By the following afternoon, Ainsland was questioning her decision not to go with Uwe. What had begun as mild twinges that came and went twice an hour had evolved into gripping pains that left her little time to rest between them. As one pain ended, she would lie, spent and trembling, before the next one was upon her.
“Ainsland?” came Collum’s voice from somewhere in the distance.
I must be dying, she thought. At least I’ll have my husband and sons with me.
“Ainsland, open your eyes.”
She obeyed the ethereal voice and looked up into a face much like that of her husband’s.
The man resembled Collum, but he appeared older and more muscular. His hair was longer, and he had a full beard. There were healing wounds on his forehead and neck.
“Ainsland, how long have you been like this?”
She realized that it truly was Collum’s voice she was hearing and reached out through the wall of pain to touch his face. He wrapped his hand around hers and then bent to kiss her forehead.
“How long?” he repeated. “Ainsland, please. Tell me so that I can help you.”
“Where were you? How have you come home to me?”
“There will be time enough for that later. How long?”
“The pains started yesterday.”
“How long have they been so close together?” he persisted.
“I don’t know,” she moaned. “Forever.”
Collum stroked his wife’s hair as he prepared himself for what lay ahead. He dreaded examining her for fear of what he might find. She was so small, and the baby appeared to be quite large. If he’d been with her from the beginning, he would have monitored her closely and would have brought on the labor with an herbal mixture at least two weeks earlier.
As it was, he wasn’t certain if the child could be delivered at all. If his wife had been in this phase of labor for an extended period, he wasn’t certain if the child would even still be alive.
When he placed his hands on her belly, Ainsland whimpered and asked, “Is he all right?”
“The baby lives,” he said with a sigh of relief. “But it must come soon.”
“He’s not too large?”
“Your body will allow it – but only just.”
“I’ve been trying for hours and hours,” she said wearily. “He won’t come.”
“It must. I’ll help you to help it.”
“It’s a boy,” she confided. “Uwe told me when I found him on the road. Don’t be angry with him. He was injured when he said it.”
“I’m too worried for you to be angry with Uwe. Has he been doing well as a healer in my absence?”
Ainsland nodded and gripped his hand tightly as the pain became too great for her to speak. Collum wiped her face with a cool cloth, speaking reassuringly to her. He sensed that her life energy was being drained with each pain, and the baby’s was wavering.
“It’s time for this child to be born,” Collum declared. “Trust me and do as I say.”
“I trust you with our lives,” she said earnestly. “Do what you must to save our son.”
The sounds of Ainsland’s cries tore at Collum’s heart, but he knew there was nothing that would bring an end to them except the birth of the child. Half an hour later, the baby still had not come. Mother and son would lose their battle to survive if the boy was not delivered as soon as possible.
Realizing that he needed to separate Collum the healer from Collum the husband and father, Collum kissed his wife and said, “Ainsland, forgive me if I am forced to hurt you with what I do, but I must bring about the birth of our son now or I will lose you both. I need to hear you say that you will not stop helping me until after the baby comes.”
“I want to live,” she moaned. “I want to hold our son.”
Within the hour, Ainsland lay exhausted and exhilarated as she listened to her baby’s lusty cries. Collum gently wiped his son’s skin with a wet rag and marveled at the boy’s loud protests. This baby was his third son and the first to survive. He thought of the two boys who had died, the first through a terrible accident, the second through malice. This one had almost died during his struggle to be born.
“Collum, I want to hold him.”
The healer wrapped the baby in a blanket and took him to his mother. He watched her cry tears of joy and kiss the newborn’s small hands.
“I thought you were dead,” she cried, and Collum was not sure if she was speaking to him or the baby.
“You must sleep now,” he said, as he removed one of the pillows from behind her head. “Once you’ve nursed him, you can rest.”
“I don’t wish to sleep,” she protested.
Collum sat next to her on the bed and said softly, “You both could have died, Ainsland. It was a very near thing. I must give you something to help you to heal and allow me to tend to you without causing you further pain. It will make you sleep for a time. Please, don’t argue with me on this.”
“You won’t leave?” she asked, her eyes shining with tears. “What if Garreth comes back and kills you and takes our son?”
“Your cousin won’t be threatening our lives anymore. He’s been killed himself.”
“By whom?”
“A former soldier named Harold. I saved his life once. He says he’s quite familiar with you because you two traveled together.”
“It was Harold who found you?” she asked in a small voice. “But where? Everyone has been looking for you with no success.”
“Later, Ainsland. Now, I must get some supplies I need. Rest for a moment.”
As Ainsland nursed the baby, Collum went through the snow to the surgery. He returned several minutes later with the items he needed to tend to his wife, plus a mixture of sweet-smelling herbs in wine. He took their son from her arms and laid him in the cradle that Ainsland had instructed Uwe to place in the room the week before.
After insisting that she drink the potion, Collum sat beside her and stroked her hair until she drifted off to sleep. Then he put on his healer’s mask once more and set to work.
When morning came, Ainsland woke to find Collum sleeping next to her, his face shaved clean and his hair trimmed. Beastie lay curled beside the bed. She could hear her baby moving and making little noises in the cradle.
“How do you feel?” Collum asked without opening his eyes.
“Tired and hurting but so happy. You’re home, and our son lives. How long will I have to stay in bed?”
“A month at least.”
“A month! I can’t!”
“Do you wish to injure yourself further?” he asked with a hint of anger in his voice. “Do you wish to have other children? Or will you leave this one without a mother? I cannot lose you!”
