"Give him to me!" John yelled, but Ian lifted Christian out of his reach, leaving the older man to claw the air wildly.
Appalled by the hatred that contorted his father-in-law's features, Ian turned to block him with his shoulder and laid the exhausted babe in Alanna's arms. "Here, you tend him. Come on, John, let's go into your study, where we won't have to listen to the noisy brat."
Ian grabbed his father-in-law's arm as he started down the hall. Wanting to make certain his father told the truth, Byron hurried to join them. Elliott dropped his arm around Alanna's shoulders and urged her to carry Christian into the parlor, but before she turned away, she sent Graham a glance which conveyed a lifetime of disappointment. Left in the hall with Rachel, who was now sobbing softly, Graham had no idea what to do. He knew he really ought to leave, but certain that the excitement had just begun, he helped Rachel into a chair in the dining room, sent a servant for tea, and prepared to remain for as long as it took to find out what had become of Ian's son.
Chapter 15
While casting many an anxious glance toward the doorway, Alanna patted Christian's back gently and sang to him softly, until, soothed by her familiar voice and touch, he at last grew calm and fell asleep. She and Elliott couldn't overhear the conversation taking place in the study, but praying it was going well, she laid the baby across her lap and combed his hair through her fingertips.
"How could Ian have treated him so roughly?" she asked in a hushed whisper.
Elliott moved his chair closer to his cousin's. "Do you think Christian is all right? Should we take him to Dr. Earle's?"
"He was wrapped in his blankets, so he doesn't seem chilled, and he's breathing easily. I don't think he's suffered any physical harm, but it couldn't have done him any good to be frightened so badly. Babies need comfort and love, not to be tossed about and dangled in the air, like a tasty morsel meant for the hounds."
Elliott reached out to pat the sleeping infant's bottom. "He's still so tiny."
"Yes, and he's unlikely to get any bigger if Ian gets hold of him again."
"Perhaps we should take him back to Mrs. Wade's. He'll be hungry when he wakes, won't he?"
"Poor baby, he'll probably sleep all afternoon."
"Just to be safe, I think we ought to leave as soon as I can have the horses harnessed to the carriage."
"What could Ian have said to Charity? What if she's too upset to accept Christian back into her home?"
"Then we'll find him another wet nurse, but there's no point in fretting over problems that might not exist. For the time being, all we need do is—"
Elliott fell silent as Ian began to yell so loudly that they could hear him clearly through the study door. He was shouting at Byron, calling him a liar. Fearing the babe might again be snatched up to become part of what was clearly a heated argument, Elliott rose and helped Alanna to her feet. "Come on, let's get out of here while we still can."
Unfortunately, Ian was far more swift, and come running into the parlor before they had reached the door. "I can stand it if my baby died, but Alanna, please, please, tell me that's not Melissa's child!"
Tears were streaming down Ian's cheeks, and Alanna wished with all her heart that she could ease his torment, but she couldn't do it with convenient lies. "Melissa loved you. I truly believe she thought you would accept her child and raise hi
m as your own."
Ian swayed slightly, and for a terrible instant, Alanna thought he might faint. Sharing her fear, Elliott rushed to his brother-in-law's side, but Ian shoved him away with a force that sent him reeling. "How can you speak of love after what that bitch did to me?" Ian asked. "Melissa was such a cunning liar, I never realized I didn't really have a wife. It's plain now it was all lies: the elopement, that night, our marriage. She made a mockery of our wedding vows, before they'd even been spoken."
"Oh Ian, you mustn't say such horrible things about Melissa," Alanna begged. "She loved you!"
Ian responded with a disgusted grimace. "I'm glad she's dead, or by God, I'd kill her for what she's done to me." He turned, and seeing Rachel and Graham standing in the hallway, he pointed at his mother-in-law. "Your daughter deserves to burn in hell forever," he shouted, "and you and everyone else in this house with her!"
Stunned by the sheer brutality of Ian's words, no one tried to stop him when he ran out the door. He leapt on his horse's back and rode away, leaving none of them untouched by his pain. John rushed to his wife's side and helped her to a chair in the parlor. Byron walked by Graham, and then gestured for him to follow.
"You've heard this much, you might as well hear the rest," he said.
John and Rachel suddenly appeared very old and frail. Alanna had always looked up to them, but now she saw them for the imperfect people they were. First they had lost their only daughter, and despite their best efforts to ignore the truth, it had caught up with them, irrevocably damaging the beauty of their memories. That they had been cursed by their son-in-law, as though they deserved his hatred, had crushed all that was left of their spirits. They sat together, shaken and hollow-eyed, waiting for someone else to speak.
Byron cleared his throat. "I'm afraid there simply is no considerate way to break a man's heart, but I would have given anything to spare Ian this new anguish. It's plain he'll not raise Christian. What are we going to do about the boy?"
"We'll raise him," Alanna proposed, "just as we would have any child of Melissa's."
Slowly emerging from his stupor, John heard Alanna's suggestion and reacted violently. "No! Make the Indian come for his son. All that has happened is his fault, and I'll not have his brat living with us as a daily reminder of it. Take the child back to the wet nurse, and leave him there until his father comes."
"But Uncle—"
"Don't you dare argue with me, Alanna. We'll tell everyone the babe is sickly and can have no visitors, then when his father takes him away, we'll say he died. Ian can't talk about the babe without making himself look a fool, so Melissa's secret will be safe as soon as the babe is gone."