Page 50 of Sighs of the Highland Wind

“I want to get us another glass of wine,” he told her as he dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I will be back.”

She watched the play of Maxwell’s tight muscles as he walked across the room to fetch their wine and felt her body beginning to react again. Lindsey had told her all about what to expect, but not that she would be hungry for him again so quickly.

Maxwell gave Kenna her wine and then drew her across to lean her head on his shoulder.

“I wish I never had to get out of this bed,” he said, sighing.

“You have to eat,” she reminded him. “I do too. We can’t spend our whole lives in bed!”

He looked into her green eyes and said softly, “The first time I saw the color of your eyes, I thought of the sun shining through the leaves of trees. I thought of one particular tree that I had climbed so often I had worn a path through the leaves. I loved that tree.” He sighed. “I fell out of it so many times that I always had at least a dozen bruises and cuts at any one time. That was the one Lachlan pushed me out of. It’s astonishing that I am still alive!”

Kenna giggled as she sipped her wine.

“I never did anything like that. I was never allowed to. Climbing trees was for boys, but it looked like such a lot of fun!”

“When we have daughters, I will never let them climb trees,” Maxwell said firmly.

“And what if we have no children?” Kenna asked, curious.

“We will.” Maxwell sounded very certain.

“You sound very sure of yourself,” she observed, frowning. “Is there a secret method you would like to share with me?”

“Yes. I will make love to you three times a day,” he replied. “Starting now.”

Then he took her wine glass out of her hand, kissed her hungrily, and it all began again.

EPILOGUE

The baby was born on a freezing January morning, just before sunrise. The staff in the castle had been awake for hours, and everyone, from the stable boy to the butler, was frozen in suspense. They went about their duties as usual, but there was an air of tension abroad as if they were all walking on tiptoe and waiting for something to happen because something stupendous was in the offing. Upstairs, in the master bedroom where it had been conceived, a child was being born.

Maxwell had been waiting outside the bedroom for hours while he listened to the agonized screams from within as Kenna strove to give birth to the infant. He had paced the floor back and forth so many times that the maidservants complained that he was wearing a hole in the carpet.

Effie Douglas, the housekeeper, was so anxious about Maxwell that she came upstairs to find out how he was. She was dismayed to find him in such a state of distress that he was sitting in a chair with his head in his hands, and for a moment she thought he was weeping.

Her heart went out to him, and she went to stand beside him, then she impulsively put a hand on his shoulder. He jumped, startled, then looked up, and Effie withdrew her hand at once as if it had been burned.

“I am sorry, sir,” she said anxiously.

Touching the laird or any member of the family was not permitted, and she had just crossed a line between servant and master.

However, Maxwell was not his father, and his rules were much less rigid.

“Don’t worry, Effie,” he consoled her. “I need some company.”

At that moment another horrendous wail issued from the bedroom and Maxwell gritted his teeth and moaned as if he was in pain himself.

“Sir, is it goin’ tae help if ye sit here distressin’ yerself?” Effie asked anxiously. “The mistress wouldnae want ye daein’ this. Come downstairs an’ eat somethin’. Ye will feel better, an’ the guard by the door will come an’ tell ye when the babe is born.”

Maxwell sighed and shook his head. “I know you are right, Effie, but I cannot bear to leave her like this.”

“The babe will be born whether ye are here or no’, sir,” Effie pointed out. Her eyes were kind as she looked into his, and she gave him a sympathetic smile. “I have birthed six babes, I had nay help fae anyone, an’ I am just an ordinary woman.”

Maxwell stood up, sighing, and cast another glance at the bedroom door.

“I know you are right, but I can’t help wishing there was something I could do.”

Effie laughed. “This is one time when us women are stronger than ye, an’ ye can dae nothin’ about it. The mistress is in good hands, an’ she is a strong an’ healthy young woman.”