She held Collum tightly as he cried. He buried his face against her neck and wept with what she assumed were tears of relief, grief, and joy.
Soon, their son made known his desire to be fed, and Collum dried his eyes and rose to lift him from the cradle. He watched him nurse. Ainsland observed her husband’s expression and remained quiet, knowing that he would say what he must in his own time.
“Garreth’s men came upon us from the trees,” he finally began. “I saw the one crack Uwe on the head and was rushing to help him when the other three came at me. I let go of Princess’s reins, thinking she’d return to you or go on to the village, but one of the men grabbed at them and mounted her. The two who came at me were upon me in an instant, and then things went black.
“When I woke, I was in a dark room. It was the first of many dark rooms. I was moved so often that I lost count. I was never without an armed man at the door.
“Eventually, Garreth came to me and taunted me with stories of you. He said that would be his revenge. I’d remain a prisoner, and you’d remain free and afraid.
“It was Garreth who told me you were with child again. He laughed as he spoke of how you went to the door each morning and opened it as if you expected me to be there.
“I knew I must leave from wherever it was that they were holding me. I began to exercise my limbs in order to strengthen them. As the days, weeks, and months passed, I became more and more desperate. I knew that the child should be delivered early and worried that no one would be there to assist you in doing so.”
“And you were right,” Ainsland interjected.
“I tried to escape, but I was caught each time. The first few times, my captors settled for minor beatings. The last time Garreth was nearby, and he came at me with a knife. He cut me three times, and I was sorely wounded.”
“Three times? I saw the mark on your forehead and the wound on your neck, but where else were you injured?”
“My leg.”
“The one that was broken?”
“Yes. I was grateful that it wasn’t the other one. It would be much more difficult to walk if both my legs pained me all the time.”
“So, the one that was broken does still hurt you then?”
He grinned sheepishly and nodded, telling her that he hadn’t wanted her to worry about him so much and had misled her into believing his leg had stopped hurting.
“How badly did Garreth injure your leg with the knife?”
Collum raised his nightshirt so that Ainsland could see the jagged scar on the outside of his right thigh. She touched it lightly with her fingertips then rested her hand on his hip.
“Was it bad?”
“It was. The blade cut deep, and Garreth twisted it slightly when he pulled it out. The wound became infected.”
“How did you heal yourself?”
“One of the guards took pity on me and sneaked in a container of salt. I applied it to the wound as often as I could bear it. As soon as my leg started mending, I began to plan another escape.
“Harold saved me the trouble by leading men to where we were and killing your cousin in the fighting that followed. He later told me that he’d sworn to find me and bring me home to you. It was he who tracked us to Kendall’s.”
“Kendall’s?” Ainsland gasped. “You were at my house?”
“Well, not the house exactly. There’s not much house left standing. But there was a stable behind the ruins, and that’s where we were. Garreth thought this very fitting and a further part of his revenge. He blamed Kendall for his misfortunes and told me during my captivity that his problems were Kendall’s fault. He said that Kendall had discovered how Garreth was misusing his money and authority and had set the law after him.”
“So that was it,” Ainsland murmured. “It wasn’t about me after all.”
Collum nodded and said, “Once Garreth was dead, Harold told me that he would escort me back to the village. Princess was in the stables, so I mounted her and rode with him towards here. It took some days, as you well know. As we neared the abbey in Bronleigh, Harold was seized by a terrible pain in his back.”
“Oh, my. Will he recover?”
“He will, but I had to leave him with the priests at the abbey and continue on alone. He told me he’ll come to us once he’s improved.”
“I’d greatly like to see him so that I can thank him in person,” Ainsland confided. “Did you come straight here from the abbey?”
“I passed through the village since it was the most direct route. When I arrived there, I was greeted by everyone and was told that Uwe was tending to Luke and his family. I went to the house and told Uwe to stay there until I came for him. I wanted to see you alone.”
“We must get word to your parents and brothers that you’re alive.”
“Harold said he would see to that by sending a messenger from the town near the abbey. He said that my mother was ill. Is that true?”
“Yes. She has terrible pain in her hip. Your father was taking her somewhere to try to treat it.”
“I see. How are the others in our family?”
“Besides being out of their heads with worry for you, they’re fine. Well, except for Winifred, who’s in bed, trying to save her unborn child from coming too soon.”
“I’ll write to Edward tomorrow and see if I can advise them on what might be done, but today I wish to stay in bed with you and our son and do nothing but look upon your face and his.”
“What do you think we should call him?”
“I was considering that while I was a prisoner. I thought of little else besides you and the child.”
“And what did you decide?”
“Kendall. From what you’d told me and what Garreth had added, I’ve nothing but the greatest admiration for the man. He seemed to be a good and honorable person who had no heirs of his own and who died because he followed an honest path. I thought that our son might be proud to have his name. I wasn’t certain what name to select for a daughter. Is Kendall all right with you for our son?”
Ainsland nodded, too moved to speak.
“You must name the next one,” he said, as he brushed a stray lock of hair from her forehead.
“If it’s a girl, then I’ll call her Faith,” Ainsland declared, as Collum bent to kiss her. “I had faith we would have more children, remember?” Sighing, she added, “I never lost hope that you’d come home to us.”
“Then the one after that will be Hope,” he said between kisses.
“I suppose I should save my strength for when I’m well enough to try again. Otherwise, we’ll never get to use such names.”
“I would take you right now if I could,” Collum breathed. “How I love you, Ainsland. You are the world to me, a beautiful gift I want to keep near to me every day of my life.”