Warrior's Moon

Caelis finally released her.

She refused to acknowledge the abandonment that washed over her, but in that moment she felt more vulnerable than she had since leaving Scotland pregnant by a man who had categorically rejected her.

Audrey stepped forward to slide her arm around Shona’s waist. “All will be well, dear friend.”

Shona simply shook her head. How could it possibly? The greatest fear she had not even prepared herself to feel now stared her in the face with the ferocity of a ravening beast.

In her desperation to save her son’s life, Shona now risked losing him to the father who had denied even the chance of his conception.

The same man who even now dropped to one knee in front of their son. “No one will be angry at you for the truth, do you ken me, Eadan?”

The boy nodded.

“You said real father. Why is that?”

“You know,” Eadan said in a fierce whisper they all heard.

Cold chills washed over Shona as her breath turned shallow. Her son knew Caelis was his father? How could he?

It was impossible. Not only untenable to believe her son knew Henry had not been his father, but that Eadan would have somehow divined that Caelis was, thoroughly flummoxed her.

“Aye. I do know,” Caelis said, exhibiting none of the disbelief plaguing Shona, wonder and warm affection shining in his blue eyes. “And my heart rejoices in this knowledge, but I am needing you to tell me how you came to know of it.”

“Oh. Do you like me, then? You think I’m a fine Scottish laddie?”

The broken sound that came out of Shona made Caelis tense, but he did not turn away from their son. “I do,” he promised with absolute solemnity.

“You want a little boy. In the dreams you cry for me, wishing I was with you.”

“Dreams?”

“The real dreams. The ones that come true.”

“Do you have other real dreams?” Caelis asked.

Eadan looked to Shona, asking for permission to speak.

She nodded her head. She knew about the real dreams. Or thought she did, but he’d only ever told her about two. And Shona had always wondered if the dreams had been more wishful thinking and imagination on her son’s part than anything else.

She’d always considered his dream about her daughter and the pond fortuitous, not prophetic.

Clearly her son had not shared all with her. Mayhap her initial disbelief had shown through and that was why?

“I dreamed my lord would die and he did. I dreamed Marjory would fall into the pond and hit her head. Mum saved her from drownded.”

“Drowning,” Shona automatically corrected.

Eadan nodded and repeated obediently, “Drowning.”

“Oh, Heavens, he’s another Ciara. Did you know Caelis was of the royal blood?” Abigail demanded of her husband.

He didn’t reply, but with a furtive glance at Shona, Abigail subsided just as if he had.

Shona had no idea who Ciara was, or what Abigail meant by Caelis being of royal blood. Any other time, she would have demanded answers, insisted on understanding, but she was barely able to maintain her composure as it was.

Exhaustion beat at her more relentlessly than her husband had ever done, mention of her son’s “gifts” bringing additional worry Shona simply could not take in at the moment.

“I did dream of you,” Eadan said to Caelis. “Lots. ’Specially since we left the barony. I knew we’d meet you here.”

Shona gasped. That was a bit of information she would have liked to be privy to. Though would she have believed her son, or thought him guilty of wishful thinking again? This time with an uncanny similarity between reality and his dreams?

“I am very pleased you dreamed of me,” Caelis told their son. “I am even more pleased you have come to the Highlands so we can be a family again.”

Shona’s knees would have buckled if Audrey had not held her up. Shona had her own dreams, but they had not been prophetic and she’d known without any doubt that they could never come true.

For him to stand there and talk like everything had been decided without a word from her…it was too much. Once again, a man she could not trust sought to take her choices. How would she fight him? Law and tradition stood firmly on Caelis’s side.

Shona felt the waters closing over her head as air became more and more difficult to draw into her lungs.

“You have to love Marjory, too.” Eadan had no trouble making demands of his own. It was not the first time she’d seen similarities between father and son. “She’s your daughter like I’m your son. My dreams said so.”

“Naturally.”

Her son accepted Caelis’s easy agreement with a firm nod of approval, but Shona could not be so trusting. Even if he told the truth, she desperately did not want to link her life to this man’s after the way he’d hurt her so deeply six years ago.

Then, incredibly, Shona’s overly shy daughter, who would hide in her mother’s skirts at the first sign of a stranger, released her brother’s hand and moved over to Caelis. Marjory put her hands out to the big warrior as if to be picked up.

Though his focus was so intent on Eadan that Shona could not believe Caelis had seen the gesture, he turned and took the wee girl into his big arms without hesitation or pause.

The world grew black around the edges, but Shona would not give into the blessed solace of unconsciousness. She inhaled more deeply, clutching at Audrey, pleading silently with the other woman for help.

Audrey, true friend that she was, strengthened her hold and asked Lady Abigail if they could not have a goblet of watered wine.

Abigail’s attention shifted from the spectacle of Shona’s children clinging to the man they’d met only that day. When her eyes landed on Shona, they widened and concern filled her gaze. “Of course.”

Caelis turned then, as if somehow attuned to Shona’s distress. He stood with Marjory in his arms.

Shona lifted her hand in a staying motion and spoke through barely moving lips. “Do not come near.”

The hand not holding her daughter fisted at his side, his expression hardening. “Shona…”

“Nay.” It was Thomas speaking, surprisingly enough. He shifted so his body was a physical barrier between Shona and Caelis. “You have wrought this with your actions. I do not know how our Shona came to be in the predicament she is, but you’ve done her grave damages in the past, breaking sacred law and dishonoring your own nature. The boy standing by your side is testament to it.”

Incredibly, Caelis made no effort to deny it. In fact, he nodded, his jaw hewn from rock, torment she neither understood nor wanted to see swimming in his gentian gaze.

Thomas’s own visage was harsher than Shona had ever seen it. “She has told you to stay away. You will stay away.”

“Are you her protector then?” Caelis asked in a dangerous voice.

“I am her friend.”

Audrey added, “A truer one than you have been. Thomas and I were there the few times the baron’s temper overcame his sense. My brother taught the boy you seek to claim for your own to sit his first horse. Like me, he helped nurse both Eadan and Marjory through the fevers of babyhood when neither the baron, nor his son, nor even the snooty servants they employed were willing to lift a finger in aid.”

Caelis dropped his head, then lifted it to meet Thomas’s stare. “I am in your debt.”

“Aye, you are, but more important, you are in Shona’s.”

Caelis nodded, his gaze slipping back to her. The yearning she saw there had to be a trick of the light.