Page 17 of The Highlander's Dangerous Bride

“Why d’ye think? Tae see Thorsten, of course. I’ve hardly thought of anything else while I was away. He’s me son. Our son. I want tae see him.”

Arne shook his head, a bitter chuckle escaping his lips. “Nay, that’s nae gonnae be possible, nae unless ye start tellin’ me what’s really been goin’ on.”

“I’m his maither! I have a right tae see him!” She struggled to lean up on her elbows but was evidently too weak, for she fell back against the cushions. His natural reaction was to go and help her, but he stopped himself.She’ll get nay more help from me.

“Ye deserted himandme. Ye have nae rights as far as I’m concerned. Ye’re nae seein’ him, so ye can forget it. Besides, it would only confuse the lad. He wouldnae understand why he’s suddenly got a maither—with a completely different name ttaeo what I’ve told him tae boot.”

“Why, what did ye tell him about me?” Her brow wrinkled, showing lines of strain where none had been before. What had put them there, he wondered.

“What d’ye think I should have told him? That his maither didnae care enough for him tae hang around? That she just took off and left him?”

“What did ye tell him, Arne?”

“I told him ye were dead.”

“Ach, Lord above.” Pain flashed across her eyes, and she shook her head sorrowfully.

That enraged him. “Ye have a bloody nerve, Maeve, Raven, or whoever ye are. It was better than him thinkin’ ye didnae want him, that ye cared naught fer him, or me.”

A sob wrenched itself from her throat then, and her eyes glistened with tears once more, plucking painfully at his heartstrings. But he held himself back from giving into the desire to forget everything, to forgive her.I will never forgive her!

That was just the start of the argument that went round and round for hours, well into the night.

“Why have ye come back?” he demanded again angrily, pacing the room.

“I had tae, Arne. I couldnae stay away any longer. I came the first chance I had tae see Thorsten.”

“How ye have the audacity tae come back out of the blue like this and make demands about seeing Thorsten is beyond me,” he said with cold fury.

“I’ll nae give up until ye let me see Thorsten. He’s me bairn. I carried him in me belly fer nine months, Arne. I have the right tae see him!” she insisted passionately. “I risked me life tae return tae Harris and see him, and I’ll nae let up until ye agree.”

She did not dare tell him that she had no idea how long she had left before she was found again and dragged back to her pointless existence on Barra. Or killed. That did not matter to her, for without Thorsten, life was worthless to her.

“So, are ye gonnae let me see him?”

He gave a bitter little laugh. “I think I need tae make sure ye’re nae a dangerous person first, eh?”

“What d’ye mean by that?”

“Well, ’tis obvious. I have nay idea who ye really are. It seems tae me I was in love with a woman who didnae really exist. I mean, Maeve? Raven? MacNeil? How am I supposed tae even ken what yer name is let alone who ye really are?”

Raven clenched her fists tightly at her sides, her fingernails digging into her palms as she fought back tears of frustration. She knew it would do no good to lose her temper. A heavy silence reigned between them for several long moments. She held out until Arne broke it.

“I still have some work to do here in the village,” he said his voice taut but sounding dangerously reasonable. “If ye stay with me and behave properly, I might, I say might, consider allowing ye tae see the wee lad ye abandoned.” His words carried an air of finality, and he turned away from her and laid on his makeshift bed by the fire, turning his back to her, and pulling the blankets around him.

Raven held her tongue, mentally fanning the small spark of hope that leapt within her breast at the suggestion he ‘might consider’ letting her see Thorsten. But that did not lessen the pain of him emphasizing that she had ‘abandoned’ her child.

That was bad enough, but he was not to know how truly cruel a weapon it

was to use against her. She had been forced to leave Thorsten through no choice of her own. It had been a terrible sacrifice, but one she had made out of love and a wish to protect him. And she could not even tell Arne why, for she would rather die than put either of them in danger.

Whereas Raven knew all too well what it was like to be truly abandoned by a parent one loved and trusted, for through his machinations for wealth and power had her own father not made her once happy life a misery since the age of seventeen?

The thought of anyone thinking she had done the same thing to her own child was almost impossible for her to bear without giving in and spilling out the terrible truth there and then.

Yet she dared not do it.

And she was so exhausted by the arguing and the strain of her situation, that she finally fell asleep.

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