THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

weary knight a drink.”
    The skinny lad, twelve, all joints and ears, preened. “Aye, my lord!”
    “You ken Rachael will have your skin,” Beth murmured, “if you continue to encourage the boy’s ambitions to knighthood.”
    Duncan laughed. “The lad needs learn how to defend himself and Isaac agrees.”
    Seeing Rachael’s dour expression out of the corner of her eye, Beth muttered, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
    “Ye fash too much, dear lady.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Someone around here has to.”
    He laughed as Jacob handed him a flagon of ale. After downing it, he called, “Angus, ye sorry excuse for a man, are ye ready for a wee bit of sword play?”
    “’Fore ye pick up yon claymore again,” Angus called, “ye’d best go fetch a few brawny men, ye braggart. Ye’ll be needing help walking off the field.”
    Duncan laughed and kissed her nose. “Later, wife. I need put that heathen on his back.”
    ~#~
    Beth and Flora had just taken their seats at the bow of the long boat when they heard, “Halt! Wait!”
    Beth wondered why Flora swore under her breath seeing Rachael, flushed scarlet, racing along the quay with a man close on her heels.
    “Thank ye,” Rachael gasped as one of the oarsmen helped her in. She tossed her satchel onto the floor. “I feared ye had already left. ‘Tis wee Mary, my lady. Her birthing isna goin’ well.” Pointing to the man at her back, she said, “’Tis her husband, Alex.” The man, unlike Rachael, was deathly pale and obviously close to tears.
    Beth nodded to the man. “Hello. What is wrong?”
    “I dinna ken, my lady. The midwife wouldna tell me. She just said to summon ye soonest.” As his tears began coursing down his cheeks, Flora blanched.
    The oarsmen needed no coaxing to put their backs into every stroke.
    Totally out of her element, Beth whispered, “Do either of you know what to do?”
    Flora, obviously horrified, shook her head.
    “Mayhap I do,” Rachael whispered, “but if we canna help, then our presence will, at least, be some comfort.” She lowered her voice even farther. “Such a wee thing is Mary. She’s had trouble from the verra first. This be her third babe.”
    As soon as the boat hit the beach everyone tumbled out. With their skirts soaked to the knees, the women raced after Alex.
    Beth’s fear that they’d lose sight of him evaporated as a blood-curdling screech rent the air. It came from the second stone cottage before her.
    Rachael entered the small two-room home ahead of her and settled on her knees before a pale, sweat soaked woman on the pallet. “Shh, Mary, ‘twill all be well, dearest.”
    The midwife, though probably only forty, looked a hundred as she whispered in Gael and Rachael translated, “She said ‘tis the shoulders. The head is out but she canna bring forth the rest.”
    Beth, easing to the far side of the cot, felt the blood leave her head as she looked between the laboring woman’s shaking legs. The child’s cone shaped head was indeed out, dark and swathed in blood.
    Feeling light-headed, she mentally chided, Get your shit together. This woman needs what little comfort you can offer. Beth knelt, brushed the woman’s russet curls from her face and placed a cool compress on her brow.
    Rachael whispered to the midwife, “Ye have nay choice, mistress. Ye must break the babe’s shoulder or we lose mother and child both.”
    “But I had hoped...”
    Rachael shook her head and reached for Mary’s hand and right leg. “My lady, take Mary’s other hand and leg as I.” When Beth had imitated Rachael’s hold, Rachael murmured to the midwife, “Do it, now.”
    Tears sprang into Beth eyes as the walls echoed with Wee Mary’s stomach-churning agony.
    Before Beth could think to pray, all went deathly quiet. Beth looked to the midwife. The woman held a stout but silent babe on her forearm. With a well-practiced hand, the midwife swabbed the babe’s face and mouth and then slapped the baby’s feet. Beth’s heart gave a mighty thump when the child, a boy, finally bellowed for all he was worth. The new mother, her arms reaching for the infant, laughed and praised God while Beth silently slid to the floor.
    Excited by the simple prospect of having a child, she’d given no thought to the dangers of birthing in this primitive world. Her fingers instinctively sought her wedding band.
     
     
    Chapter 26
     
    Duncan frowned studying his wife as she sat huddled at the far end of their wee isle with