Dark circles hung on the bottom of her eyes and I moved in to give her a hug. “Yes, he did. You look like crap, Grace.”
She groaned into my ear, allowing herself to relax against me. I had to lock my legs to keep us both up.
“Of course I look like crap. I think Violet is part bat. She’s more nocturnal than even Cooper. I was hoping that she’d start sleeping at night more after the first few months, but she’s nine months old now and she’s still so fussy at night.”
I glanced down at the small swell of Grace’s belly. “Well, hopefully this third baby will give you an easier time.”
Grace pulled away. I could tell she was about to cry. Exhaustion always did that to her, and understandably so. I knew she was excited for the next baby, due the end of May, but juggling a six year old, a nine month old, and being four months pregnant were a lot, especially when she refused to use the castle help that Eoghanan and the castle laird, Baodan, continually offered her. She’d raised Cooper with only Jeffrey’s help for years, and she was determined to raise her other children the same way.
“I sure hope so. Kathleen has Violet right now. I think I’m going to try and rest awhile.”
“That’s exactly what you should do, but before you go, do you know where Eoghanan is? I need to talk to him about something.”
“Uh…” She hesitated and I wondered if she was about to fall asleep where she stood. “I think he said something about rescuing Violet from Kathleen’s singing, so he may have the baby now. I’m really not sure.”
“Okay.” I patted her on the shoulder and turned her back in the direction she’d been headed. “Get some rest, Grace. I’ll find him.”
CHAPTER 2
I found Kathleen in the great hall, swinging baby Vi side to side while singing softly in a screechy, awful voice that could only be effective at keeping the baby awake longer. She stood a safe distance from the fire that burned in the corner of the room but close enough that both she and the baby were kept warm.
“You’re joking me, right? You know that you should just never, ever sing, especially if you want that baby to go to sleep.”
She looked up and twisted her lips together apologetically as she shrugged. “I know. It’s just a rather natural thing, isn’t it though? You hold a baby, you feel like you’re supposed to sing. I can’t help it, but I can tell by the look in her eyes, she’s saying, ‘for the love of God woman, shut up, please.’”
I laughed as I reached to run a thumb down the side of Violet’s cheek. “I doubt that is what she’s thinking but I know we’d all prefer it if you’d just lay off the sing-songs.”
“Gladly.”
“I guess you haven’t seen Eoghanan, have you?”
Kathleen shifted Violet around in her arms before turning to look up at me.
“No, I haven’t, but does that mean you’re going to ask him today? Have you said anything to Grace?”
I loved my sister. Besides Kathleen, I considered her to be my closest friend, but she was older and had a tendency to think any decision I ever made for myself was the wrong one. She was more than a little overprotective.
“No I haven’t, and I don’t plan to.”
The sound of footsteps reached us, and I faced the other side of the room to see Eoghanan approaching. Grace had been right about his desire to rescue his daughter, but now that I’d silenced the banshee-like singing, there was no need. I stepped toward him, grasping his arm to whisk him away before Kathleen could pass the baby to him.
“Eoghanan, how are you this morning? Did you sleep well?
He allowed me to steer him into the hallway, but regarded me skeptically, no doubt suspicious of my early morning chipperness.
“Aye, I slept like a wee babe, no my wee babe o’course, but a usual one that sleeps at nighttime, and the night of rest has placed me in a verra bad mood.”
“Oh. Why would that place you in a bad mood?”
“I doona wish to sleep so soundly, no when Grace is up with the babe, but once I drift to sleep, I canna hear a thing. Though I tell her to wake me, she never will.”
He stopped walking and turned to lean against a stone frame around one of the windows. He spoke again, but with the way he stared into nothing, I could tell he thought back on something else, reflecting more to himself than speaking to me.
“Before Grace, there was a time…a long time when I couldna sleep no more than a little each night. After Grace, I am no too easily woken after I drift asleep. She over-tires herself, and I doona care for it.”