Underground Captive (79 page)

    
             
"She needs a doctor," Antoinette protested when she reached his side, running to keep in step with his long strides.

    
             
Jared glared menacingly at her, daring anyone to go against his orders.

    
             
"All she needs is Odessa," he scoffed.  "And that's all she'll have, madam."

    
             
He stopped at Nicki's room and Antoinette opened the door.  Bringing her into the room, he laid her down in the middle of the frilly bed.  When he looked up, Odessa was at his side.

             
"I take care of her, me," she said.

    
             
"I know ye will, Odessa," Jared said with complete con
fidence.

    
             
"Oh, Jared, this can't be happening,
amour
.  It's too soon," Nicollette said, digging her nails into her husband's arm when another pain hit her.

    
             
"You get out, Masta Jared," Odessa ordered.  "Her time come soon.  I prepare, me."

             
"Jared--" Nicki began.

    
             
"'Tis all right, darling.  Ye'll be fine.  Ye trust me and I trust Odessa.  Ye do trust me, don't ye, sweet Nicki?"

             
"
Oui
," Nicki whispered.  "I trust you."

             
Lowering his mouth to hers, Jared pressed a long, loving kiss to her lips.

    
             
"I love ye, sweetheart.  I'll be no farther than downstairs."  He hated to leave her.  There was excitement and happiness in her eyes, but he also saw apprehension.

    
             
"Our bairn will be fine, Lady Fleming.  Just as ye will be," he told her, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.

    
             
"Masta Jared tell the truth, mam'zelle.  You jis' two, t'ree weeks away from you birthing time.  I take care of you and the bebe," Odessa said with assurance.

    
             
The tension in Nicollette's features eased and she smiled.  "I'm so glad you're here, Odessa.  I know I'll be all right."

    
             
Jared bent down and kissed her again.  His gaze lingered on her face a long moment.  Then he turned and went to the door.

             
Odessa's voice stopped him momentarily.

    
             
"You send Mary Douglas in here, Masta Jared.  Maitress An
toinette you stay and help, you," Odessa ordered.  "You and Sophie and Mary Douglas."

             
Jared smiled, closing the door.  "Anyone but that damned sawbones," he

told her through closed doors.  He met Charles and Ricard as they came up the stairs.

    
             
"All the excitement has caused Nicki to go into labor before her time," he said to neither of them in particular.  "'Tis best ye wait in the drawing room."

    
             
They wanted to see Nicki but neither of them protested Jared's suggestion.  Had they protested, they knew the mighty Lord Fleming would have changed the suggestion to an order.  And neither man relished being ordered about in their own house.

    
             
Besides, the look of concern on Jared's face was telling.  As telling as the first time he held Crescent Wood hostage with his demands and orders over his worry for his then very sick bride.

    
             
Ricard and Charles understood then and would have understood now, but this was Crescent Wood not Highland Acres.  Charles was master here, not Jared.  And rather than have him order them about, they took his 'suggestion' and retreated to the drawing room.

    
             
"I'll join ye in a minute,
messieurs
," Jared told them and started toward the kitchen house where he knew he would find Mary Douglas.

             
Before he got past the back door, Mary met him.

    
             
"Master Jared, is the lassie gonna tae be all right?" she asked, her voice tinged with fear.

    
             
Jared had never seen his housemaid so subdued as she was at that moment.  He smiled at her, putting her at ease.

    
             
"Arrest yer fear, Mary Douglas," he said kindly.   "She's in very capable hands.  I want ye to go up to yer mistress's room.  'Tis fitting ye be there to welcome my bairn into this world, as ye were there to wel
come me."

    
             
"'Twould be me pleasure, milord," Mary Douglas whispered and genuflected, wiping a tear from her eye.  Brushing past Jared, she hurried through the hallway to the stairs.

    
             
"Here.  You look like you need this."  Ricard handed Jared a scotch when he strolled into the parlor, a strained look on his face.

    
             
He took the glass and downed the con
tents with one gulp.  "Thank ye, Ricard."      
             
"Here, now, none of that," Ricard jested.  "You will want to be sober when your wife presents you with your heir to Lismore Castle."

             
Jared forced a smile and glanced in Charles's direction.  "Why so quiet, Charles?"

             
Charles sighed and threaded his fingers through his peppery gray hair.  "This

day has been one of incredible precipitancy.  How could I have misjudged Edmond

so much?  He meant to kill Nicollette.  He was a desperate man...."

             
Ricard handed his father a glass with brandy in it.  "It's over, Father." 

How his father had aged.  Was it just this one day?  Or had he just noticed it today?  "You're about to become a grandpere.  Concentrate on that.  It's a much more pleasant thought than Edmond Falgout."

    
             
"You're right, my son."  Then to Jared, "Why don't you sit down and I'll refill your drink?"

    
             
Jared had been standing since entering the room.  At Charles's suggestion he sank down wearily on the recamier, but jumped in
stantly back up when he heard an agonizing scream come from upstairs.

