“You have worn a most perplexed expression the past hour,” Ciara noted as her mare drew alongside Shona’s.
“I have lived the past six years in England, I know, but still I cannot make sense in my mind of your family’s attendance to this mating ceremony.”
“We will also be performing a welcome-to-life ceremony for my baby sister. In ancient times, they were done for all children born of Chrechte blood, but we have lost many of our old ways. We are seeking to renew them now that our sacred stone has been returned to us.”
“Oh.” That made a great deal more sense to Shona. “Would it not be better to wait until the babe was older?”
“Possibly, but my dreams have told me that the stone must be returned to the sacred caves on MacLeod lands. Father prefers to have the ceremony before we take the stone off his lands.”
Shona did not understand the whole import of the sacred stones, but she knew they had special meaning to both the Éan and the Faol.
“Did you not just bring the Faol’s sacred stone back to these caves?” Shona asked, more confused than ever.
“Yes, but now both sacred stones, the Clach Gealach Gra and the Faolchú Chridhe must be united in the chamber of the celi di.”
“The Éan’s stone is to be moved as well?”
“Aye. Anya-Gra will send her successor to live among the MacLeod and serve as celi di for the Éan from there.”
“Who is Anya-Gra?”
“Eirik’s grandmother.”
“That would make her queen of the Éan?” Shona asked.
“No,” Ciara answered, adding to Shona’s muddied thoughts. “She gave up her claim to rule in order to serve as celi di, just as Eirik’s sister, Sabrine, gave up hers in order to become a protector of the clan.”
“Isn’t she married to the laird of the Donegal now?” Shona tried to remember the things Caelis had revealed to her about his world thus far.
“She is, but before that she was a warrior.”
The thought of a female warrior was surprisingly pleasant to Shona. “Why doesn’t Eirik live with her clan?”
“As prince of his people, he does not officially belong to any clan, though he wears the Sinclair colors on occasion.”
Shona had noticed that the man wore a leather kilt rather than a plaid. “As your mate, he chooses to live with your family?”
“He chose the Sinclair clan before we met. It was destiny.” Ciara smiled. “He and my father have a rapport that makes it possible for a prince to live in the same keep as a very stubborn laird.”
“That is good.” Privately, Shona could not imagine it.
The Sinclair did not strike her as an easy man to live in the vicinity of, even if you were willing to swear fealty and submission.
“We spend a great deal of time traveling to the other clans where Éan have made their homes,” Ciara said as if reading Shona’s mind. “It helps.”
“Ah.”
Ciara smiled. “Yes, ah.”
“You do not mind traveling so much?”
“I miss my family, naturally, but we do not have children, so it is not a great difficulty. I enjoy the relationships I have built in each of the clans over the last year. And I have as much a responsibility to them as celi di to the Faol as Eirik has as prince of the Éan.”
There had been a shadow in Ciara’s voice when she mentioned children. “You have not conceived, but you and Prince Eirik are sacred mates, are you not?”
“We are.” Ciara grimaced. “I do not know if I will ever have the good fortune to bear a child. The celi di who mentors me in my visions does not think so.”
“But why?”
“There is a cost to the calling I have been given.” Ciara put on a bright smile Shona did not quite believe. “Sabrine has already provided the next generation for the Éan’s royal line.”
“But you crave motherhood.”
Ciara looked startled at Shona’s perception. “I thought I did a fair job of hiding that fact.”
“You do not wear your desire on your sleeve, but I am a mother and I know the sparkle of that dream.”
“Not all dreams may come to pass.”
“This one will.” Shona was certain of it. “You may never give birth, but you will be a mother.”
Ciara’s stared at her for a long moment before her entire face transformed with a stupefied kind of wonder. “That is what she meant. When the time is right, Eirik and I will adopt. Just as my parents claimed me for their own when I was without family.”
Shona did not ask who Ciara referred to as she. Even a fully human woman could put two and two together to reach four. The celi di was talking about the ancient Chrechte woman she saw in her visions.
“Thank you for revealing the nature of my mentor’s words. She is sometimes obscure.”
“My mother could be that way.” Memories of her mother before and after Shona’s unexpected pregnancy assailed her.
Circumstances had changed so much for both of them. Shona was the first to admit that it had not been easy on her mother to make a new life in England, where she was cook in the house her daughter had been named baroness.
She had loved being a grandmother, no matter what she had thought of her daughter for catching pregnant with no husband in sight.
Ciara’s face was filled with compassion. “She hurt you very much with her disapproval.”
“I am sure Mother thought she was doing right, protecting me from myself and tendencies she thought were damaging.”
“She was wrong.”
Shona almost smiled. Even Audrey had never stated it so baldly before. “Mother wanted what was best for me.”
“Her love was best for you. Withholding it could not alter your course or the woman you had become.”
“With that attitude, you will make a fine mother yourself one day.” It was one Shona shared.
God willing, her children would never doubt her great love for them.
“Thank you.” Ciara beamed. “For your insight and your affirmation.”
The celi di left then, to rejoin her husband. The blinding grin that overtook the man’s intimidating features moments later would imply that Ciara had shared Shona’s belief that they would indeed one day parent children they would call their own.
“You are a very special woman,” Caelis said from beside her as his great warhorse nuzzled her mare.
She turned and smiled at him and Eadan, who was riding for this part of the journey in his da’s lap. “I am pleased you think so.”
Eadan grinned back proudly, clearly thrilled to be where he was.
“I am not the only one. Thomas and Audrey sing your praises; even the Lady Abigail is as protective of you as one of her own.”
The words were gratifying, but they brought up another worry Shona had been doing her best to ignore.
“Will Thomas stay with the Sinclairs when we leave?” she asked, her heart twinging at the idea.
Caelis shook his head, the depths of his gentian gaze telling her without words he understood her feelings. “I offered to complete his training and he has accepted. He will wear MacLeod colors.”
Emotion clogged Shona’s throat, but she forced out a heartfelt, “Thank you.”
Caelis had made no secret of the fact he did not like Shona’s closeness to the young Chrechte, but he had still taken care that she would not lose Thomas from her life.
His next words confirmed Caelis’s understanding of the matter. “He is important to you.”
“As if he were my own brother.”