Once Katherine and her household had returned to Lornadoon, an effort was made to get things back onto a semblance of a normal schedule. That is, at least as far as the guys were concerned. Katherine's daily tasks were still totally centered around the baby for the most part. Little Katriona was nursing every two and a half hours to three hours round the clock and that occupied a great deal of her time and energy.

Maggie gleefully took over the general household duties and cooking. Then men soon learned that as far as she was concerned, she was second only to the Lady Katherine in the kitchen and woe to the man or boy who tried to help himself to a snack without asking first. She did all the general cleaning as well, but did not hesitate to grab the nearest able bodied man person if she needed help. Katherine pitched in to help whenever she could but she had her hands full with the baby most of the time.

As the designated *uncle of the month*, John Brennick's main job was to be at Katherine's beck and call to help her with the baby. He was more than happy to do that duty, as evidenced by the joy on his face whenever he held the tiny baby in his arms. In fact, all the men took it upon themselves to assist her as much as possible. This was a good thing because the lack of sleep was telling on her, and she was tired most of the time. But even when feeling completely wore out and exhausted, Katherine did not ever regret taking Katriona into her heart and home.

The boy Dougal was put to work helping with the horses, but he was expected to have a session with Katherine every day so he could learn to read. He obstinately resisted the idea of any schooling at first and he had stubbornly refused to have anything to do with *book learning*, which he associated with priests and other scholarly types. Connor, Dani and John Clayton had a prolonged session with him out behind the barn, and he came back looking a little more ruffled than usual but with a much improved attitude.

Maggie was very pleased that such important men were paying attention to her son. Since Dougal's father had died, he had not had a strong male role model in his life other than the other stable workers and he had gotten to acting a little too big for his britches at times. After the session behind the barn where his limits had been defined, as far as Dougal was concerned, the men of Lornadoon could do no wrong. The boy now looked up at Connor MacLeod with a combination of pure hero worship and a little bit of fear. All Connor had to do was just look sternly at him and he would immediately jump to do his bidding. His station in life made him always defer politely to Lord Greystoke, but he and Dani were becoming good friends. And by the end of his first session with Katherine the gangly boy had developed such a huge crush on his lovely teacher he would have gone to the ends of the earth to please her.

Ben returned to Lornadoon four days after the rest of them and the first thing he did after checking on the baby was to crash for about 12 hours straight. It seemed like whenever he was at the castle, every minor complaint that was easily ignored when he wasn't there suddenly became major enough to require a visit to the infirmary and he had been kept very busy the entire time he was there. One of the last things he had accomplished before leaving New Camelot was to insure Jenny would not have another unplanned pregnancy.

So with everyone back at home, things began to take on the normal rhythm of a working horse ranch with the fact that there was now a baby in the house being the main difference from the way things had been run before. The presence of little Katriona Elspeth was bringing both joy and somewhat organized chaos into all their lives.

And then the first visitors arrived ….