“I haven’t lied to you!”
“Omitting the birth of a child is strangely akin to a lie, as I see it!”
Shawna eased up from the bed once again. “There was no reason to tell you, I tried…I tried to let you know that I certainly suffered from the consequences of that night, but then, it didn’t make much sense to tell you that we’d had a child who had died without ever drawing breath.”
“And when you saw Danny, it never occurred to you that he might be your own?”
“I was handed a dead baby!” Shawna cried. “I held what I thought was my own dead babe in my arms! The poor, misshapen soul was taken away, buried in the earth in a Glasgow kirk. I thought that Danny was a MacGinnis, aye, but I’ve three healthy young male cousins who have been known to tarry in the village.”
He continued to stare at her, hard, implacable.
“God damn you, David, I didn’t know!” she cried.
“Then who did?” he demanded.
“I—don’t know.”
“Who knew you were with child?” he shouted.
“They all—all my family.”
“Who came to see you in Glasgow?”
She hesitated.
“Who?” he demanded.
“Alistair was the one who came most frequently. He was the one who finally convinced me to come home. But at one time or another, all of them came to see me.”
“Who else from here?”
Shawna hesitated. She shook her head, lowering it. “No one. Just my uncles and cousins.”
He came walking toward her then, clutching her shoulders, drawing her against him. “At least one of them, my love,” he said to her furiously, “attempted to kill me. And, if what you say is true, made incredible arrangements to steal our child—to see it raised as a poverty-stricken ragamuffin to die in the mines! And you refuse to see it.”
“Let me go, David. You’ve taken the child?—”
“Damned right!”
“I’ll never forgive you for what you’re doing now.”
“What betrayal do I choose never to forgive you for?” he demanded. He was shaking. Shaking even as he held her, his eyes glittering a liquid green torment. The warmth suddenlysurrounding her was terrifying. She wanted to fight him. She leaned against him instead. “David, for the love of God! Can you honestly believe that I’d have ever allowed Danny to be with the Andersons if I had known?” she whispered. “David, you can’t begin to imagine how hurt I was! I believed that my child, our child was dead. David…”
He was angry still. She knew that he was angry. But his fingers were suddenly moving in her hair.
“Shawna…”
She was in pain, she thought. Angry, hurt. And so tense that…
She wanted him. The passion of her anger seemed to be filling her blood, her limbs, her being. She gripped her fingers into his arms, trying to shake him, trying to make him listen to her, believe her.
“You have to understand!” she whispered with vehemence.
“Shawna!” he warned, but her force against him had upset them both. They fell back upon the softness of her tower bed, and she told him, “You are insufferable!”
“Aye,” he queried.
“You need to let me go!”