“I love you too,” Raven responded without hesitation. “But we can talk about that later. Can you tell us what happened here tonight?”
Eden looked puzzled, and when she saw her mother standing at the end of the bed with Cliff Endecott, she was all the more confused. “Mother? Is that really you?”
“Of course it is, sweetheart, but we have to know what’s happened here.”
Eden sighed softly, and frowned with concentration. “Yadira tried to kill me. She said she wanted to raise Alex’s baby.”
“Who is Alex?” Cliff asked.
“Later,” Raven ordered. “I should have sent Yadira away as you asked me to when we first got home. I’m sorry. This is all my fault, not yours. Julian must have told her the babe was Alex’s without realizing the consequences.
“Did you catch her?” Eden asked fretfully. “I’m afraid she’ll try to kill me again.”
“She’s dead, Eden. Don’t you know how it happened?” Raven prompted gently.
Eden remembered how she had seen Alex then, but surely Alex could not have killed her. “It must have been me. She was trying to smother me, but I got a hold of her knife just before I blacked out.”
Cliff Endecott did not need to take another look at Yadira’s body to know whoever had stabbed her had done so with brutal force. He doubted Eden would have had the strength to do it. Taking care not to step on the body, he walked around to the nightstand and picked up the cup of milk. A single taste assured him it contained a strong sleeping potion. There was also the unmistakable odor of chloroform in the room. No, a pregnant woman who had been given a drug to sleep, splashed with chloroform, and then smothered with a pillow could not possibly have stabbed Yadira.
“Your father’s been drugged, and so have the six other men I left here. Is there anyone else in the house?” Cliff asked.
“Rebecca’s room is across from my father’s,” Eden replied.
“I’ll go and check on her,” Cliff volunteered immediately, but he soon returned with the news she was also sleeping too soundly to wake. “Is there another room where you can take Eden? I’ll clean up in here.”
“I’ll take her next door.” Raven got up and walked around to the other side of the bed, but as he started to lift Eden, she cried out. “Are you hurt?”
Eden bit her lip as the pain of a contraction increased. “I think it’s the baby.”
“Then I am definitely taking you into my room,” Raven exclaimed. “You’ll be needed, Cliff, just leave Yadira. She’s not going anywhere.”
“I’ve never delivered a baby,” Cliff admitted with a helpless shrug.
“Then it’s time you learned how to go about it.” Sarah looped her arm through his and they followed Raven into his room. “After what my daughter has been through tonight, having a child should be easy.”
And with three such devoted attendants, it was.
Nathan slept until nearly noon, and when he awakened to find his wife sharing his bed, he reached out to touch her to make certain she was really there. She opened her eyes as his caress brushed her cheek, and gave him such a pretty smile he knew she had to be real.
“Hello, Grandpa,” she greeted him.
“Christ, Sarah, I’m not that old.”
“Oh yes you are. Eden had a baby girl at two this morning. I love our son-in-law already, don’t you?”
Nathan was silent a moment too long, then admitted grudgingly, “I think he’s too much like me.”
“Yes, he is. That’s why I find him so easy to love. Now don’t you think we ought to celebrate becoming grandparents?”
Nathan had had six weeks in which to recuperate, and while Julian still did not let him out of bed for more than a couple of hours at a time, he thought he would do all right as long as he stayed in it. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed you?”
“Yes, I certainly do.” Their loving exchange was muffled by kisses, and more than an hour went by before Nathan had the presence of mind to inquire how Sarah had come to be in his bed.
By the time Julian arrived that day, the Southern Knight had tied up at Raven’s dock. Rebecca was seated on the veranda with Cliff Endecott, and knowing all the wounded were now well enough to return to duty at least on a limited basis, Julian asked the Confederate officer what Captain Sinclair’s plans were.
“We’ll sail at dawn tomorrow. We all appreciate what you did for our men, and if you’ll give me your bill, I’ll pay it before we leave.”
“Thank you. I’ll make one out just as soon as I’ve seen how Lady Clairbourne is today.”