Hideaway Strath I’ll shoulder the load, and I’ll swallow the shame

Oh - she hadn't meant that and this wasn't how she'd wanted to tell him. The nagging feeling that was growing stronger and stronger promised that yes, she was most likely carrying his young but she had meant the more sour look to his face, the way that they were both looking. Hemlock's ears folded back for a moment in nervousness but she decided to lift herself up, to try and make this a better moment now that the cat was out of the bag. "I have suspicions, yes," She promised, and she knew that once she had more solid confirmations she would come straight to him. "I had actually meant that look on your face." She teased with a small smile. "This will be our first winter here - and I was thinking it is a perfect time to start planning our moves." Not only with his older brood coming into a proper age to join larger hunts but before her own was there, taking up her time and energy and any precious resources they had. If they had planned better or had more control, or if the heavens themselves had moved somehow to make the time different, she and Lotte could have whelped closer together but it was beyond their control. 

The healer allowed him to survey her; wondering if he had done the same with Lotte when her tundarian had boasted her own pregnancy. Who knew better than Arturo, after all, who knew her longest in the lands now? Without Palisander the gangster would be the first to recognize a change in her - though perhaps Lotte's eyes had been more keenly on her. Still, she closes her eyes to his gentle touch, fur prickling a bit over her muscles. It is all her own motion, of course, but still, she can imagine the feeling of kicks soon to follow. Her ears shift towards him as he makes his heartfelt statement; of wanting these children to not be outsiders to his family, to his name, and Hemlock turns to face him with a gentle smile on her face. Despite his harsh exterior Arturo Fearghal is a gentle man under the right circumstances, and when it came to children, he was sweet. "Of course they will know their siblings, we are not -" But any true response is clipped before she can make it by the power of the sentiment in his next words. 

When it had come to her marriage before, she and Palisander had not broached such a serious subject. They had held the title of mates before any other had in the Ravensblood but it had come with a courtship and it's own unique tests. This was unexpected. Surely Arturo had noticed the way that Hemlock felt, not only to Lotte (the world probably could read that, despite Hemlock's best efforts otherwise), but to himself. Her loyalty had always been his but it had become so much more than loyalty after all. "I...are you sure? You and Lotte?" A near stammered response, but the pounding of her heart drowned out all other concepts or emotions - she wanted it, wanted them and the promise of their family, but it was such a powerful concept that she still questioned if she was even worthy of them.