The baby couldn’t be more than a few months old, meaning Tadhg had slept with this woman while I was dead.
He was cursed, a tiny voice whispered.He couldn’t say no.
Had this woman taken advantage of him? Had he wanted to turn her down? Had he even tried? Bile roiled in my stomach.
I hated her.
Part of me hated Tadhg as well.
Hell, right now I even hated that tiny, innocent baby, and the child had done nothing wrong.
“I didn’t…I can barely even remember…” Tadhg’s mouth opened and closed, but nothing he could say would make this any better or take away the vicious sting of reality. “Shit…I…Shit.”
Logically, I knew this was no different than every other time he’d gone off with someone else. Except it was because the consequences of those other dalliances weren’t starting to wail and thrash in his arms.
Anwen’s chin lifted, her expression as unyielding as the stone walls around us. “I cannot bear the brunt of another babe. Brogan is yers. Ye can deal with him now.” She didn’t spare me so much as a look as she turned on her heel and sauntered away from her own bloody child.
I wanted to shout for her to come back, to take the screaming boy and hide him away forever so that I didn’t have to face this catastrophe. So that I could go back to being blissfully happy like we had been last night.
“You have a child,” I whispered, my words nearly lost to the boy’s tearful cries.
Tadgh shook his head, his hair falling across his forehead. “No… no, I—”
“Clearly you do.” Bloody hell.Look at them.They could’ve been twins.
Rían’s nose wrinkled as he stared down at the wrinkly and impossibly small child in Tadhg’s arms. “To be honest, I’m shocked you don’t have a whole horde of whelps scratching at the door.”
Tadhg shot him a look so full of hate, I knew he would’ve killed him if his hands weren’t already occupied.
“Sire?” Oscar’s voice cut through everything.
All of us looked up at the same time, to where the grogoch still stood at the door. He shifted on his feet, his flat cap mashed between his hands. “More folks are startin’ to arrive.”
Tadhg turned this way and that, the baby’s swaddled body swinging to and fro as he searched for something. What? I hadn’t a clue. He mustn’t have either because he stopped and stared down at Oscar with his mouth pulled tight. “Tell them all to go away.”
Oscar’s eyes widened. “But, sire, it’s Friday. And the blight—”
“I can’t…I just…I can’t deal with anything else right now. Send them home.” Tadhg shot to his feet; the baby screeched even louder.
“I’ll handle them,” Rían said, gesturing toward Tadhg’s son. “You both need to deal withthat.”
Tadhg held the baby out even farther, as if it were a puppy about to piddle on him. “How do I get it to stop crying?”
Rían’s brows rose. “You’re asking me for parenting advice?”
Tadhg looked as if he were about to cry. That made two of us. Three if you countedhisbaby.
Rían let out a low curse. “Find Leesha. She’s always been good with children.”
Nodding, Tadhg turned to me, his broken expression no doubt mirroring my own. “Will you at least allow me to explain? That is all I ask. Please.”
I didn’t want to be near him right now. I wanted my sister and silence and a bloody time machine. Still, I couldn’t very well stay here with Rían and a bunch of strangers who already despised me. So I stood and followed my fiancé through the door behind the dais that led to the study.
As if we’d called for her, Leesha bolted into the room, a smile lighting her face. “Is that a baby I hear?” She skidded to a stop when she reached Tadhg, her smile growing as she peered down at the child. “Oh, look at how beautiful you are,” she cooed. The child immediately quieted, blinking up at her through red-rimmed eyes. “Aren’t you a handsome boy? Yes, you are.” She rubbed his cheek with her finger, and the child turned his face toward her. “Yes, you are.”
“Would you be able to watch him for a moment?” Tadhg asked, practically launching the boy at Leesha.
She cradled the babe against her chest as if he were the most precious thing in the whole entire world. “I would love to,” she said, more to the baby than his father.