Kirsty smiled, then she put her hand to her stomach and bent forward.
“What is it?” Bronwyn cried and went to her.
Kirsty sat up slowly, her breathing deep and difficult.
“Please let me help you,” Bronwyn pleaded, her hands on Kirsty’s arm.
Kirsty looked into Bronwyn’s eyes. “You’re very kind, aren’t you?”
Bronwyn smiled. “I’m not a kind person in the least. I’m—” She broke off as she started to say she was the MacArran. But what was she away from her clan?
Kirsty put her hand over Bronwyn’s. “I think you try to hide it. Tell me more about yourself. It keeps my mind off my own problems.”
“I think I should call someone. I think you’re about to have the baby.”
“Please,” Kirsty said desperately. “Don’t frighten Donald. My baby isn’t due yet. I can’t have it now. Donald and I are going home to my parents’. My mother will deliver my child. It’s just something I ate. I’ve had these pains before.”
Bronwyn frowned as she sat back down on the ground.
“Tell me about yourself,” Kirsty urged again. Her eyes were glazed. “What’s it like to be married to an—”
Bronwyn’s head came up sharply, but Kirsty didn’t finish the sentence. She doubled over in pain, and the next minute Bronwyn caught the little woman in her arms.
“It’s the baby,” Kirsty whispered. “The baby is coming. You’re the only one who can help me.”
Bronwyn could only stare in horror. They were in the middle of nowhere, so who was going to be the midwife? She hugged Kirsty as another pain swept her. “Rab,” she called quietly. “Go get Stephen. Get Stephen and bring him back here immediately.”
Rab was away before Bronwyn finished speaking.
“Come inside the wagon, Kirsty,” she said gently. Bronwyn was strong, and it was easy for her to get the small woman into the wagon. Kirsty lay down, and another pain made her double over.
Bronwyn looked out into the woods. No sign of the men. She went back to Kirsty, gave her a drink of water. Stephen would know what to do, she kept thinking. She didn’t realize that for the first time she was depending on him.
She smiled when she heard Stephen’s angry bellow.
“Bronwyn!”
She stepped down from the wagon.
“What the hell is this Satan-spawned dog of yours trying to do?” he demanded. “He jumped on me just as I was aiming at a deer. Then he nearly tore my leg off dragging me here.”
She just smiled at him. “Kirsty is going to have her baby.”
“Oh my God!” Donald breathed, then ran to the wagon.
“How soon?” Stephen asked.
“I think right away.”
“Think!” Stephen said angrily. “Don’t you know?”
“How would I know?”
He sputtered. “Women are supposed to know these things.”
“And are they told them during reading lessons or sword play?” she asked sarcastically.
“Damned inadequate education for a girl if you ask me. There must have been some time when your family wasn’t leading cattle raids.”