Son of the Shadows by Marillier

Author:Marillier
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-05-08T22:00:00+00:00

Many days had passed, and the moon had shrunk to a mere sliver of light. When I got home, I would have to apply myself to sewing, for my gowns were getting uncomfortably tight over my breasts. I sat with Niamh day by day, and she failed to notice any change in my appearance. I could not tell her. How could I find the words, when she held in her poor, confused mind the guilt of not having conceived a child for Fionn after three moons, of not even succeeding in that most basic requirement of a good wife? I said to her it was early days, and not every bride bred straight away. Besides, now that she would not be going back to Tirconnell after all, surely it was better that she was not carrying Fionn’s son or daughter.

“I wanted to bear Ciarán a child,” she said softly. “More than anything. But the goddess did not grant it.”

“Just as well,” I retorted, finding it hard not to lose my temper with her. “That would really have set a stir among the Uí Néill.”

“Don’t joke about it, Liadan. You cannot hope to understand how it feels to love a man more than anything in the world, more than life itself. How wonderful it would be to carry that man’s child within your body, even if the man himself is—is lost to you.” She began to cry, very quietly. “How could you know of such things?”

“How indeed,” I muttered, passing her a clean handkerchief.

“Liadan?” she asked, after a while.

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