Page 101 of Bride of Fire
Was it possible? Could Lady Alicia have traveled to England of her own free will? Had she had a hand in her abduction? Had there evenbeenan abduction?
The idea was staggering.
“Are you suggesting,” Jenefer asked, “she may have deceived Morgan, made him believe she was dead, and feigned her own kidnapping, abandoning her newborn child?”
“I’m suggestin’ nothin’,” Bethac declared. “’Tisn’t my place. And ye’d best keep such notions to yourself.”
With those elusive words of warning, Bethac left the nursery.
But just because Bethac hadn’t suggested it didn’t mean it wasn’t true.
Still, the whole thing seemed unfathomable.
“What kind of woman could walk away from a wee, helpless infant?” she wondered aloud. Silently, she added, or from such a magnificent warrior of a husband.
Feiyan gave her a sly glance. “No doubt the same kind of woman who’s not so grateful to bereacquaintedwith him.”
Jenefer nodded. This put a coil in things.
She had to reconsider the entire notion of returning Miles to his birth mother. How could Jenefer hand an innocent babe over to the woman who had heartlessly abandoned him? How could she surrender Morgan to a wife who had ruthlessly betrayed him?
“I can’t give him back now.” Even she wasn’t sure if she meant Miles or Morgan or both.
“’Tis decided then.”
Jenefer lifted a brow in askance.
Feiyan closed her eyes to scheming slits. “This is war.”
Chapter 46
Alicia didn’t like the lass who’d come in this morn. Something about her was galling. The tawny wench was oversized and overbold. Too pretty for a servant. And she had a kind of fatal sensuality that only men and clever wives like Alicia could smell.
“I don’t like that woman,” she muttered, pouting.
“What woman?” Morgan asked.
Still claiming weakness from her ordeal, Alicia half-reclined against a bolster on Morgan’s bed. He was hand-feeding her bites of trout pottage.
“That nurse.”
“Bethac?”
“Not Bethac.” To be honest, Alicia wasn’t too fond of Bethac either. The old maidservant was always sticking her nose into Morgan’s affairs. But that wasn’t who she meant. “The other one.” She picked at the corner of the coverlet. “The one who was trying to force the infant upon me this morn.”
Morgan frowned. “I’m sure she meant well.”
“I don’t trust her.”
Alicia was almost certain she was the same woman she’d overheard challenging Morgan in the nursery. There was something disturbing about her. She looked as fierce and forceful as her bellowing. But she was also beautiful in a wild and intrepid way.
“Our son seems to like her,” he said.
Morgan was clearly trying to placate her. He lifted a spoonful of pottage to her lips. She wanted to spit it onto the floor. Instead, she gave him a coy smile.
“Infants always like the one who feeds them,” she said, accepting the pottage and dutifully swallowing. But she didn’t intend to be distracted. “Nay, I fear the woman doesn’t know her place. She’s bold and abrasive. Far too free with her words. And there’s a conceit about her that…”
She glanced abruptly at Morgan. Was that a smile glimmering in his eyes? Her breath caught. By the devil, her suspicions were correct. “You,” she breathed, narrowing her eyes perceptively, “you like her.”
