Kingdom Come (51 page)

Kieran had moved beyond his emotional outburst and was now utterly fascinated by the boy in front of him. Never in his life had something meant so much to him; he couldn’t put the moment into words.  The love that he felt for Rory had come to fruition and the result was living and breathing in front of him. Little Tevin Jeffrey Lucas Hage was easily close to ten pounds, a very big and fat baby that had his parents absolutely enamored.  Kieran knew, as he watched the red little face, that he had been given the most precious gift in the world.  Perhaps this was why he and Rory had been returned to his time. Perhaps it all centered around little Tevin, the child who, in theory, should have never been born.

Kieran left his wife and son sleeping soundly as he went down to the solar where they were already celebrating Tevin’s birth.  Jeffrey was so thrilled to have a grandson to carry on the Hage name that he became ragingly drunk and passed out just before noon. But Kieran stayed awake with his brothers, with Yusef, discussing plans for the future as well as running trivial subjects around the table.  It didn’t matter what they talked about; all that mattered was that life went on at Southwell as a healthy heir was born.

 Kieran even brought Bud and David into the hall and gave them both a cup of wine to celebrate the birth of their baby brother. He knew he would be their father eventually. Gazing into their big blue eyes and intelligent faces, he realized he wasn’t all that distressed about it. He loved them as Rory did.

Sometime around dusk, he made his way wearily back to his fourth floor chamber only to find Rory sitting up, nursing Tevin.  Margaret was with her, helping her with the baby, but she quickly fled when she saw Kieran. With an exhausted smile, Kieran stretched out on the bed next to them, watching the baby tug at his wife’s full breast and never in his life experiencing something so tender or emotional.  It was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. 

When she began singing softly to him in her sweet, pure voice, his emotions got the better of him and tears streamed down his temples as he watched the baby nurse. 

“If I give my heart to you
I must be sure
From the very start
That you would love me more than her

‘cause I couldn't stand the pain
and I would be sad if our new love was in vain.”

He fell asleep with his arms around them both.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Four months later

It was an oddly bright February day, a cool breeze blowing cotton-puff clouds across the expanse of blue sky.  In the bailey of Southwell, Rory and Margaret sat in the weak sun near the keep and watched as little David chased Eleanor around in circles. At two years old, Eleanor was a beautiful girl with Sean’s good looks and a brilliant personality. And she adored David; they played like siblings.

Rory sat with Tevin on her lap, grinning as David would poke Eleanor and she would scream with delight.  Then David would run at Tevin and make faces at him, turning the baby into a kicking, grinning fool.  Tevin was an enormous baby with his mother’s chestnut hair color, his father’s handsome features, startling green eyes and, Rory thought, was perhaps the most beautiful baby ever born.  He was bright, chubby, smiled easily and ate constantly.  He was the absolute apple of his parents’ eye.

Contrary to the usual behavior of Medieval fathers, Kieran did not leave the child rearing to others. He was very much a hands-on father and he emerged from the great hall this day, spying his wife and son across the bailey and making way towards them.  David saw him coming and ran to him, finding himself up in Kieran’s arms and upside down.  David giggled uncontrollably as Kieran came upon the women and shook him playfully before setting him on his feet.  Then the man extended his arms for the baby.

“Give me my son,” he commanded softly.

Rory smiled as she stood up and handed him the boy. Kieran kissed his son, kissed his wife and put his arm around her shoulders.  She gazed up at him adoringly as he talked to the baby, unable to remember when a husband and child had not been the center of her life. True, accepting a world with no electricity, running water, bathrooms or cell phones had taken some getting used to. In fact, she was still getting used to it. She had gotten over her phobia of bugs and had simply learned to be vigilant rather than panicked about it.  No blow dryers, spas, hair salons, Saks Fifth Avenue or shoe stores.  But gazing at Kieran as he crooned to his son made it all worth while; she didn’t even think of those modern conveniences any more.  They were places that she only visited now in her memories.

“He needs to be fed,” she told Kieran. “He’s going to start getting cranky.”

Kieran acted like he hadn’t heard her.  “I do not know who he gets his green eyes from,” he commented, touching the baby’s cheek. “But he clearly looks like me.”

Rory snorted. “He’s your doppelganger,” she said. “I’ve never seen a baby look so much like his father. I was just an incubator.”

“I do not know what your words mean.”

She laughed. “It means that I don’t see anything of me in Tevin other than my hair color,” she said. “And he gets his green eyes from my mother. They’re exactly the same color.”

Kieran looked at her, grinning, before turning back to his son. As he fussed over the boy, Sean walked up beside him and picked up his daughter. Eleanor wanted to kiss Tevin, so Sean leaned her over so she could kiss the baby. Rory watched the scene, so very content with her life. It was sweeter than she could have possibly imagined.

“So what are your plans today?” she put her hands on her hips, focused on Kieran and Sean.

Kieran looked up at her. “I have no plans.”