    
             
"Nicki," he whispered anxiously, hurrying out of the room toward the stairs.

    
             
Ricard followed and, catching up to him at the stairs, laid a gentle hand on Jared's shoulder, stopping him just as he began his ascent.  "She's in the most capable hands, Jared.  And she's stronger than you think."

             
Jared sighed then flashed him a sheepish grin.  "I have not underestimated

my wife's strengths, Ricard, physical and otherwise.  'Twas not so long ago when she set out to destroy Highland Acres along with all the human inhabitants therein.  For a woman of such small size, she has incredible strength indeed."

    
             
As he and Ricard walked back to the drawing room, Jared drew in another breath.  "But 'tis different now," he continued.  "She has been quite ill and I fear her past illness has sapped some of her strength."

    
             
"I know my daughter, Jared," Charles allowed.  "She's stub
born.  When she sets out to do something, she usually does it.  She will not only have the babe, but she wants to give you an heir.  With her determination and the love she bears you, you'll not be disappointed."

             
Jared nodded but said nothing. 

             
A few moments of silence went by before Ricard spoke again.  "Why here,

Jared?  Why Crescent Wood?"

             
Jared looked at him and then at Charles.  "Because the bairn will be as

much a part of Crescent Wood as it will of Lismore Castle.  'Tis fitting that 'tis born here.  After all, 'twill be raised in Scotland."

    
             
Charles and Ricard exchanged glances of pain and imminent loss.

             
Jared caught their looks.  "Nicollette is Lady Fleming now, my countess,"

he said, his voice filled with compassion.   "She will be mistress of Lismore Castle and she'll need time to adjust to her new life.  But very few partings are forever.  We will make the trip back here to Crescent Wood, as 'tis hoped that ye will come to Lismore Castle."

    
             
Too overcome with emotion to trust his voice to respond, Charles only swallowed hard and nodded.

   
             
Not so with Ricard, who walked over to Jared with an outstretched hand.  "You're a good man, Jared.  My sister is lucky to have a man like you for a husband.  And I'm damned proud to be your brother-in-law."

    
             
Grasping the proffered hand, Jared gritted his teeth when he heard Nicollette cry out again.  Full of anguish and guilt, he got up, went to the liquor table, and poured himself more scotch.  Then he sat back down to wait out the ordeal.

*  *  *

             
Nicki's contractions became insistently regular towards dawn.  She had been in labor for almost eleven hours.  Her ebony tresses, matted to her head from sweat, looked like sleek silk.  Her lips were bruised and bloodied because she had chewed on them with each contraction.

             
Mary Douglas mopped her brow.  "'Twill be foine, milady.  'Twill be foine," she said.

    
             
The pain was relentless now.  The thin nightrail Nicki had changed into upon her arrival was plastered to her body.

    
             
Odessa pushed it over the roundness of her belly and massaged the protruding mound.  "She ready, her," she said and started giving orders.  "Get more water!  Make sure it's very hot!  More linen!"

    
             
"Go, Sophie.  Get Zeke to leave the water by the door," An
toinette encouraged.

             
Arching her head back, Nicollette screamed.  "I can't.  I can't go anymore."

             
"Just a little while longer, mam'zelle.  Then it be over," Odessa crooned.
             

             
She spread Nicollette's legs apart to examine her.  "I see the head, mam'zelle.  It's the same as Masta Jared's."

             
Nicollette felt like she was being torn asunder.

             
"Push, mam'zelle!  Push!"

             
Bearing down, Nicollette pushed with all her strength.  "Jared!  Oh, my love,

I need you!"

             
One final effort and Nicollette and Jared became parents.

             
Odessa picked up the tiny form and began examining it, giving it a gentle

slap on the buttocks.  The babe let out a lusty yell.

    
             
"Mam'zelle, you and Masta Jared have got yourselves a fine, healthy boy.  A mite small, but he'll grow to be big and strong like his Pa Pa, him.  Maitress Antoinette, I clean up the bebe, me," Odessa commanded and proceeded to do just that.  "You can clean up, mam'zelle, you."

    
             
Twenty minutes after the room had been returned to its original order, Nicollette's husband and family surrounded her.  She sat propped up against a cushion of pillows, holding the newest member of the Fleming clan, proudly showing him off.

   
             
After laying first claim to his wife and new son, Jared stood back, giving his in-laws their due.  Charles sat on the side of the bed and kissed Nicki's cheek.

    
             
He looked at his new grandson.  The babe was small but ex
quisitely formed.  He had his father's golden hair and his uncle's emerald eyes.

             
"He does have something for the Duplantiers," Charles noted, scrutinizing

the babe.  "He has Ricard's eyes."

             
"Maman's too, Pa Pa.  Her eyes were green," Nicollette reminded him. 

She yawned and wearily sank back against the pillows, exhausted after her ordeal of so many hours.