She yanked her skirt up in a fist and ran toward the garderobe.
Her entire body quivered by the time her stomach stopped heaving. She only had enough strength to move a few paces out of the necessary closet before sinking to her knees.
“Helena?”
She moaned softly, humiliation flooding her. Keir reached down and plucked her off the floor. She pushed at him, gaining a grumble of annoyance from his wide chest.
“I don’t want you to see me like this.” She sounded on the verge of tears and didn’t know why. Everything was wonderful, every hope that she had cradled bearing fruit. But tears trickled down her cheeks in spite of all that.
“I’m taking ye back to bed. Ye’re sick.”
“I am not.”
She slapped his arm. “Put me down now.” The tears evaporated as her temper flared. “Immediately.”
Keir set her down and stared at her in confusion, his dark brows lowering. “Ye’re as pale as a new moon. Ye are going to bed right now.”
Helena held up a hand to keep her husband away. The weakness left her limbs as though it had never been. “I feel fine.”
The cook came into the room and walked right past Keir with only a nod of her head. “Drink this, mistress. It will ease the ache in your belly.”
“I am not ill. Why will no one listen to me?”
“Yes, ye are, Helena, and I will no’ take ye out onto the road where ye cannae be cared for.”
The cook turned her head to look at Keir. She drew herself up in a manner that Helena had never seen the woman do. She normally tried to be invisible.
“Forgive me, my lord, but I believe the mistress is correct. She is not ill.”
The goblet in her hand smelled of peppermint. Helena looked at it and sniffed again. New spring herbs filled her senses and it was much more to her liking than the bread had been.
“What are ye saying, woman?”
The cook cast a look toward Helena. “Did you bleed at the Tower, mistress?”
“No…”
Helena almost dropped the goblet. She tightened her fingers around it before it fell from her surprised grip. The cook offered her a small smile of knowledge from one woman to another. She curtsied with a satisfied look.
She wasn’t ill—she was with child.
“I’ll bundle up some herbs from the still room for your journey. You’ll be wanting those in the mornings for a few weeks.”
Helena lifted the goblet to her lips. Her belly protested but she forced a few swallows down her throat. When she lowered the goblet her husband was preening, his face a mask of arrogant male satisfaction and enjoyment.
“Oh, go and check your horse.”
He plucked the goblet from her hand instead and set it aside. A moment later he bent his knees and wrapped his arms around her waist. When he stood up her head was above his. He swung her around in a circle while nuzzling her belly.
Tears returned to her eyes. He held her there, placing a kiss against her flat body. Her hands tangled in his hair, playing with the dark strands. He let her slide down to her feet but kept her in his embrace.
“I love ye, Helena. I promise to love ye my entire life.”
They were the gallant words she had always believed were only spoken in sonnets and tales of long ago. But the arms holding her were real. They were warm and strong and she loved being held by them.
“Take me home, Keir.” She stroked the side of his face. “Take us home. A McQuade should be born on McQuade land.”
“That’s a fact, lass. It is indeed.”
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U.S. Arctic Research Commission
Above the Arctic Circle
Dr. Walt Arnold took slow breaths to keep from freezing his lungs. At thirty below, he was accustomed to the staggering temperatures, but it was hard to regulate his breathing when he was lifting sixty pounds of pipe and ice. He wrapped the core sample in plastic, then, with his assistant, levered it onto the transport, its metal shell intact. The temperatures were in their favor to keep the core sample from relaxing, as well as maintaining the chemical isotopes in prime condition.
His team took care of transporting the sample to storage as he returned to the drilling. He adjusted the next length of pipe, clamped the coupling, then glanced at the generator chugging to drive the pipe farther into the ice. The half dozen random samples would help correlate the