LeClerc 03 - Wild Savage Heart (36 page)

“It’s going to be a long night!” Linsey sighed.

“It always is when you’re waiting for a new life to begin.”

Hawk raced back to the cabin and found Molly standing beside the bed, trying to remove her damp gown.

“What are you doing now?” He rushed over to her but wasn’t sure what to do once he got there.

“This gown is wet and hot and I want to get it off.” She turned to him, a pleading look on her face. “Will you help?”

Shaking his head with exasperation, Hawk grabbed the gown and jerked it over her head. She grabbed for the support of his arm when another contraction began.

Wanting to put her on the bed and afraid to move her, Hawk held her and watched with amazement as her stomach hardened to granite with the pain. When it eased he nearly threw her on the bed, pulling a blanket over her naked body as he went in search for something cooler for her to wear.

“Linsey won’t come,” he stated bluntly, digging haphazardly through Molly’s things.

“I know.” She grabbed for his hand and held it tightly. “Hawk, I asked her not to come. Please understand that she isn’t refusing you she’s simply following my request. I don’t need anyone but you.”

“Ah,
nee wah!”
He sat on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know how to bring your child safely into the world.”

“It’s my understanding that there’s really little for us to do. He’ll come when he’s ready but I want your hands there to hold him.”

He held his hand out to her. “Look at me, my hands shake like those of an old man. I’ll drop him on his head and you’ll never forgive me.”

Molly smiled as she reached for him. “No you won’t,
wai see yah,
your grasp will be steady and firm.”

“If I admit that I am afraid, will that change your mind?”

“That’ll just make two of us,” she gasped as another contraction began to build. “I was hoping for more from a warrior.”

“This
was never mentioned in the many lessons from either of my fathers!”

He was amazed at her strength as she clutched his hand, her fingers biting into his palm. The nightgown was forgotten as he began the soothing chant, his volume building as the pain crested.

Throughout the long night, the touch of his hand and the wordless chant soothed her through the agony. He wiped the sweat from her brow, marveling when she smiled reassuringly at him. He couldn’t begin to conceive of the torture she was enduring but his respect for her became boundless as he watched her suffer in silence.

He stayed at her side, leaving her only when one of his brothers came to the door to inquire about her progress. His greetings to them were harsh and they quickly went on their way to report that Molly was doing fine but that Hawk was about to buckle under the stress.

Just as dawn was breaking, the final stage of labor was reached. Hawk was too busy tending to his wife to notice when Luc appeared in the doorway. He stood quietly, observing the closeness between the two involved in the birth, then slipped silently out of the cabin. He sat on the top step of the porch, knowing the birth was imminent, and he relived the thrill and terror he’d felt each time Linsey gave birth to one of his children.

“Is everything all right?” Linsey asked softly as she sat down beside him.

“I thought I told you to stay home?” Luc wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her tightly against him.

“And miss all the excitement?” She chuckled as she snuggled up to him.

“Can it really be that long ago when we watched Hawk’s birth or when I caught Daniel in my hands?” he asked quietly. “They are men now — fine men — but
mon ange
I miss those little boys.”

“You’ll soon have another little boy to tag along behind you, Grandpa,” Linsey teased. “And you’ll come in complaining that you can’t get anything done because he’s always in the way — just as you did about Hawk and Daniel and each of the others in turn.”

“Have I told you yet that I love you, woman?” he asked, pulling her onto his lap.

“There’s no better time than the present,” she replied, her lips ready for the kiss she saw in his eyes.

“Oh, Hawk, this hurts!” Molly muttered between clenched teeth.

“I know,
ain jele’e,
just a little longer.” He tried to encourage her. “It can’t be much longer now!”

Molly panted and gulped shallow breaths of air, her body a whirlpool of pain. Wave upon wave, the contractions built without break, until she began to wonder if pain would be her lasting impression of the birth of her child.

The blanket had long ago been discarded and her distorted body lay bare in the warm room. Sweat beaded Hawk’s face, running into his eyes until he found the familiar red band and tied it around his head. He’d removed his shirt and his copper skin gleamed in the early morning light.

He knelt on the-bed between her spread thighs, his eyes widening in wonder.

“I see his head, Molly!” he exclaimed in amazement. “Daniel is wrong, his hair is as black as mine.”

Molly bit back the scream that tried to force its way through her clenched teeth. She grabbed the back of her thighs just beneath her knees to give him better access to the birth area. She was unaware of her fingers digging into her own skin.

The scream she’d tired so hard to suppress was torn free as the pain crescendoed and she expelled the tiny body into Hawk’s waiting hands.

His hands were firm and sure as he laid the child on Molly’s stomach. He followed the instructions she had given him during the long night of labor — and he cleared the mucus from the tiny throat and nose.

Holding the child close to his own body, the cord of life still connected to Molly, Hawk blew gently in the tiny nose. The baby gasped, arched his back and bellowed to the world that he had arrived. His first breath of life came from the man he would know as his father.

“Nee wah,
our son.”

Hawk held the baby up for Molly’s inspection. A more careful inspection would be done at leisure later, for now, Hawk returned the infant to her belly and carefully tied and cut the cord.

As Hawk ministered to her, Molly stroked her angry son’s tiny head. She smiled at his furious cry, pleased that he was breathing so well. Using a warm, wet towel, Hawk cleaned his new son and wrapped him in a small blanket. He placed the baby in Molly’s arms and watched as she encouraged him to suckle at her swollen breast.

The cabin was filled with new silence as the baby closed his lips around her tender nipple.

