Rannick worried how Bliss would take the news and he saw no reason to delay telling her. He found her in the Great Hall, seeing to a wound on the hand of one of the servants.
“Keep it wrapped and dry and let me have another look at it in two days,” Bliss said, and finished wrapping the bandage around the servant’s forearm.
“I am most grateful, my lady, as are many in the clan you have helped. We are happy to have you here,” the young servant lass said with a smile that faded rapidly when she spotted Rannick.
“You frighten the servants,” Bliss scolded as her husband approached and the young lass rushed off.
“They all should have your courage,” he said and reached out to ease his wife into his arms. She always drifted into his embrace eagerly, and with a smile, as if she had missed him no matter how long they had been apart… minutes or hours. He rarely let too much time pass without finding her to hug and kiss, and with the news he had to tell her, he preferred her snug in his arms.
“It is difficult to have courage against that scowl you wear all too often,” she chided.
“My smiles are for you.”
“I suggest you spread your smiles out and share them with others,” she advised, her own smile fading some. “You are concerned about something. What troubles you?”
More and more she grew to sense when something was amiss with him or when he had need of her and not a passionate need, but simply a need to have her close. It would creep over him slowly at first, a fear of sorts that tingled his flesh, and he would have to hurry and find her to make sure she was all right, that no one had taken her from him. She would hurry into his arms as if she understood or as though she felt the same.
“Rannick?” she said softly when he did not respond.
He shook his head and reminded himself of why he had come to find her. “I have news of Elysia.”
Bliss gasped. “Troubling news.”
“I do not believe so.”
“Tell me, please,” she pleaded, concern churning her stomach.
“First, you must understand that I gave my word to Odran when after his brother’s death he chose to seek solace in his silence and to protect others from the curse touching them as it had him. He never expected to fall in love, and he did all he could to avoid wedding her.”
Bliss paled. “Saber is Odran? Elysia is wed to the lord that was cursed silent?”
“Aye, but Odran is a good man and will be good to your sister, especially with her being with child.”
Bliss stared at him in shock, then hurried to ask, to make sure she heard him correctly. “Elysia is with child?”
“Aye, unexpectedly from what I am to understand, since we had pledged not to father any bairns.”
Bliss shook her head wishing she could have been there when Elysia had found out about Saber and to provide her with what she needed to keep from getting with child. Although Elysia wanted bairns and many of them. She certainly was full of enough love for a large brood. She could only imagine how happy her sister was and also how worried she might be.
“I need to go see my sister,” Bliss said.
Rannick knew she would not like his reply, but it was necessary. “Not at the moment.”
Bliss was ready to argue with him when it struck her. “That is why there have been no attempts on our lives.” She grabbed her husband’s arm. “The group focuses on Lord Odran and my sister because she is with child.”
He hated to agree with her since it would worry her all the more. “I have surmised the same, though Odran assures me Elysia is safe, and he intends to keep her that way.”
“I must be there to deliver the bairn,” Bliss insisted.
Again, he knew his reply would not please her. “That will depend on how safe it is for you and Elysia.”
“I will not argue with you on this, Rannick. I will deliver Elysia’s bairn no matter the circumstances,” she said with such strong conviction that it returned his scowl that had faded. “You can scowl all you want. On this I will have my way.”
Rannick grabbed her chin to squeeze lightly. “Think again on challenging me, wife, for you will not know victory. You will do as I say and not stubbornly chance losing your life running off to deliver your sister’s bairn. If it is safe, I will take you, if not? You remain here.”
Bliss had to temper her anger. It would do no good to argue with her husband. She had time yet to have her way and if not… she would find a way to get to Elysia by herself. But there was no way, absolutely no way that she would not help her sister through the birth of her first bairn.