The Sinner

who had taken hold of a young Highlander and let him know in no uncertain terms what she wanted of him. Alex leaned back and waited her out.

“I had a child,” she said.

“Congratulations.” Alex shrugged. “That must have pleased your husband at his advanced age.” Her husband was eighty if he was a day.

“Hardly, since the child could not possibly have been his,” she said, giving Alex a piercing look. “It was fortunate for me that my husband died before my pregnancy showed.”

A swell of unease settled in Alex’s gut. “When did ye have this child?”

She lifted her gaze to the ceiling and touched a finger to her powdered cheek. “Let me try to remember,” she said with a sharp edge to her voice. “Oh yes, the child was born precisely eight and a half months after we ended our affair.”

Surely she was not suggesting that the child was his? What puzzled him was why she would tell him this lie.

“Our affair began and ended shortly after I arrived in France,” he said, cocking his eyebrow at her. “But I was in France for five more years. If the child was mine, a woman as resourceful as you could have gotten word to me.”

“I had no reason to tell you,” she said. “I didn’t want anyone to know, and mourning the death of my husband gave me the excuse to retire from society for a few months.”

That would explain why he had never heard of Sabine having a child. It did not mean, however, that the child was his.

“Why not tell me, if ye believed the child could be mine?” he asked.

“I feared you would make a fuss,” she said, turning her head to gaze out the window.

Alex sat up straight. “A fuss? A man doesn’t make a fuss.”

“No matter how devil-may-care you are about women,” she said in a thin voice, “I understand that you Highlanders have… unusually strong feelings about blood relationships.”

“No more games, Sabine.” Alex leaned forward and took hold of her arms. “If there truly is a child, what makes ye think it’s mine? And I won’t believe I was your only lover.”

“You were my only lover at the time I conceived,” she said, glaring at him.

“Or the only one ye think is gullible enough to believe the child is his.”

“If you recall,” she said, her voice as sharp as a razor, “we did not leave my house for a fortnight. Resourceful as I am, it would not have been possible for me to carry on another affair at the same time.”

Never left her house? Ach, they rarely left her bed—except to make love on the floor or against the wall. He recalled how her well-trained servants left trays of food and drink outside the bedchamber door. Still, Sabine could easily lie about when the child was conceived.

“You will know the child is yours when you see it,” she said, and folded her hands in her lap.

She must think he would accept any fair-haired child as his own. And yet, if the child was his, he had cause to be furious with her.

“Ye believed the child was mine all along,” he said, raising his voice, “and ye didn’t tell me?”

“I wanted to keep the child’s existence a secret.”

And Alex wanted to shake Sabine until her teeth rattled. He made himself take a deep breath before he spoke again. “So why tell me now?”

“I’ve run out of money.” She looked up at him from under her lashes. “So I must marry again.”

Alex’s heart sank to his feet with a thud. Did she want him to claim her child and marry her? He could not imagine a worse wife. Why, Sabine was exactly like him.

“I’m not a poor man,” he said, “but I’m no a rich one, either.”

Sabine’s expression clouded for a moment, and then she tilted her head back in a genuine laugh. “Alex, I’m not suggesting we marry!” She lifted her hand toward the window and said, “Can you see me living in this wilderness?”

If she considered Edinburgh a wilderness, then going to Skye would seem to her like crossing the River Styx to Hades.

“Mon dieu!” She wiped the corners of her eyes with a lace handkerchief, still shaking with laughter. “Finding a wealthy man was not difficult. In fact, I’m already betrothed.”

Another man would raise his child? Alex got up and started pacing the room.

“The problem is that I cannot take the chance that my betrothed will discover I had a child outside of my marriage.” She cleared her throat. “He is generous to a fault, but his steward takes his duties far too seriously. Why, the wretch tracks every penny!”

“What has this to do with me?” Alex asked.

“I fear that if I continue to support the child, my secret will be discovered.” She paused and licked her lips. “So I brought the child here.”

“The child is here?” Alex thought he must have heard wrong.

“Not here at the palace, of course.” Sabine fanned herself with her hand. “But, yes, she is here in Edinburgh. I thought it wise to speak alone with you first, before you see her.”