The Raider (Highland Guard #8)(124)

“Your blood. It’s your blood.” But the threat had worked. He looked more solid and some of the color was returning to his face. “And I wasn’t going to faint.”

Rosalin and Helen looked at each other and laughed.

“I told you they were useless in the birthing room,” Helen said, and then looked at Robbie. “If I have to set up a bed for you, I’m not going to be happy.”

Robbie scowled at her. “I can do this. Please, I want to be with her.”

He held Rosalin’s hand as the next pain grabbed her, and the next. Somehow having him there helped. It still hurt like Hades, but the edge didn’t seem quite so sharp.

When it was time to push, Helen told him to make himself useful, and he supported Rosalin from behind as she bore down.

She lost track of time. It seemed to go on forever. She didn’t think she’d ever been so relieved when Helen said, “Almost there. One more big push.”

Rosalin gritted her teeth, with her husband whispering encouraging words in her ear, and called on every last ounce of strength to deliver their son into the waiting arms of her friend.

The angry little cry a moment later was the most beautiful sound Rosalin had ever heard. Tears sprang to her eyes.

There were tears in Helen’s eyes as well. “It’s a boy, and he is perfect.”

Rosalin felt the relief in her husband’s body as well as her own. They looked at one another wordlessly, at an utter loss.

After detaching the babe from the placenta and tying the cord, Helen bundled the child in a soft wool plaid and handed the red, squalling infant to Rosalin.

He had a downy tuft of dark hair, but that wasn’t what provoked her to say, “He looks like you.” She looked up at her husband, who was staring at the child as if he’d never seen anything so magnificent. “He certainly has your temper.”

Robbie stroked the baby’s tiny head with the back of his finger. His voice was thick when he said, “What shall we call him?”

She smiled. “I thought…” He gave her a look that said “don’t say it.” But she’d always known exactly what they would call him. “I thought Thomas.”

Robbie held her stare, and the emotion that passed between them was sharp and poignant with the memories. Their child would bear the name of the friend who had unknowingly brought them together. Every time they looked at their son, he would remind them of the love that had been so hard fought and won. At all costs.