BooksBarbecue
Back Heir to Sevenwaters Save as PDF
Chapters (22)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. CHAPTER 1
  6. CHAPTER 2
  7. CHAPTER 3
  8. CHAPTER 4
  9. CHAPTER 5
  10. CHAPTER 6
  11. CHAPTER 7
  12. CHAPTER 8
  13. CHAPTER 9
  14. CHAPTER 10
  15. CHAPTER 11
  16. CHAPTER 12
  17. CHAPTER 13
  18. CHAPTER 14
  19. CHAPTER 15
  20. CHAPTER 16
  21. CHAPTER 17
  22. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“Mother’s doing quite well, considering.” My sister’s voice was less steady than usual. “You’ll be able to see her soon, Father.” When Father did not move forward to take his new son in his arms, Muirrin offered the baby to me.

He was very light, like a young rabbit or a hen. I folded the swathing blanket back and saw a neat face, the delicate lids closed over eyes whose color I could only guess at, the nose forthright, the fragile skull thatched with a good crop of dark hair, plastered flat by the debris of birth. His complexion was a mottled red. Sibeal came up on one side of me and Eilis on the other, and I showed them. A sweet smile played on Eilis’s face, but Sibeal reached out, expression grave, and touched the infant’s brow with one finger.

“What name will you give him, Father?” she asked.

“I hadn’t really thought . . .” Father sounded far away, as if he had been deeply shocked. I realized, to my wonder, that he had not until this moment ever considered it possible that both Mother and the child would survive. He sat down suddenly, his face in his hands.

Instinct told me what I must do. I moved to crouch by him, lifting the child alongside his knee. “Hold him, Father,” I murmured. “He’s Mother’s gift to you. Take him.”

He gathered the baby up, laying him on his lap. With a gentle hand he smoothed back the hair from the little brow. “He’s so small,” Father said. His fingers traced the faint brows, the strong nose, the tiny bud of the mouth. The child made a tentative sucking motion, and one hand appeared from the swathing cloth, miniature fingers clutching.

“He has the Sevenwaters look, Sean,” Johnny said quietly. “Perhaps he should be Colum, for your grandfather.”

The infant gave a snuffling sigh and closed his fingers around one of Father’s.

“No,” said Father shakily. “He’ll be called Finbar.”

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 5

There were no celebrations. The birth of a son to the Sevenwaters family was a momentous event, but for now it was overshadowed by Mother’s precarious health. Although her labor had not been long, it had taxed her hard and the risk of childbed fever was high. Every time Muirrin came down to the hall the rest of us fell silent, anticipating bad news.