Page 80 of The Devil of Clan Sinclair
“Are you stealing him?” Mary asked in a tiny voice.
“I’m a friend of the countess,” he said. “I’m taking him somewhere safe, where there’s no disease. If you want to come with me, tell me now.”
“Well,” the wet nurse said, “I’d be a fool to say no, wouldn’t I? What with the countess still sick.”
“Elliot will need us,” Mary said. “I’ll go as well. We’ll come back when everyone is healthy, won’t we?”
He smiled, willing to lie if necessary. Once they were in Scotland, he’d decide whether to send them back to England and hire his own staff or keep them on. For now, he needed them.
How could Virginia do such a thing? How could she hide their child from him?
Macrath looked down at his son and found another dimension, another part of him he’d never known existed. This is why his sisters wanted him to marry. Why they fussed at him to find someone to love. Not for the companionship. Not solely for the joy of being in love.
But for bringing a child into the world, for carrying on his lineage, for starting his clan.
He was no longer angry. Instead, wonder mushroomed inside him, burning away every other emotion.
He would protect this child with his life. He would do everything in his power to ensure his son was happy and the world bowed down before him.
Even if it meant taking him from his mother.
Was she crying in her dream?
Virginia raised her hand and touched her face. She wasn’t crying and she couldn’t remember the dream. If she wept, she didn’t know why.
A sound came from just beyond the bed. She wasn’t crying but someone else was.
Blinking her eyes open, she concentrated on the tester above her head, gradually focusing on the pattern embroidered there before looking around the room.
Hannah huddled in the chair beside her bed, her hands covering her face, her shoulders hunched. No doubt the girl was trying to weep soundlessly, but she was doing a poor job of it.
She stretched out a hand to her maid, patting her on the arm.
“Hannah?”
Was it Elliot? Please let him be all right. Please don’t let them have lost another member of the family. Please don’t let the doctor have given her bad news.
Would the epidemic never stop?
“Is it Elliot?” she asked. “Is he sick?”
Hannah dropped her hands, but rather than meeting Virginia’s eyes, she turned her head.
“Hannah,” she said again, using her elbows to raise herself on the bed. “Is he sick?”
“Oh, no, your ladyship. it’s so much worse than that.”
What could possibly be worse than smallpox?
Hannah’s mouth turned down, her face slack, her eyes dull and red-rimmed. Slowly, she shook her head from side to side.
Virginia’s heart thundered in desperation.
“He’s gone and it’s all my fault.”
She didn’t understand. All she could do was watch Hannah, who stared down at her clenched hands.
“Elliot’s gone?” The words didn’t even make sense. “Is he dead?”
