Page 89 of A Highland Bride Forgotten
The door to the drawing room opened then, and Layla walked in, followed by Arya and Colby, who rushed to greet Aidan. The children didn’t know him that well, but they knew him enough to already adore him—which seemed to be the case with many people who met Aidan.
“Ach, ye wee rascals!” Aidan said, standing up to greet the children. “Look at ye, ye’ve gotten so big! Ye must stop growin’ before ye become taller than me.”
Colby stared up at Aidan with a big grin, and never before had River noticed just how tall he had truly gotten. Soon, he would be taller than her, and that was a day for which she was not prepared.
Tears welled up in her eyes before she could stop them at the thought of Colby and Arya growing up—and then at the thought of her son growing up and becoming a man. She was still emotional from the pregnancy and the birth, and she quickly dabbed at her eyes to hide the fact that she was crying.
Still, Archer quickly noticed.
“What is it?” he asked, concern coloring his voice.
“Naethin’,” said River with a sniffle. “Naethin’, I…I’m only thinkin’ that they’re growin’ so fast.”
“That they do,” said Layla, giving River one of her warm, bright smiles, before she turned to Aidan with a curtsy. “Me Laird…it is good to meet ye. I have read much about ye.”
Aidan looked at her with a puzzled frown. “Ye have?”
“Och aye,” said Layla. “River is teachin’ me to read.”
“And ye’re readin’ about me?”
“Well…yer letters.”
“Ye’re readin’ me letters?” asked Aidan, his frown deepening, and for a moment, River feared he would hate the fact that she hadn’t kept them private, but then he said, “How do ye like them?”
“Excuse me?” asked Layla.
“Me letters…how do ye like them?” Aidan asked. “I’ve always been terrible at it, I never ken what to say.”
“Och…they are very nice,” said Layla dutifully, and that seemed to please Aidan greatly. Now it was her turn to frown in confusion, but thankfully she didn’t continue the subject. Instead, she turned to River and said, “How’s our wee laddie today?”
“He’s well,” said River with a small smile, looking down at the baby in her arms. He was still only a few days old, and the wet-nurses wanted to take him away from her and keep him in his own chambers, but River couldn’t bear to part with him. She wanted to be the one to hold him, to nurse him, to put him to sleep, even if the wet-nurses and the governesses thought that was not her job to do. “He’s been a wee bit fussy today.”
“Well, he’s sleepin’ now, so maybe ye should put him down and get some rest yerself,” said Archer. “Or I can hold him.”
River hesitated. She never wanted to part from the boy, but Archer was right when he said she had to rest. Her pregnancy had been a terrible ordeal, and it had left her weakened. The nausea that had bothered her in the first months of her pregnancy had continued through it all, and she could hardly keep anything down through the whole thing. On top of that, she couldn’t sleep, so any energy she had was spent growing the baby, and she was often left in bed, exhausted but unable to get any real rest.
Now that she had finally given birth to her son, she thought she could rest, but her body and her mind wanted to be near him at all times, watching him, making sure he was alright.
“The Laird is right,” said Layla gently as she made to take the boy from her arms. River gave him up half-heartedly, and Layla handed him over to Archer, who held him securely in his arms. “Ye should rest. Ye’ve only just given birth, ye shouldnae even be here.”
“It does me a lot of good, walkin’ and bein’ out of me chambers,” said River. “I was there me whole pregnancy, now that I can, I’ll be out of that room as much as I can.”
She didn’t want to be confined in her chambers, not when she was feeling well enough to walk on her own and have enough energy to be out and about. She was feeling better now than she had her entire pregnancy, and she was determined to make the most out of it.
For a moment, River’s gaze fell on Archer, where he sat in a chair near the windows, the morning sun bathing him in a pale light. He was looking at their son, his face softened from the smile he wore, and River couldn’t help but smile, too, finally at peace.
“What will ye name him?” Aidan asked, and that was something she and Archer had discussed at length, only to come to no decision. Neither of them had any reason to name the boy after his grandparents. Neither of them could think of anyone they wanted to honor like this.
“What do ye think?” River asked Aidan instead. “Do ye have any ideas?”
“Aye, call him Aidan,” he said. “Strong name.”
River couldn’t help but laugh, but in the end, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea. If there was anyone in the world she loved as much as Archer, as much as her children—as she considered Arya and Colby like her own—as much as Layla, it was Aidan.
“Alright,” she said. “Aidan it is.”
The look on Aidan’s face was reward enough. He stared at her, dumbfounded, his mouth hanging open.
