Conall gave the order, and the driver flicked the reins. The wheels groaned, and soon the castle and its high tower shrank from view, swallowed by the distance. Lily exhaled, pressing her hands to her lap as she leaned back in her seat.
“Sorcha said that Clara’s labor began early this morning,” she said to Brigid. “If it has kept on this long, then the bairn will be coming soon. I only hope we reach them in time.”
“We will,” Conall assured her. His voice was steady, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
Lily saw it and wondered if he expected some kind of trouble on the road or if it was just a force of habit.
She turned to the window a while later, watching the path blur past the carriage. She tried to force her mind to think of anything else. She would even take the scenery, at this point. But she couldn’t. Her mind kept returning to Alasdair.
And worse, she kept wondering if maybe, just maybe, he had a point.
Brigid seemed to sense her turmoil and reached across with a small smile. “Perhaps ye’ll be around to deliver Valerie’s bairn when the time comes.”
Lily’s lips quirked into the hint of a smile. “We’ll see how it goes.”
“Ye and Valerie always were the closest.”
“Daenae say that,” Lily said quickly. “If anything, she and I fought the most.”
Brigid laughed. “Fought? What do ye mean?”
Lily gave her a sidelong look. “Ye daenae remember? She once slipped fish bones under me blanket on the ship. The girl meant to kill me.”
Brigid gasped with laughter, her hand covering her mouth. “Oh, I remember now! But did ye nae dump fish innards into her bath the very next day?”
Heat rushed into Lily’s cheeks, though she tried to smother the smile tugging her lips. “So ye do remember. I thought nay one saw me.”
“I saw ye,” Brigid quipped. “I watched ye carry that bucket into her room. And I’ll never forget the sound of her scream. It was loud enough to wake Ma and Da.”
The memory pricked Lily’s heart, both guilty and warm. She could still see her parents’ shocked faces when they burst into the room.
“They’d be glad to see us now,” Brigid said softly. “Glad to see how far we’ve come.”
“Aye,” Lily whispered. “They would.”
Conall shifted closer and draped his arm around Brigid’s shoulders. “And I hope they’d be glad of yer choice of husband too.”
Brigid leaned into him, a small smile playing on her lips. “Da may take to ye, but Ma would have made ye work harder for her heart.”
Conall pressed his lips to her neck. “If it means a lifetime with ye, I’d charm Lucifer himself if I have to.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “For heaven’s sake, ye two. We are bound for a woman in labor, nae a marriage bed. Keep it in yer breeches.”
Brigid muffled her laugh against Conall’s shoulder, while Conall raised his eyebrows as if he wanted to argue. But before he could, the carriage veered near the beach, and the sea stretched wide before them.
Lily leaned forward, her breath catching.
The sea was wide, almost never-ending, and she watched it crash into the sandy shore. She could still hear Alasdair’s voice in her head, especially the way he told her he planned to take her to the beach someday.
Words could not do the image before her enough justice.
“‘Tis magnificent,” she murmured.
Brigid followed her gaze and nodded. “I never kent that a place like this existed in MacRay territory.”
Lily swallowed hard. “Alasdair told me about it once. He kent how much I loved the sea. He even promised to take me here on the day of our handfasting.”
Tears pricked her eyes, and she blinked rapidly in a bid to hold them back.
