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AFTER THE EVENING MEAL and after Thomas, Julia and Cowan went to their respective beds, Neil and Glenna were about to retire to their third-story bedchamber when Ben burst through the door. With beads of sweat on his brow, Ben paused for just a second to catch his breath. “Alison is in labor!”
Any other time it would have been happy news, but of the last five women to give birth, three died taking two of the unborn babies with them and Alison, the middle child of the nine sisters, was terrified she would be the fourth.
Glenna tried to comfort him. “Do calm yourself, Ben, she will be fine.”
Ben did not look convinced. “She sent me to find the priest.”
Neil put a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “I will find the priest; you belong with your wife.”
Ben did not have to think about that for long. In a blink, he was back out the door. Neil took Glenna in his arms and kissed her forehead. “I am grateful you are not with child just now. The women are terrified and the lads are unreasonable.”
“Will the lads come to place their wagers?”
“I do not expect them to...not this time, not after two women and two babes in a row died. They fear God has not looked kindly on their wagers.”
“But they must come. They must celebrate loudly and convince Alison all is as it should be.”
He saw the value in her reasoning, nodded and released her. “I will gather the lads.”
Just as he reached the door, Glenna made one more suggestion. “And find the priest but tell him not to come unless you send for him a second time. Let Alison fight to live long enough to receive the last rites.”
She watched her husband go and went up the stairs to check on the children. Assured they were fine, she knelt by her bed to say a prayer for Alison and her baby.
Each time a woman died, Glenna and the two midwives discussed what might be going wrong, but the circumstances were so different they could detect no clear pattern in what they ate or what they did. Some women lived and some died...it was just the way of the world. Lately however, too many of the women were dying.
Even with the influx of English brides, the clan was not growing as quickly as Neil hoped. All the clans suffered diseases, injuries and plagues that could wipe out half and make them vulnerable to attack. Less than a week before, they got word of a terrible plague in France that was causing the people to go mad. Everyone prayed that plague would quietly pass them by.
Then there was the problem with the brides. Several who did not quickly fall in love chose to go back to England. Seventeen others were still unmarried. They stayed but the men seemed in less of a hurry to court them than the women were to take husbands. It was very perplexing. At times, the lack of courting irritated both Neil and Glenna, but love could not be rushed...or at least that is what they told each other.
Deep in prayer on her knees next to her bed, Glenna’s eyes shot wide open. “A feast? Of course!”
*
IT WASN’T LONG UNTIL there was a burst of activity in the great hall. Neil tried to convince the men that the more normal they acted, the less the women would be afraid. It sounded reasonable, especially to the men whose wives were also in line to give birth. Neil broke out the boards so the men could place their wagers on the sex of the child while Walrick and Gelson brought their wives and then went to fetch more wine.
Knowing full well no one was going to get any sleep until Alison gave birth, the wives hurried up the stairs to be with Glenna. It was the perfect opportunity to gossip about the clan’s three most important men without fear of being overheard.
*
OUTSIDE HIS COTTAGE, Ben paused in his pacing to listen to the celebration noises coming from the Keep. This was his first child and he was filled with a jumble of love for Alison, pride, prayer and extreme terror. But if the other men thought everything was normal, perhaps Ben could breathe just a little easier. It helped. But then from inside the cottage Alison’s moan seemed louder and longer than the one before. Ben might have gone in to check on her, but all eight of the sisters and two midwives were already in there.
There was nothing he could do but wait and he should be accustomed to it after waiting every spring for all the new animals to be born. But this was different. He could not help remembering how frightened Alison was, fearing she would die in childbirth like her mother. At the time he talked her into becoming his wife, he saw no reason to think she would take after her mother in that regard. But now...now that she was so near her time, he realized if she did die he would be to blame.
*
IN THE GREAT HALL, the men were only pretending to be happy. There was not a married man among them who did not know exactly how Ben was feeling and few were convinced Alison would live. Something was going dreadfully wrong with the women and the men could not think what to do about it. So on this night they sat on pillows, at the table or leaned against the wall and drank their wine. Every once in a while, Neil raised his hand; the men roared with laughter or shouted something and then quieted again.
*
THE THREE WOMEN UPSTAIRS had become fast friends over the months and it wasn’t the first time they spent an entire evening together. On some nights, they preferred it that way. Glenna poured each a portion of wine and then sat down with them at the small table in the bedchamber she shared with Neil. The women were as different as night and day. Glenna had brown hair that curled around the sides of her face, was tall and had soft blue eyes. Steppen’s face was square like her brother’s, her hair was golden and her eyes were dark while Jonrose also had blond hair, but her eyes were a softer brown and her smile could positively light up a room. Both Steppen and Jonrose were shorter than Glenna.
Glenna frowned, “Lorna?”
“Aye.” Jonrose was the mother of four with a fifth on the way and often surprised Steppen and Glenna with her keen observations. “Lorna watches the lads but when one approaches, she walks away.”
“And you believe she is so afraid of giving birth she deprives herself of love?”
“I can think of no other reason for it.”
Steppen set her goblet down and let Glenna refill it. “Perhaps the right lad had not yet approached her.”
“Perhaps. There is one lad she tends to notice more than the others.”
Both Steppen and Glenna leaned closer. “Who?”
“Cowan.”
Steppen smiled, Glenna did not. “Lorna waited too long. Cowan has his mind set on Lasha Haldane.” It was the first Jonrose or Steppen heard about the latest Haldane encounter and both demanded Glenna tell them every last glorious morsel at once. Glenna happily complied, pausing only long enough to pour more wine or to wait for an end to the men’s shouts downstairs. Finally, she got to her last and most important part. “Cowan suggests we have a feast and invite the Haldane.”
“But is it wise?” Steppen asked. “If Lorna truly prefers Cowan, then she will be heartsick to see him court a Haldane.”
Jonrose disagreed. “It is kinder to let her see it now than later after he has taken Lasha to wife and brought her home.”
Glenna nodded, “True and if she knows now, perhaps it is not too late for Lorna to let Cowan know how she feels. It would not be the first time a lad changed his mind when he learned there were more possibilities.”
It was settled then. The women would talk Neil into having a feast and inviting the Haldane. That meant there were plans to be made and they got right down to business. They talked about the food they would serve, the dancing, the singing and the sports the men liked to partake in. It had been a while since the woman had anything that exciting to do and all three of them were delighted.
Suddenly, they heard Ben shouting downstairs “Alison lives!”
Ben ran back out the door, got half way across the courtyard, turned and ran back. “It’s a laddie!”
