“I haven’t known long,” she said in a soft voice. “My fluxes have always been irregular, and I thought I was barren, so I didn’t believe it at first. I wanted to be certain before I told ye.”
“But ye did know, and ye kept it from me.”
Glynis had wanted to save him from the disappointment if it turned out she was wrong. But she had been going to tell him soon.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “But it doesn’t change anything.”
“It doesn’t?” he said, his voice dangerously low. He turned to face her, and his eyes burned through her like a torch to parchment.
“I can’t live with ye now.” Her voice shook, despite herself. “I want to go to my father’s.”
“If you’re that set upon it,” Alex said, his eyes hard as ice, “then I will allow ye to leave after the child is born.”
“After? But that’s months away,” she said. “Ye can’t keep me here.”
“As I said, ye may leave after the child is born, if that is what ye want,” Alex said. “But the child stays here.”
“Ye can’t mean it,” Glynis said, her voice coming out high-pitched. “Ye wouldn’t try to force me to stay by threatening to keep my child.”
“I’m no threatening, and ye can do as ye like,” he said. “But the child
“Ye wouldn’t do that to me,” Glynis said, looking into his face for a bit of softness and finding none. “Nay, ye can’t hate me that much.”
“Ye are the one leaving. I asked ye to stay.” Alex got to his feet. “If ye are separated from our child, it’s by your own choice. I won’t take the blame for that.”
“I won’t let ye keep my child from me,” Glynis said, clenching her fists.
“Under Highland law, it is a father’s right.”
“But most fathers don’t enforce it—at least not when the child is young.” Glynis grabbed his sleeve, but he shook her off. “Alex, ye wouldn’t do this.”
“Since ye believe I would seduce that poor, frightened lass, Una,” Alex said, glaring down at her, “than ye know I’m capable of anything.”
CHAPTER 46
The tension was so thick between her and Alex at the table that Glynis could not eat. It had been like this for a week now, and she was feeling the strain—as was the entire household. When she set down her eating knife, she felt Alex’s eyes on her and could not help giving him a sideways glance. There were lines around his eyes, and his expression was grim.
Smiles rarely graced his countenance these days—except when he was playing with Sorcha. Unlike most fathers of daughters, he paid close attention to her. He treated her as the special and unexpected gift that she was to him. If Glynis took her new babe away with her, she would be denying the child a wonderful father. But it was worse to separate a babe from its mother, was it not?
Nothing she did would be right.
Glynis got up from the table without eating a bite and left the hall. She was going down the steps of the keep when Alex caught her arm and spun her around.
“God damn it, Glynis, ye have to eat,” Alex said.
“Ye wouldn’t care if I starved to death, except for the child I carry.”
Alex took a step back, as if her words had dealt him a physical blow. “After all that was between us, how can ye say that to me?”
It was a harsh thing to say, and she would not have if she were not so tired. She found it hard to sleep in their bed alone.
“Ye win, Glynis.” Alex sank onto the steps and held his head in his hands. “I’ve tried to do what I thought was best, but nothing has turned out as I wanted it to.”
Win? She could not feel worse. Oh, God, she hated to see him like this.
“Are ye saying you’ll let me go?” she asked.
“Aye. And take Sorcha with ye,” he said, sounding as though the words were wrenched from him. “I can’t provide her with the family she needs.”
Glynis sat beside him on the step. “Nay, Alex. I cannot do that.”
“You’ve become a mother to her,” Alex said. “Sorcha needs ye more than she needs me.”
“Ye know I love her with all my heart, but I could never ask ye to give her up.”
He turned, and his gaze settled on her like a cold sea mist. “And yet, ye asked me to give up my other child with no hesitation.”
“I didn’t think—”
“Do ye believe I will care less for that child?” he demanded. “That the babe we made together would be any less precious to me than Sorcha?”
Glynis dropped her gaze to her lap and shook her head.
“If ye know that,” Alex said, “then how can ye believe I would risk everything that matters to me for a tumble with some lass I barely know?”
