Highland Blood (The Celtic Blood Series Book 2) by Karsak Melanie

Author:Karsak, Melanie [Karsak, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, azw
Publisher: Clockpunk Press
Published: 2016-02-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The fever that swept through Moray took some work to defeat, but I worked tirelessly to stamp it out. I’d planted herb gardens in the small garden in the unused part of the castle near the chapel. As I suspected, the ground there was good. I could feel the otherworld close to me there, despite the presence of the chapel. As I worked, I felt eyes on me. When the herbs grew faster and larger than they should have, further proving my assumptions, I brewed medicines which I distributed to the people who came seeking my help. Word had spread through the countryside that the Lady of Moray was gifted in herbcraft. Soon, I found all manner of people at my door seeking help. It pleased me to busy myself helping the people of Moray as my little ones grew inside me.

I was hard at work one late summer morning, on my hands and knees amongst the basil and spearmint, when I heard boot steps along the stone walkway leading to the small garden. No doubt, it was time for lunch. Already the little babes inside me were fluttering about hungrily.

“Just a few more minutes,” I said. “I’m half-bathed in soil,” I added with a laugh, clapping the rich dirt off my hands. When I did so, I picked up the sharp scents of the herbs.

“Corbie?”

I turned to find Gillacoemgain standing there. He looked dirty and road-weary, his shoulders drooping from tire. He was staring at me, a confused look on his face.

Moving slowly, the burden of my belly already bothering me, I rose.

I’d been wearing a pair of Gillacoemgain’s old breeches under my dress so I could kneel down on the soil. I wiped off the dirt then dropped the skirt of my lavender colored gown, suddenly aware of how sweaty and messy I was.

Gillacoemgain’s eyes drifted to my stomach. Word, I realized then, had not yet reached the Mormaer’s ears of my pregnancy.

“You’re…” he whispered, looking closely at me. “Corbie?”

I smiled. I had told the lie to myself so many times, so many nights, that the children were his that when the moment came to tell him, I almost believed it. “I’m pregnant.”

Gillacoemgain crossed the space between us quickly. He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his face into my neck. “Sweet wife. The north is quiet. My wife is with child. There is nothing more in this world a man could want.”

He kissed me then, strongly and passionately, and I felt the love pour from him.

A moment later, he sighed heavily, and I felt his mood shift. “Artos,” he said, nearly growling the name. “He met me at the gate to tell me you’ve spent the whole summer roaming the countryside and had been using the part of the castle I’d closed. He never said a word…just whipped me into a fury while he complained bitterly. I came here to…”

“To?”

“With anger in my heart,” Gillacoemgain admitted.

“No one told me. Artos, in particular, though he knew I was working here.

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