Highland Supplanter (Book 2)

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Hamish placed his cousins on the floor, with much laughter as they still held tightly to him. They looked up at him with glowing faces, and he glanced over at Fyfa as she sat by the hearth with joy and love shining in her eyes. His heart felt full enough to burst at that moment. His cousin’s seemed to notice quite quickly that his attention was no longer on them. Turning as one to stare at Fyfa, who flushed bright red to the roots of her hair. And he almost laughed aloud, but knew the consequences of such a reaction, especially in her current state.

He cleared his throat as his cousin’s leaned forward slightly. He could see them trying to think of a reason he would bring a woman with him. Was it really such a shock that he could ever have a time when a woman wanted to be with him. Well, she may not have chosen willingly to leave with him, but he would rather she not see how strange it was for him to bring anyone with him on these trips. “Fyfa, may I introduce you to my cousins, young Master Ross. And little Mistress Rose.” Fyfa raised an eyebrow, and Ida jumped at the chance to explain. “There father, God rest his soul, had a running family tradition of naming all their bairns by the same first letter. Hence Ross and Rose, my other, now older bairns, with bairns of their own have names beginning the same. And they have even carried on the tradition with different letters themselves.” He watched as his aunt managed to beam at telling someone new of the tradition, and how Fyfa actually looked interested in the custom.

Ross and Rose tugged on his kilt, and he looked down upon two very similar expression. Both telling him without words that they wanted information. “Ross, Rose, this is my wife Fyfa,” he paused a moment as he let that sink in, and smiled over at his said wife. “And also,” he knelt down and lowered his voice as if imparting a secret to them, “she is also having my bairn.” Rose’s eyes grew wide, and shiny, and in a flash he was no longer the most important visitor, and was in fact completely forgotten as she practically threw herself at Fyfa. Ross on the other hand did not seem too over enthused by the news.

He scrunched his nose up, and at ten summers old Hamish could not expect much else from him. He could not remember being overly fond of bairns at his age either. His cousin leaned in, and tried to keep his voice low as he whispered, but Hamish caught Ida listening in from the corner of his eye. “Hamish, why would you want a girl to have your bairn? That means you have to live with her and everything. I have to live with Rose and I cannot wait till she is old enough to have a family of her own. I am never marrying or having bairns, they are messy and smelly, and boring. And the only girl who is any good is Ma.” Ross gave a huge sigh as he slumped his shoulders in disappointment. “You have been very foolish Hamish, and you cannot get out of it now.” Ross shook his head, and headed to his stool by the table ready to eat. Hamish, was left stunned into stillness just watching his cousin walk away.

Ida placed her hand upon his shoulder, shocking him back into the present. “Take no notice of him Hamish. Just wait until he meets a woman like your Fyfa. Then I will let you be the one to inform him of what he has just informed you.” She gave a chuckle as she went to the hearth to pick up the ladle for the rather marvellous smelling stew over the fire. It took him a moment to remember, from the pain starting in his knee, that he needed to stand. And made his way straight for Fyfa, as she sat listening to a bouncing and nonstop chattering, Rose. He had to pause to watch as she was so patient with Rose. Who was one of the most talkative people he knew both in the clan, and from those he had met on his travels. He even knew that Rose talked in her sleep, as he had looked after her a few time while she was ill, to give his Aunt Ida a break. He was trying to think of a way to break into Rose’s prattle, when he realised a part of his mind was making sure he remembered this little interaction.

A part wishing that their bairn was a girl. A girl with fiery red hair, and her mother’s gentles nature, with a spine forged from the strongest of steel. He looked forward to a time when he could walk in from guard duty, finding Fyfa sat before their hearth with their daughter before them. Her listening so intently to whatever their bairn had to say, with a look of awe upon her. He had to shake his head to clear it. Ida managed to save him from making a complete fool of himself. “Rose, leave Fyfa alone a moment, and let her eat. She has had a long journey and does not need you tiring her out further.” Rose looked mutinously at her mother, before succumbing silently, but still was not stopped from grabbing Fyfa’s hand, and pulling her to the table. “You can have the stool next to me Fyfa, because you do not want to sit next to Ross. Because he is a boy.”