Page 68 of Sutherland's Secret
“She was born just minutes ago. Isn’t she beautiful?”
Brice sat back on his heels, stunned. Never, in all the time he’d been running theStaran,had someone given birth on the trail. It led to complications, but for now he couldn’t think of those. He looked at the mother, clearly exhausted, and the beaming father and the son, now an older brother, who was watching it all with wide, unsure eyes.
“Where are the soldiers?” Lachlan asked softly so the family didn’t hear.
Brice stood and stepped away. “They’ve moved on. Unless something pulls them back, we’ll no’ be hearing from them this night.”
Lachlan looked at the group of people before them with a troubled frown. “We still have another group to pick up.”
Brice nodded. “I know. We need to get the mother and babe to Cait. She’ll know what to do with them.”
Cait Campbell was the only healer in these parts, since Brice had lost his healer in the spring. Though it was difficult not having someone near, he trusted Cait, even though she was a Campbell—but only by marriage. There was a difference.
His gaze followed Lachlan’s, but all he could see was Eleanor sitting on the ground, the babe looking so natural in her arms. Her head was bent toward the baby, and he could see her whispering in the wee’un’s ear as she stroked the tiny fingers.
The scene looked so right, so natural, that it made his heart hurt. If she were with child, he would never be able to see her hold his babe.
He dragged his gaze away. “I’ll take the other men and Eleanor and fetch the others and move them. You take the family to Cait.”
Brice knelt next to Eleanor and glanced at the babe, but that hurt too much, so he concentrated on Eleanor. “We have to move. ’Tis too dangerous to stay here like this. Lachlan, Oliver, and Samuel will take the mother and babe to the closest healer.”
Eleanor nodded and handed the babe back to her mother. The woman was crying, silent tears dripping down her cheeks. The father cradled mother and baby to him and cried with her.
“Please let us go with ye,” the mother begged Brice. “We’re all in danger if we stay.”
Brice shook his head. “It’s no’ safe for ye. Ye need to be looked over by the healer, and the wee’un, too. If all’s well, ye can be on the next boat.”
“We’ll be fine,” Morna said, desperation in her voice. “I promise we won’t be a burden.”
Brice hesitated. He understood how she felt. They were being hunted, and the longer they stayed in Scotland, the bigger their chance of being found. But he couldn’t risk it. He had to leave them behind. “I’m sorry,” he said before turning his back on her. The mother wept louder, and her husband patted her on the back, while Brice felt like he’d sentenced these people to death. Cait would protect them, and he would do everything in his power to get them on that next ship.
“It’s her fifth birth,” Eleanor whispered as she stepped up beside him. “All the others died except for her son and now her daughter.”
Brice nodded briskly. He knew he was appearing heartless, although he was anything but. He felt so keenly for these people that his heart was breaking. At this point in the journey, they’d accepted that they were leaving their homeland and their families behind. They were looking forward to a life without fear. To be told they had to wait was torture. He’d had to do it before, and he had to think of the whole. He couldn’t put others’ lives in danger for a few.
Eleanor helped the woman stand and held her steady. Brice knew nothing of birthing and wasn’t certain it was safe for the woman to be up and walking, but they needed to move. Traveling with her and a baby who could cry at any moment would be dangerous.
“I want to go with her,” Eleanor said.
“Nay.”
“It wasn’t a question, Brice. You can’t send this woman and her newborn baby out into the wilderness with a bunch of men. It’s not right.”
“It will have to do. Ye’re no’ going with them.”
Her eyes flashed, and he almost winced at the anger directed at him. “I’m going. She needs another woman with her until she gets to the healer.”
Brice took an angry step toward her. “Do ye know how dangerous this is? That babe could cry out at any moment and alert passing soldiers.”
“It doesn’t matter if we’re heading toward the healer or the next safe house, the same could happen either way.”
He was toe-to-toe with her, angry that she wanted to put herself in danger. Hell, he’d just calmed his racing heart from when he thought she was in the hands of the enemy. “Ye promised ye would follow what I told ye.”
She hesitated and he knew he had her. The only reason he’d brought her was because she’d sworn to him that she would do everything he said.
“I brought that baby into the world,” she said softly. “Me. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was beautiful and unpleasant at the same time. I caught her with my own hands.” She held up her hands. Blood was caked in her fingernails, but she looked at her hands in awe. “I was the first one to touch her and hold her, and I’ll see her to safety. I will, Brice.”
He drew in a breath through clenched teeth. “When I couldn’t find ye after the soldiers passed, I thought they had ye. I thought ye’d been captured, and I…” He stopped, never having been one to easily express his emotions. “It tore me apart, thinking ye were with them. I went after them, and Eleanor, I don’t know what I would have done if ye had been with them. I think I would have gone mad and killed them all.”
