Page 28 of Madly Deeply

"Will ye not eat something?” Spreag asked for the third time in an hour. "The babe needs?—"

"The baby is fine." She turned a page she hadn't actually read. "I had a big lunch."

"That was hours ago." He paced beside her, silently slapping his sides in a show of nerves he couldn’t possibly feel. "And ye barely touched it."

She lowered her book. "Are you going to hover like this the whole pregnancy? Because I don't think I can take thirty-one more weeks of it."

"Merely curious. I shall stop." Before she could read another word, he suggested she go to bed.

"Ye've been rubbin' yer forehead a good twenty minutes."

She slammed her book down. "Because you won't stop hovering!"

"I hover because I care." His form flickered slightly in agitation. "Because I can see--"

"Don't!" She swung her legs to the floor and stood. "Don't you dare tell me what you cansee. You lost that right when you went to Scotlandknowing you wouldn't come back!"

The words hung between them like acrid smoke. Words she'd been holding back since the days after the wedding, when she’d realized why he’d been so attentive--because he’dknownhe’d be killed.

Spreag's expression hardened. "Ye cannae think Iwantedto leave ye?"

"I think if you really loved me, you wouldn't have insisted we go in the first place!" Her voice rose with each word. "You saw it coming. But you went anyway!"

"I had no choice!"

"There's always a choice!" She clenched her fists at her sides, wishing she could beat on his chest. Dying to cause him just a smidgen of the pain she’d suffered through, still suffered through. "You could have stayed home. We would have been safe. You could be here with me, right now, if only--!"

"And let Simon die instead?" His form wavered violently. "And if our leader had fallen, how many others might have followed suit? Would you rather those monsters had slaughtered the entire party? Including the wee’uns?”

"You could have warned them! Called it off! It’s not like they wouldn’t have trusted you!"

"Ye ken nothing was for certain. Sometimes I saw only probabilities--"

"You still chose them over me!" The dam broke and hot, long-suppressed tears streamed down her face. "Over me! Over us! Over our baby!"

Her front door burst open, followed by heavy footsteps. Callum rushed into the kitchen, eyes blazing. "Alexandra! Are ye alright?"

She hastily wiped her wet face on her sleeves. "I'm fine, I’m fine. What are you doing?"

His eyes scanned the empty room. "I heard shoutin'. Thought someone was..." He ran a hand through his already disheveled curls. "Who were ye arguing with?"

"No one." She forced a laugh. "Just venting. Good for the lungs. Like exercise."

He gave her a long look. "I heard ye from across the way. Sounded like…like ye were speaking to yer dead husband."

Alexandra's laugh died in her throat. She glanced at Spreag, who stood by the window with his brawny arms crossed. With a lift of his chin, he dared her to tell the truth.

So she did.

"I was." If that didn’t scare the man off, nothing would.

But instead of backing away slowly, Callum's expression softened and he nodded. "So…why did ye think he knew he would die? That he wouldn't be comin’ home with ye?"

She sighed dramatically. In for a penny, in for a pound.

"Because he was a seer. He could see the future."

To her surprise, Callum nodded again. “Weel, that makes sense then.”

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