Page 137 of Promises to Keep

Magnus tossed my second boot to the side. “What ye want me tae do?”

“Sit.”

He sat on the side of the bed and I draped over his back and then when a contraction hit I rose up over him using his shoulders as my altar, kneeling down, rising up, muttering prayers and laments, then I said, after a riotous wave of a contraction had blown through, “I am so mad at you.”

I collapsed, my arms draped over his shoulders, my cheek pressed to the back of his head.

“How come, mo reul-iuil?”

“Daena sweet talk me.”

“How come?”

“You did this. I hate you… I will never forgive you”

“Och, ye daena mean it, ye are just passing a bairn through yer body, ye will forgive me when ye lay eyes on him.”

I roared through another contraction, raising up above him, then dropping down to rest and then raising up and dropping down. Then I moaned as I said, though maybe not out loud,I’m pushing…

Magnus said, “Ye sound different, what is happening?”

A contraction seized me again and as Emma and Lizbeth rushed across the room to get to me I felt a baby slide down to the bed between my legs.

I weakly said, “Bairn.”

Emma lifted my shift and said, “Oh my god! There’s a baby! You literally just dropped a baby right there!”

She and Lizbeth worked between my legs while Magnus held my arms secure on his shoulders because my legs were shaking so much I thought I would fall right over. Emma wrapped the baby in a linen cloth and held it beside me as Magnus and Lizbeth all helped lift me and lay me down on the bed. I said, “All of this whole place is disgusting.”

Emma said, “True that.”

They placed the baby against my chest.

Oh.

He was loosely wrapped in cloth. “Hey beautiful, what are you doing? Did you just get born?”

I sobbed, happy tears, streaming down my face, “Magnus do you see? I made you a boy!”

He grinned. “I do see — ye did, but hae ye even checked yet?”

“I don’t have to, I just know! He looks just like you!” But I moved the fabric aside to see his parts. “He is a boy!” I laugh-cried, almost hysterically. “Thank God, his nose would have been so ridiculous on a girl.”

Emma pulled a clean sheet over my lap. “You literally went through every emotion right then.”

“I pushed a whole baby out, oh my god, did you see?”

Lizbeth said, “Nae, I missed it! I was so busy thinking ye were going tae be at it all night that I missed m’nephew coming!” She wiped her eyes. “I am verra pleased I was here, I dinna think I would ever see yer bairn born, Kaitlyn. I am glad tae hae been a part of it though I dinna help in any way.”

I said, “You did exactly what I needed, you were here, in case I needed you.”

Magnus put his arms around me, nestled his face against my throat, a small huddle of us, wrapped around the new bairn. “I love you so much, Magnus.”

“I love ye as well, mo reul-iuil.”

“Please don’t hold any of that earlier against me.”

“I would never hold any of it against ye. When ye battle ye hae tae hate someone, better me than the bairn.”

---