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.
