Page 103 of The Sinner
The tension was so thick between her and Alex at the table that Glynis could not eat. It had been like this for a week now, and she was feeling the strain—as was the entire household. When she set down her eating knife, she felt Alex’s eyes on her and could not help giving him a sideways glance. There were lines around his eyes, and his expression was grim.
Smiles rarely graced his countenance these days—except when he was playing with Sorcha. Unlike most fathers of daughters, he paid close attention to her. He treated her as the special and unexpected gift that she was to him. If Glynis took her new babe away with her, she would be denying the child a wonderful father. But it was worse to separate a babe from its mother, was it not?
Nothing she did would be right.
Glynis got up from the table without eating a bite and left the hall. She was going down the steps of the keep when Alex caught her arm and spun her around.
“God damn it, Glynis, ye have to eat,” Alex said.
“Ye wouldn’t care if I starved to death, except for the child I carry.”
Alex took a step back, as if her words had dealt him a physical blow. “After all that was between us, how can ye say that to me?”
It was a harsh thing to say, and she would not have if she were not so tired. She found it hard to sleep in their bed alone.
“Ye win, Glynis.” Alex sank onto the steps and held his head in his hands. “I’ve tried to do what I thought was best, but nothing has turned out as I wanted it to.”
Win? She could not feel worse. Oh, God, she hated to see him like this.
“Are ye saying you’ll let me go?” she asked.
“Aye. And take Sorcha with ye,” he said, sounding as though the words were wrenched from him. “I can’t provide her with the family she needs.”
Glynis sat beside him on the step. “Nay, Alex. I cannot do that.”
“You’ve become a mother to her,” Alex said. “Sorcha needs ye more than she needs me.”
“Ye know I love her with all my heart, but I could never ask ye to give her up.”
He turned, and his gaze settled on her like a cold sea mist. “And yet, ye asked me to give up my other child with no hesitation.”
“I didn’t think—”
“Do ye believe I will care less for that child?” he demanded. “That the babe we made together would be any less precious to me than Sorcha?”
Glynis dropped her gaze to her lap and shook her head.
“If ye know that,” Alex said, “then how can ye believe I would risk everything that matters to me for a tumble with some lass I barely know?”
“Ye were never particular before,” Glynis said in a low voice.
“I had nothing to lose before.” Alex stood up. “Go when ye wish. I’ll not stop ye.”
* * *
Sorcha flicked her eyes from her father to her mother and back again. Their sadness weighed down on her chest. She squeezed what was left of her doll. Bessie tried to hide Marie, but Sorcha always found her again.
She knew her parents had been waiting for her to speak. Sometimes when she was alone she could make the words that were always in her head come out of her mouth. But that was before she learned her mother was leaving. She’d heard whispers about it all over the castle.
Sorcha wanted to tell her mother not to leave them. She wanted to ask if it was her fault that she was. But her chest grew tighter and tighter, trapping the words inside.
CHAPTER 47
Glynis was leaving tomorrow.
As Alex had always suspected, he was incapable of keeping a woman happy for long, incapable of being the good husband and father he wanted to be. Blood will out.
But he missed Glynis so much his heart ached with every step. He had tried shouting at her, reasoning with her, and threatening her, and he had come very close to begging her. Now he would make one last attempt.
