“You were forced to.” She didn’t see her mother in a bad way.
“I’ve thought about it over the years, and maybe if I’d been stronger, less afraid of my own shadow, I could have spoken to his da. But important people surrounded him, and the woman who told me to get rid of the bairn was watching me. I couldna approach him.”
Aisling wondered how she would have handled the situation at her mother's age. She thought she would have told the midwife that she would do it, but then taken the baby straight to the da and told him his son had survived.
But what if he didn’t believe her? She could see her mother’s dilemma.
“So you are saying the midwife would recognize Coinneach as his bairn if she saw his birthmark?”
“Aye. And he was shirtless when he was fighting in the inner bailey.”
Aisling loved to see Coinneach shirtless, his beautiful, glistening muscles exposed. She loved his birthmark, distinguishing him from any other man she’d ever met.
“But”—Aisling suspected—“the woman in question wouldna have come out to watch the fighting?”
“Nay. She abhors seeing such a thing.”
But it was all right to kill a newly born baby.
“His da wouldna know about it.” Not if he hadn’t seen the bairn, Aisling thought.
Now Aisling didn’t know what to do. She’d been eager to learn the truth, but not half-truths. She wanted to tell Coinneach, but would it only hurt him? Would he be angry that Magnus and Elspeth hadn’t told him the truth about how they had found him? Or want to take revenge against the midwife? And her mother?
“You see why I didna want to tell you about it? You canna mention this to Coinneach. His parents, though not his birth parents, have loved him like a mother and a da, and telling him the truth will only hurt him.”
“Surely, the midwife no longer holds any power over you. You’ve been the midwife for years.”
“Nay, love. She has great power.”
“How? Does she have many friends and family who would do her bidding?” Aisling asked.
“Something like that.”
Not much family and many friends. Aisling tried to think of who had that much power and blurted out, “Morag!”
“Shh, never say her name.”
“Ohmigoddess, she married the Chief. Hamish is Coinneach’s da.”
Her mother wiped away tears. “I knew I could never keep the truth from you forever.”
“No matter how much you wanted to keep the secret, you needed to tell someone.”
“You canna tell Coinneach. He will make his way in the world on his own.”
“Unlike Morag’s son, Rupert. Morag spoils him rotten. But he’s still the chief’s son, if no’ his first.”
Her mother didn’t respond, her eyes downcast.
“Dinna tell me, Rupert isna Hamish’s son.”
“I didna tell you that.”
“But he isna, is he?”
Her mother shook her head.
“Whose then?”
