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“Aye.” Mhairi beamed as they kept trudging through the field of oats. “I didna think I’d fall in love with my husband. Ye ken. Ye’ve been marrit. Love is never the purpose. ’Tis never the reason, either. ’Tis something that hopefully happens. Marriage is for strengthening the clans, the ties between families. But we fell in love. And now we’re about to have a bairn…”

Jenny looked at her. “How’s your life, then?” she asked. “You’re a pregnant woman, married to the man you love, living in a castle… Do you like it?”

Mhairi chuckled and looked away, at the kids running towards the woods. “Aye, Jenny.” She rubbed her bump and smiled cheerfully. “Seoras makes me so happy. We’re blessed that we found each other, and I like my life on Islay.” She brushed her hand along her belly. “I canna wait for my bairn to arrive and to hold it in my arms.” She sighed. “Also, because my body hurts.”

Jenny gave her an empathetic smile. “I don’t know how you do it. You’re on your feet all day and with such a huge belly. Is your pregnancy going well?”

“Aye. I canna complain.”

As they walked, Jenny asked her more questions about her pregnancy and the baby and heard nothing alarming aside from the child being in the breech position. Still, she wanted to keep an eye on Mhairi, especially closer to the birth. They kept chatting, and Jenny found herself liking Mhairi more and more. She reminded her of her girlfriends back in New York. They stopped several times when Mhairi had contractions. Every instinct told Jenny to make sure Mhairi made it back home. She was in early labor for sure.

And so, she didn’t run off, and she didn’t ask Mhairi for help getting away. Part of her didn’t want to leave. The thought of abandoning Aulay and the kids and Ailis and little Una made her stomach hurt. She felt needed here. She had started liking it here.

She still had time to get back. She didn’t need to leave today.

In the woods, it was quiet and dark after the blinding sun. Moss was everywhere—on tree trunks, on stones, on the ground. Jenny inhaled the rich scent of greenery and earth. The kids ran in different directions. Several of them gathered around raspberry bushes and quieted for the first time as they picked the berries and shoved them into their mouths. Most of the berries didn’t make it into their baskets, but Jenny gathered all the berries she could for Una and Ailis. Vitamin C would be very good for their immune systems to fight this flu off.

On their way back to the castle, she saw kids as young as seven years old working the fields of oats with their parents. Some of them gathered fallen branches for firewood and put them into a basket on their backs. Small crofts stood at the edges of the fields. Behind them, sheep grazed on the slopes of hills.

By the time they were passing the village, Mhairi was having to stop more often and for longer. She held on to Jenny’s arms as she breathed through the contractions.

“You’re definitely in labor, Mhairi,” Jenny said when the next one passed. “We must return to your home immediately. If you let me, I’ll stay with you.”

Mhairi shook her head. “Nae, thank ye. Bhatair will be with me.”

Jenny sent Artur to find Bhatair as soon as possible. As they passed the church, people exited from Mass. Many of them were coughing, and Jenny saw blood on the handkerchief of one of them.

“Tuberculosis?” she murmured.

The BCG vaccine had been invented only at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tuberculosis bacteria were spread through air and may have accumulated in the church for years. While tuberculosis was no longer very common in the States, she knew it was still a big concern in other parts of the world. It was deadly without a long and complex treatment. She needed to talk to the priest and suggest a good cleaning like she had done in the orphanage.

There was so much she could do here to help.

Jenny needed to talk to Aulay about that. She helped Mhairi to the main keep, where Bhatair was already waiting for her. He scowled at Jenny and took Mhairi by the elbow, helping her inside.

“Can I help?” asked Jenny.

“Nae. Ye wilna go near my patient.” With that, he closed the door.

Jenny was worried. If the baby didn’t turn, it meant all kinds of complications that without modern medicine might mean death for the baby and the mother.

She couldn’t do much to help now, but what she could do was speak with Aulay. She looked for him everywhere, but she was told he was down in the village. While she waited for him to return, she went to the orphanage to make more of the impetigo salve and to tidy up. The children chatted and played around her as she worked.

When she left the orphanage, it must have been hours later. There was still light in the sky, but it was clearly evening, and the inner bailey was full of the scents of cooking meals. She would take some raspberries to Ailis and Una, then look for Aulay again.

But she didn’t need to search. MacZeus stood a hundred feet away, barking orders at the warriors who were standing in a row with their swords. He looked angry.

Her stomach fluttered as she approached him.

She picked several raspberries from her basket. “Raspberry?” she asked.

He turned to her, his steely eyes blazing.

CHAPTER 19

Aulay’s fists clenched and unclenched. He’d almost died when he’d woken up to an empty bed. Then he’d almost died again when after searching every corner of the castle, he had finally been told by the guard that Jennifer, Mhairi, and the orphans had gone to gather raspberries. He had never been so close to whipping the arse of one of his men. The English had attacked from that forest.

“I said to nae let her leave the castle,” he’d growled into the face of the paling man.