"By God, I should have cut the man down whilst I was there."
"Why?" She blushed slightly, but knew it was a time for complete honesty. "For taking what was his more or less for the asking? I could not refuse him. Papa. I knew that ere he touched me. 'Twas why I asked him not to, not because I did not want him but because I did. Can ye really justify cutting a man down because of that? He awaited the ransom first."
"I know," Eldon spat out, his fury at his late wife briefly renewed. "Are you speaking the full truth, Storm, or do you tell me what you hope will stop a battle?"
"I tell you the full truth, Papa. Then, too, I do not wish a battle, for I have friends at Caraidland, good friends who helped me, and though I might ne'er see them again, I can fear for them."
"And I owe them your life." His voice revealed how much he wished he did not owe that debt, for it did work to tie his hands, made it easier for her to talk him out of a rightful vengeance.
"Well, they owe me Colin's life and his sword arm. I think such debts are well paid on either side. In truth, 'tis they who owe us, for Hugh came very close to slaughtering the lot of them."
"Then I can cut the bastard down and not feel guilty," he said, and watched her very closely, easily reading her paleness and stricken look. "You love him."
"Aye," she answered quietly. "I fear I do 'Twas foolish of me, for the feeling was ne'er returned. He has but one use for women. He chose badly the first time he gave his heart, and I think he decided to lock it away. He was kind to me, Papa. I simply wanted more than he had to give. Ye cannot cut a man down for that either."
"So he lives and you are left with a bastard soon to be born."
"We can care for the child, Roden," Elaine said, relieved that there had not been as great an uproar as she had feared. "Mayhaps if we plan carefully, it could be hidden in some way, disguised."
"Nay. That rarely works. If the secret does not slip out, then the secrecy turns about to hurt the child."
"Papa, I have one idea," Storm ventured warily.
"Why do I feel I will not like this?"
"I could wed Tavis MacLagan."
Eldon gave vent to a string of colorful curses as he renewed his pacing of the room. Elaine blushed furiously while Storm smiled faintly with amusement. Her father had a way with words.
She frowned then, her amusement fading as she continued to watch her father pace the room, venting his frustrated rage. It did not look at all promising. Her father looked less amiable with each step he took. He did not look at all accommodating. She feared she would be proven right, that her father's tolerance would stop at the thought of his only daughter being wed to a MacLagan. Storm doubted that it would help at all that she intended a marriage in name only. That she and his first grandchild would carry that name would probably seem to him like one long slap in the face, inflicting its sting every time he looked upon her or her child.
"Papa, if ye would just heed me for a moment ..." she began with false courage.
"Heed you?" He glared at her, not truly angry with her, but needing some tangible target for his frustrated rage. "With each word you say I but ache all the more to run the bastard through with my sword, but you cry nay ere I speak on it."
"Because it will help naught. There would be no gain, only loss. Dear friends and kin would die, but I would still be here, still unwed and with child. Now, an I wed Tavis ..."
"No daughter of mine will e'er wed a MacLagan."
"But, Papa, it would give my child a name, take away the taint of bastardy."
"Better to be a bastard than a MacLagan."
"But, Papa, 'tis the child who will suffer more for being a bastard than I will for bearing him. Aye, he may suffer for carrying the name MacLagan, but at least he would have a name, would be fighting for the name he did carry and not for not carrying one at all. All I ask is to give him a name."
"Fine. Give him one, but not the cursed name of MacLagan."
Before she could argue further he firmly, if gently, pushed her and Elaine out of the way of the door and then started to leave. Storm found it hard to believe that he would deny her the chance to try for legitimacy for her child. Shaking free of that shock, she hurried after him, a worried Elaine at her heels. She had to keep trying to change his mind.
The whole of Hagaleah soon knew what the trouble was as the argument between Storm and her father raged through the halls. Elaine tried a few times to stop it, seeing that the chance of any secrecy was swiftly being lost, but had to give up. She saw that nothing could put a stop to this argument, that both Storm and her father were set on banging heads, as set as each was not to back down. It was hard to see how such a deadlocked confrontation could end. Defeat or compromise was required, and neither was willing to accept either.
Sheer exhaustion and a raging headache made Storm halt the argument. She accused her father of heartlessness, of caring nothing for her child, his first grandchild, and then sought sanctuary in her chambers. As soon as the pounding in her head was eased she would
