then I’ll have an appropriate name. For now, he’s my little Highlander,” she told him.

  “And who is yer big Highlander?” he asked, giving her a kiss.

  “I don’t have a big Highlander. You, my darling, are my elusive Highlander.”

  “Why elusive?”

  “You appear and disappear without any warning.”

  “Ye only have to reach for me, and I will be there. I am never far away from ye, even when I am not physically here.”

  “That’s funny. That’s how I feel about you.”

  * * * *

  Her parents came to visit with the baby every day, and every time they came, they left him a gift. Even though they were no longer in the human realm and only in the spirit realm, they still believed in spoiling their grandson like all grandparents do.

  She was nursing the baby one day when she saw that a tiny silver chain with a locket similar to hers appeared around his neck. She knew it came from her parents, so she reached for the locket and opened it. And there was a portrait of the baby with the name Angus written across it.

  She couldn’t wait to show her husband. She went rushing from the room, the baby still at her breast to find Alasdair.

  “Dair, Dair,” she was yelling as she walked into his chambers.

  “What is it, mo muirnín?”

  “Look what the baby got. I know what we’ll name him now, with a little help from my parents.”

  “Aye, Angus, the Anglicized
form of the Gaelic name Aonghus, which meant ‘one choice.’”

  Alasdair thought it an excellent name, and so did Tristan and Garvin.

  Within a week, Coira was able to get up and care for the baby. She was so happy that she soon regained her strength, and six weeks after she had Angus, she couldn’t remember the pain. Not so her husband. He was always asking if she was all right and had brought the midwife to examine her twice.

  The midwife told her she could resume marital relations. Coira wanted to be one hundred percent healed before she welcomed him into her bed, so she waited back a bit.

  Eight weeks to the day after she had the baby, she left him in the care of Imogene and walked into her husband’s chambers, wearing nothing but a robe. She found him lying on his back staring up at the ceiling. He was dressed in his kilt, and as soon as he saw her walk in, the kilt tented.

  “The midwife said I’m free to have fun with my husband. Are you in the mood to play?”

  “Dinnae toy with me, Coira. I have been counting the days, until ye were back to normal… are ye?”

  “Yes, I am. I waited until I felt one hundred percent, even after the midwife said I was fine. I know you brought the midwife to examine me twice, and I said no, but now I am back to normal, as you put it.”

  ““I dinnae want to hurt ye, Coira.”

  “Try me and see,” she told him, giving him a steamy look from beneath her lashes.

  He was on her before she saw him leave the bed. The next thing she knew, he was over her, his mouth on hers in a rapacious kiss that left her in no doubt of his intent.

  “I missed making love to ye. I don’t think I want another babe if it means going so many days without a taste of ye. I hunger for ye.”

  “And I for you, my darling. I’m all yours, now and forever.”

  “I cannot wait any longer to have ye, mo muirnín.” With that, he pushed aside his kilt and mounted her.

  Coira welcomed him, bathing him with her heat and moisture.

  “Aye, I love to feel yer wetness. It tells me ye are just as hungry for me as I am for ye.”