Alistair’s frown deepened. “The babe died in Glasgow. I hadn’t imagined that…frankly, I hadn’t imagined that she would even have told you about the bairn…since it never drew breath.”
David stared at Alistair, wondering just what in hell to believe.
Alistair’s strange confession solved one part of the mystery and perhaps the strangest part. The fact that someone had wanted him dead—and yet he had been spirited away on a convict ship—made sense at last. But Danny was his child and Shawna’s, and the mystery of how he had come to live, here, beneath the shadow of the castle that should have been his inheritance, still seemed to loom before him. Old Anderson had been terrified tonight. He had spoken what he believed to be the truth. The girl from the castle had brought them the child. They had known then that they needed to keep care of the boy.
Because of the Lady Shawna.
“David—sorry, Laird Douglas, isn’t it?” Alistair said a bit wryly. “I don’t suppose that you can forgive me any part in all this—it was my foolishness that started it all. But I had to tell you my truth, and naturally, I hope that you don’t wish to skewer me through, slice my throat, and set my head out on gate spike for all to see.”
David hesitated, a half grin forming on his lips. “I’m not sure what to think. You did save my life. You took me from the fire. And you saved Shawna’s life as well.”
“Aye, that’s true. I was a wretchedly deceptive human being, but…”
“But not a murderer?” David suggested.
“No, not a murderer,” Alistair said somberly.
David continued to watch him. “Shawna’s bairn did not die,” he said at last. “Daniel is our child, born from that night.”
“Danny!” Alistair exclaimed. Then he started laughing. “My God, and Shawna accused me time and time again of fooling with poor sweet Gena Anderson! Why, the little wench! My god, I don’t?—”
Seeing David’s piercing stare upon him, he sobered quickly. “I’m sorry. I just, I—my god!”
“So, you’re convinced that Shawna didn’t know the boy was hers?”
“Quite,” Alistair said, frowning then. “She was in sorry shape when she lost her babe. I thought—I was actually afraid for a time there that she would take her own life. Except that she’s stronger than that, of course, but you cannot imagine how disconsolate she was, you gone, and the babe…and I didn’t dare tell her the truth about you at that point. What made you think that Shawna would allow her own child to go to the Andersons?” he inquired.
His tone was such that David felt a searing of guilt within himself.
Yet, even now, did he dare trust Alistair? Alistair had told him that he had acted partly out of fear of and for his own family.
“Anderson himself,” he said quietly.
“Fergus Anderson said that Shawna brought him the babe?”
“Fergus said that Shawna’s maid brought the boy to the Andersons.”
“Mary Jane?”
“I imagine. Has Shawna taken another woman as a personal maid?”
Alistair shook his head. “No, we visited her, and perhaps Mary Jane even came to help her now and then, but basically,she stayed alone in Glasgow. When she came home, naturally, Mary Jane was her lady’s maid once again.”
David pushed away from the hearth and started for the stairs.
“David?” Alistair said.
David turned back. “Let’s go!”
“Where?”
“I’m not waiting for morning. We’re going to find Mary Jane.”
“Oh god, of course!” Alistair breathed.
David turned, ready to start up the stairway again. Alistair was at his back.
And for a moment, it seemed to David that his spine crawled.