She shook her head. “Don’t feed me that line. You and your brothers have been huddled in the great hall all morning. You have something up your sleeve.”

Sean looked at Kieran, having no idea what she just said. The woman had phrases and language skills that they were all still trying to comprehend although after all these months, they were getting better at it. Kieran merely shrugged in a ‘whatever’ gesture and Rory sighed with exasperation.

“What I mean is that you guys have plans you’re not talking about,” she clarified. “What’s going on? Does it have something to do with that rider than came from London yesterday?”

Kieran didn’t look at her and neither did Sean; they pretended to be busy with the children. But Kieran looked up, catching sight of something on the opposite side of the bailey and pointing.

“Look,” he said casually. “There is Christian and his young lady.”

He was attempting to steer her off the subject and doing a poor job; Rory knew what he was up to but she dutifully looked in the direction of the great hall where Christian and Charlotte were walking in the sun.   She shook her head at the sight of the tall redheaded brother and the small girl who had barely gone through puberty.

“I’m sorry,” she turned back to her husband, muttering more to herself. “Call me new-fashioned, but there’s still something wrong with a twenty six year old man and a thirteen year old girl. In my day, they called it pedophilia.”

“What?”

“Never mind. I suppose I should be happy that he decided to finally let her out of her cage.”

Kieran cocked his head. “They look quite content together. I do not see your concern.”

She knew he didn’t understand her reserve and there wasn’t much more she could say about it even though it had taken Christian months to let the girl have contact with the outside world. She stopped trying to escape almost immediately and since that time, Christian hadn’t seemed so opposed to the match. Still, Rory let the subject drop for the moment. She knew that both Kieran and Sean were tired of hearing her harp about something called a pedophile, although they had no idea what that was and Rory couldn’t adequately explain the concept so they could understand it.  So she moved closer to Kieran, wrapping her hands around his forearm as he held the baby. She gazed up at him.

“So what’s going on?” she lowered her voice. “Please tell me.”

He didn’t say anything nor did he look at her. He was focused on the baby.  Then he started walking, pulling her along with him. They traveled around the northwest side of the keep, towards the stables, listening to Eleanor’s screams of delight in the distance as David resumed teasing her. Rory listened to the cries, grinning, as Kieran shifted the baby to one arm and took hold of her with the other.

“Acre has fallen,” he said softly, not looking at her. “The Christian armies have been victorious and thousands of men are now returning home to England. It is a great victory for Richard.”

Rory nodded thoughtfully, noting that the timeline that she had knowledge of and the new timeline seemed to have remained the same. She knew this moment would come and she was vastly relieved.  But something else also occurred to her.

“Does Yusef know?” she asked quietly.

Kieran shook his head. “He does not know of his army’s defeat but I will tell him as soon as time permits.”

“Where is he?”

Kieran wriggled his eyebrows. “With that woman from town, I would presume,” he said with some distain in his voice. “He seems very fond of her.”

In spite of the serious subject matter, Rory smiled at his snobbishness. “She is the daughter of the richest man in town.  Her father sees nothing wrong with Yusef courting her so I’m not sure why you have a problem with it.”

“He spends much time with her.”

“And I repeat; why do you have a problem with it?  The man has got to make his own life here in England. He has a right to a wife and children just like you.”

“I can select a more suitable woman for him.”

Rory lifted an eyebrow at him. “You selected your own wife. Why can’t he?”

Kieran didn’t want to get into the same argument with her; they’d spent the past several weeks in debate over the suitability of the daughter of the richest tavern owner in town and cultured, handsome Yusef.  Rory saw nothing wrong with it, as she genuinely liked the woman, but Kieran thought he could do better.  So he avoided responding to her altogether.

“There is something more to the news we received,” he wisely veered the subject back to their original focus. “Richard is missing.”

She was successfully diverted. “We knew he would be.”

“Indeed,” Kieran’s jaw flexed and he suddenly seemed disquieted. “God’s Blood, Lib; it was difficult for me to not react to the news. I felt so… so guilty. Almost as if I was an accomplice somehow.”

Rory squeezed his hand. “You’re not an accomplice.”

“I should have sent my own men to escort him home.”

“You couldn’t have,” she stopped and looked at him. “Kieran, if you had, there’s no telling how history would have been changed. You couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Perhaps not.” He didn’t like her answer but knew she was correct. He lifted an eyebrow at her. “I will confess something, however; up until the moment Longchamp’s man delivered the news, I had my doubts in your information. I thought that somehow you would have been wrong and Richard would have made it home without complication. You will forgive me; I should have never doubted you.”

She smiled faintly. “I forgive you,” she replied. “Has a ransom demand been sent yet?”
He shook his head. “Nay,” he replied. “To be truthful, we do not even know for certain if he has been kidnapped; he has simply not returned to his holdings in France yet as we have anticipated. It has been several months since he left The Levant so Longchamp’s assumption is that the king has either been killed or kidnapped.”