Whence Came a Prince Read Online Free PDF Page B

noticed it before? The answer was simple: Aunt Meg did not have a looking glass. And without Jamie in her life, Leana had paid scant attention to her figure. Had her wise relative seen what she had missed?
    She studied her aunt’s pale features, the broad cheeks and full mouth so like her mother’s, so like her own. “Aunt Meg…,” she began, her voice fading along with her courage. Having a babe outside the bonds of wedlock was no small thing. The neighboring cottagers knew nothing of the scandal that had sent Leana running to Twyneholm. Woe to Margaret Halliday if folk learned the whole of it.
    “Auntie,” she began again, “you know that Jamie and I were … well, we
thought
we were rightfully wed for more than a year. Until the kirk session decreed otherwise, Jamie and I continued living as husband and wife by habit and repute according to Scottish law. And … we …”
    Meg arched her silvery eyebrows. “Aye?” was all she said, though her expression spoke a great deal more.
    Leana clutched the dress fabric beneath her hands as though her unborn babe might provide the strength she needed. “Aunt Meg, I believe I am with child.”
    The older woman’s features stilled for a moment, then softened. “I thought as much. Two women cannot share the same cottage and not mark the pull of the moon.” She reached out and grasped Leana’s hands. “What’s to be done, dear niece?”
    “What
can
I do but raise the child myself since Jamie is married to Rose?”
    “But he loves
you.
”
    The gentle reminder soothed Leana’s heart like a balm. Jamie’s last words, spoken in Auchengray’s garden, whispered to her afresh.
I will ne’er repent of loving you. Do you hear me, Leana? I will always love you.
But her own words written to him that next morning came to mind as well.
    Leana met her aunt’s troubled gaze. “You’ll recall I sent Willie home with a letter for Jamie.”
    Meg glanced at the finely polished writing desk, one of the few items brought from Auchengray. A gift from Jamie. “You ne’er told me what you wrote, lass.”
    “I wrote—” Leana’s voice caught on the words. “I wrote, ‘Love my sister. Seek your future together in Glentrool.’ ”
    Her brow wrinkled. “Has he done those things, do you suppose?”
    Have you, Jamie?
If only she could be certain. “He has ne’er written back to tell me. Nor should he,” Leana quickly added, masking the regret in her voice. “ ’Tis not proper for a married man to do so.”
    “Och!” Meg was on her feet, her arms folded across her bosom. “If your dotty session clerk had done what was proper, if he’d made the necessary entries in the session records, you’d still be married to Jamie.”
    Leana held up her hands, too exhausted to wrestle with the past. “What is done cannot be undone. With Jamie’s child growing inside me, ’tis even more urgent that I return home. For if I stay, I’ll put you in a dangerous way with the kirk and with your neighbors.”
    The woman jerked her chin, though Leana saw the slight tremor in it. “I can manage being snubbed at market in Kirkcudbright.”
    “ ’Twould be more serious than that, Auntie. An unmarried woman with an unborn babe? I’d be sentenced to the repentance stool for weeks and would drag you into the muck with me. For your sake, I cannot remain in Twyneholm.”
    “But …” Meg hesitated. “I hate to even mention it, but … what will your own parish say?”
    Leana’s stomach, already unsettled, drew into a knot. What
would
Reverend Gordon say when he learned the news? Since the kirk session had demanded she give up Ian, might they do the same when this child was born?
Please God, it cannot be!
The minister’s voice rang through herheart like a
deid
bell on a funeral morn.
It is our wish to see Ian McKie reared in a devout and pious home, free from improper influences.
    Nae!
Leana pressed her hand to her mouth. She would not allow it. Not again. Not if she had to live