“Thank you,” Molly said softly to Hawk, her eyes filled with love for her new son and for the man who had safely delivered him into the world.

Hawk knelt beside the bed and stroked the soft cheek of his son. He made no effort to hide the tears that spilled down his cheeks.

“It is I who owe you thanks, Molly. I would have run from this and missed the beginning of his life. You gave me no choice but to stay and I will forever be grateful for your wisdom.”

She smiled gently and his head lowerd to hers. The kiss they shared was filled with the emotion of life, a promise of tomorrow and all the days of their lives yet to come.

Hawk could have knelt by the bed all morning and watched the baby nurse, but there were things to be done. He listened as Molly spoke softly to the baby as he tenderly washed the traces of birth from her body.

The room grew cool and he pulled the blanket up to her breasts before adding more wood to the fire.

“Daniel was right, you know,” Molly stated as she watched Hawk pull on a shirt. “His hair is red.” Hawk turned and stared at the tiny head resting against her breast. The soft, fluffy hair had dried and now it showed definite traces of red. Hawk grinned and gathered up the soiled linen.

“Ill dispose of this and go to the house.” He stopped, emotion playing across his face. “I owe Maman and Bear an apology. When she wouldn’t come with me I’m afraid I said some things that they didn’t deserve.”

“They’ll understand,” Molly said quietly. “You were scared and worried about me.”

“I hope you’re right, Molly. I can’t think of what my life will be like if you’re wrong.”

Hawk walked through the cabin, grabbing his coat as he passed the chair. He opened the door to find Linsey and Luc sitting comfortably on the top step. They smiled at his look of amazement.

“We were always here in case you needed us,” Linsey said softly, standing and opening her arms to the man who had always been her oldest son.

“I’m sorry,” he started, only to be interrupted. “Then come, be the second person to kiss the new grandma,” Linsey invited. “I’ve waited about as long as I intend to wait to see my new grandson.” Hawk hugged Linsey, his gaze turning to Luc who stood with his arms folded across his chest. He released her and watched as she hurried into the cabin, closing the door behind her.

“Every man should experience the birth of his child,” Luc said quietly. “It makes him remember the pain a mother feels all of her life when her children disappoint her.”

“I disappointed Maman, for that I will never forgive myself,” Hawk replied.

“No, you didn’t disappoint her, son.” Luc placed his hand on Hawk’s shoulder. “She knew that it was your fear for your wife that was speaking.”

“I would rather face a grizzly than go through that again!”

“You have accepted the boy as yours, as I accepted you?”

“From the moment he slipped from his mother’s body, he became mine.” Fierce pride crossed Hawk’s face. “No man will take him from me!”

“Ah, but someday, Son,” Luc said with a chuckle, “a cute little girl will smile at him and he’ll be gone!”

“Maybe I’ll just tell him about childbirth and grizzly bears!” He looked at Luc. “Does it get any easier?”

Luc shook his head slowly. “Each one is as scary as the last one. Every time Linsey gave birth I swore that would be the last time. The only problem was that I couldn’t stay away from her once the fear faded!”’

Masculine laughter drifted on the morning air as the promise for the future slept undisturbed in his mother’s arms.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Leaves budded pale green on the branches of the trees. New grass peeked from beneath dead underbrush and bird song cheerfully filled the air. The days were blessedly warm but the nights were still cool enough to welcome a blazing fire.

Molly sat on the porch, with her two-month-old son sleeping in her arms, his lips puckered around her nipple. She smoothed the fiery red hair back from his brow and caressed his satin-soft cheek. She still marveled that she had produced this perfect child, although the memory of the pain had faded.

She closed her eyes as she thought of his father. She realized now that what she had felt for Adam had been a combination of girlish infatuation and gratitude for the escape he had offered her. Her feelings for him didn’t begin to compare to the soul shattering love she had for Hawk. He was her other half, the person necessary to make her life complete. She knew that if Adam had lived, she would have been contented to live out her life as his wife, never knowing the love she had missed.

But without Hawk at her side, she would only be existing.

Molly had waited to decide on a name for her son until after his birth, hoping that holding him would help her select the right one for him. Hawk had taken the decision out of her hands by announcing the day of his birth that he was to be called Adam after the man who had fathered him.

Molly still remembered the love she had felt at his decision. Nothing could have told her how much he loved her than his choice of that name for his son — or how secure he felt in her love for him.

Hawk walked out of the cabin and looked down at the sleeping babe. He had discovered that he enjoyed fatherhood, holding the baby whenever possible and taking care of even the most repulsive chore — which he knew he’d never like!

He no longer planned to leave Molly and his son, knowing that the separation would destroy him. They were his life, his reasons for living.

A noise from the woods drew his attention. He stared hard as a shadow, darker than those surrounding it, faded into the trees. He reached for the rifle just inside the door and checked to see that it was loaded.

Molly opened her eyes and bit back a scream as an image from a nightmare stepped into the sunlight. Pitch black hair was pulled into a topknot on his head with several feathers protruding from both sides. His face was painted red to just beneath his eyes, while black stripes crossed both cheeks.

Hawk aimed carefully and fired. The bullet landed just to the left of the Indian brave.

“A little to the right,” Molly suggested quietly, trying to soothe her son, who woke at the blast of sound.

Hawk reloaded and aimed again, this time his bullet going to the right side of the man.

“At this rate he’ll grow old before you hit him,” she stated as she stood, straightening her bodice to cover her breast. “Would you like me to try?”

A tomahawk whistled through the air, landing on the planks between Hawk’s feet.