There was something steady in his expression, something that did not press and did not command, yet held her all the same. For a fleeting moment, she considered refusing Ariella, remaining where she was, allowing the quiet space he had offered her to remain intact.
That would have been easier, but easier had never been her way.
She drew in a small breath and turned back to Ariella, forcing a polite smile into place.
“Of course,” she said.
Each step she took away from him felt noticed.
Not in a way that made her uncomfortable. Not entirely. It was something else. Something that lingered along her spine and made her aware of the distance growing between them, even as she moved only a few paces across the room.
I should nae care.Iona told herself, and yet she knew she did.
Ariella led her from the dining hall into a smaller adjoining chamber, one meant for quieter conversation, where the noise of the table softened into a distant murmur. A fire burned lowin the hearth there, and a single candle had been set upon a small table near the window, casting a gentler light than the hall behind them.
The moment the door closed, the air seemed to shift, and Iona let out a breath she had not realized she had been holding.
Ariella noticed immediately.
“I thought ye might need a moment,” she said, lowering herself carefully into one of the chairs with a small exhale of effort.
Iona remained standing for a second longer before joining her.
“Thank ye,” she said honestly. “It has been…a great ordeal.”
“Aye,” Ariella said, her tone sympathetic rather than amused. “Me family tends to descend all at once, and none of them ken how to be subtle about anything.”
Iona huffed a soft breath that might have been a laugh.
“They have been nothin’ but kind.”
“And that makes it worse, does it nae?”
Iona hesitated.
It did.She nodded.
Ariella studied her for a moment, then smiled, gentler now. “We will give them time to exhaust themselves on Jamie. It is far easier to be admired from a distance than surrounded.”
Iona allowed herself to settle more fully into the chair, her shoulders easing just slightly.
For a few moments, the conversation remained light.
Ariella leaned forward, one hand resting over the curve of her belly. “Tell me,” she said, her tone shifting with clear intent, “how terrible is it, truly?”
Iona blinked. “What?”
“The carrying. The birth. All of it. Me husband believes I shall perish before the child arrives if I so much as walk too quickly, and me maither has already planned for every possible disaster twice over.”
Iona smiled despite herself.
“It is nae easy,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “But it is nae as dreadful as men tend to imagine it either. The body kens what to do, more often than nae.”
Ariella listened closely.
“And the pain?” she pressed.
“It comes,” Iona admitted. “But it passes. And when it does…ye forget enough of it to consider doing it again.”