Dedicated to agent1967- enjoy! If anyone wants to comment a replacement title then please do, I don't really like 'Rowena's Secret' but can't think of anything better. Thanks!

"Fergus..."

"MOTHER! For theast time, CALL ME CROWLEY!"

She sighed. "Really, Fergus-"

"MOTHER! Why won't you, anyway? What's so special about the name Fergus that you have to use it all the time?

The shock of his words hit Rowena so hard she nearly stumbled. What was so important about the name Fergus? She couldn't even begin to imagine the importance of the name.

But her son was a grown man now. Was it time to explain why?

Her mind drifted back to that day, four hundred years ago...

"Can't catch me!" Rowena sprinted through the trees, laughing as her brother tried to catch her, dodging every time.

"You're too good for me!"

Her brother was, of course, going easy on her, but as ever pretended she was faster than him.

She ran behind a tree and grinned.

"Come get me!"

Fergal ran after her and scooped her up into his arms.

"Look what I got!"

She giggled as he put his arms under her legs and back, carrying her like a baby.

"What should I do with you now? I know! I should...eat you!"

Rowena screamed in laughter.

"Can't eat me if ya can't catch me!" she yelled, wriggling out of his grasp and running through the trees once again.

She looked over her shoulder for her brother as she ran.

"Careful sweetheart, you'll run into a tree like that-" his face went from mild concern into horror. "Look out!"

Suddenly she had fallen, and was sinking fast into a bog.

Rowena screamed in terror. "Fergal!"

He dropped to his knees next to the bog, and reached down to grab her. Rowena's head and shoulders were above the surface, but they were rapidly sinking.

Fergal grabbed her shoulders and tugged.

"Try get your arms out!"

"I can't!"

He continued to tug, but it was proving fruitless. A wave of panic built up in Rowena's stomach, and she started to sob.

"Help!" Her head was starting to go under, and she struggled to breathe.

Her brother threw his legs over the side of the bog, and jumped in.

Strong arms wrapped around her waist, and suddenly Rowena was being pushed upwards. Her shoulders emerged, then after another gruelling minute her waist, and she managed to hoist herself onto the good ground. Rowena collapsed onto it in relief, then got up to look at her brother.

"Fergal!"

His arms were still above the surface, along with his head, but his shoulders down was stuck within the bog. His arms struggled to hold on to the earth, but he had used the brunt of his strength saving his sister and was sinking fast.

Rowena screamed once again. Fergal could do anything. Why couldn't he get himself out?

His arms still gripped the side, but his head was sinking, and he struggled for breath. Rowena grabbed her brother's arms and tried to tug them, but she couldn't help him.

And then his head was under.

Rowena pulled harder, but his arms hand sunk beneath the bog and only his hands poked out.

And they too slipped slowly beneath the earth.

Rowena couldn't remember much from the next few hours- just being curled up in a ball crying next to the bog that had taken her brother.

But when the search party brought her home, Rowena made herself a promise.

It didn't matter what her husband thought.

Her first born son would be named Fergal.

And then, when she first held her son in her arms, she remembered that promise. But each time she said his name, it brought a fresh wave of grief for her dead brother. So one night, crying as she fed her son, she changed his name.

Fergus. It was close to Fergal, but it didn't break her down in tears each time she said it. Her son would be called Fergus.

Rowena looked into her son's eyes. She tried think of the words to convey her brother, but there weren't any. Try as she might, she'd never be able to describe him. Her son would never fully understand, never get what Fergal had meant to her.

Choking back a lump in her throat, she forced out a reply.

"I am your mother. I went through the pain of labour, you know. I think I have control over what I call you. Now when's dinner arriving? You need to get a new chef."

Rowena walked back to her rooms with her head held high. But her heart was heavy with thoughts of her one and only brother.