“Nonsense,” Lady Faline snapped. “Another woman can be found to help you.”
“That will be Bliss’s choice,” Lord Lochlann commanded and turned to Bliss. “Give me a good reason why Damia would serve you better than another woman and I will allow her to stay.”
Faline grinned as if tasting victory. “Do tell us, Bliss, why a peasant would need another peasant.”
There was one reason Lord Lochlann would agree but was Bliss willing to expose her secret? Did she have a choice? She could not let Damia be returned to the vicious woman. Her husband was not here to hear the news, but she would have to find him and tell him before he heard it from others.
“I am teaching Damia all the different things she needs to know to deliver a bairn so that mother and child are kept safe and suffer no loss.”
Lord Lochlann spoke up before Bliss could continue. “We have women here who have delivered many bairns.”
Anxious with what Bliss was about to say, her stomach roiled. This was not how she hoped to deliver the news. “None have trained with me, and I want someone at least acquainted with my knowledge of safe deliveries when my times comes to deliver the Clan MacClaren heir.”
Lochlann’s eyes widened in shock. “Are you saying you are with child?”
“Aye,” Bliss confirmed, resting her hand on her stomach. “I am with child.”
“She lies to keep me from taking the servant,” Lady Faline accused.
“That is easy enough to solve,” Lord Lochlann said. “I will have your word, Bliss, that you do not lie, that you are truly with child.”
Bliss did not hesitate. “You have my word, my lord, “I am with child three months now.”
Lochlann burst into a smile and shouted, “AN HEIR! Clan MacClaren will have an heir!” He turned his tremendous smile on Faline. “Damia stays here, Faline.”
“I will not forget this, Lochlann,” Faline threatened. “And why you would rejoice when a peasant carries the heir to your clan is absurd.”
“Be careful, Faline, that heir just may rule over your clan one day,” Lochlann warned with glee.
“Never! Never!” Faline said, wagging her finger at him and took her leave in a rush.
“You better make sure Lady Faline causes no trouble for Damia on her way out, Lochlann,” Lady Helice cautioned.
“You are right,” Rannick’s father said, and his smile turned even larger when he looked to Bliss. “You did it. You kept your part of the bargain. You are an honorable woman, and I am proud to have you part of this family.”
Bliss turned to tell Helice that she had to go find Rannick, and though her mouth fell open no words fell out as the shadowed corner released her husband to stand a short distance from her. His scowl told her all she needed to know.
Helice looked from her son to Bliss, smiling. “I am thrilled with the news, thrilled for you both.” Her smile turned to a wide grin. “It looks like you were right about that mixture, Bliss.” She laughed lightly. “I will leave you two to talk.”
Bliss remained silent, waiting for her husband to say something.
“To our bedchamber, wife,” Rannick said, pointing the way.
Bliss nodded and took the lead, her husband following in complete silence close behind her and her stomach twisting with every curve of the stone staircase.
She remained silent upon entering the room, anxious over what her husband would say.
Rannick stood braced against the door, his arms crossed over his chest, once he closed it. He stared at her, saying not a word.
Bliss sighed, the silence too much for her. “I did give you fair warning and need I remind you that you stubbornly refused to believe to me.”
His response shocked her.
“I have been waiting for you to tell me of the bairn.”
Her mouth fell open once again, and once again words failed her.
He pushed himself off the door and walked toward her. “I had my suspicions, but I doubted them since I watched you drink the brew day after day. It was easy to deny it to myself and certainly to my father each time he mentioned it.” He stopped in front of her, his hand gently cupping one breast. “We are far too intimate with each other for me not to notice the subtle changes in your body.” A tender smile crossed his face as his hand moved to gently touch at the corner of her right eye. “But it was the way you took so easily to tears that had me thinking you were right about the brew. You never shed a tear when you were in pain from your wound, and I recalled how teary-eyed my first wife got once with child. I could no longer ignore or deny what was in front of me, but I waited, said nothing, though I tried giving you a chance to tell me a few times, since I wanted to hear it from you that you were with child.”