The Devastation (Unexpected Circumstances #7)(22)

A moment later, I heard another, weaker cry.

“Lay her down,” Edith said quietly.

I complied immediately, laying Alexandra softly onto the straw of the cell floor. I felt as though I was being torn in two—trying to decide if I should check first on my wife or on my child. Kneeling on the straw, I could see Edith with the squirming thing in her arms, and it seemed to me like there was an awful lot of blood.

“Branford?” Alexandra croaked.

I dropped down next to her and held my wife close to me as I stared down at the child in Edith’s arms. As I took in the tiny form with my eyes, I felt my chest tighten and tears begin to well. For a moment I could not speak, but then my wife implored me for news of our child.

“You gave me a son, Alexandra,” I whispered against the side of her face, “a beautiful, strong son. Can you feel him?”

Edith rose up on her knees and held the baby out to me, already wrapped in my shirt. I took him in my arms, instantly frightened I would hold him too tightly or drop him but also unable to stop myself from holding him first to my chest and then to place him in Alexandra’s arms. My voice broke, and I looked into her eyes and saw that they were also shimmering with tears. Warm, wet skin touched my cheek as I held the baby to her.

“A boy?” she whispered, and her eyes opened to look into his face. Tears continued to pour from her eyes, but I was quite sure they were no longer from pain. I could finally breathe easily again as I watched my wife’s gaze take in our son.

My heir.

His tiny eyes screwed shut as he opened his mouth to cry out his protest of being removed from the warm, comfortable place he had spent the first part of his existence. Alexandra immediately brushed her fingertip over his cheek and told him not to worry—that his daddy had made it in time, and no one would take him away.

I closed my own eyes at her words, afraid to learn what had befallen her since she had been taken from me on the road. I knew at some point I would have to hear her story though I was not sure if I could listen without losing whatever was left of my sanity.

“They cannot hurt you, little one,” I said, speaking to both my son and my wife. “They are all gone now.”

“Gone?” Alexandra whispered.

“All of them,” I assured her.

“Whitney….she is…?”

“Dead,” I replied softly. I heard Alexandra sigh in relief, and I saw her grip tighten on our son.

“Little Branford,” she whispered, and I could not stop my smile.

“Little Branford, yes.”

Edith found Alexandra a clean dress and a fresh blanket for the tiny prince. She held our son while I helped Alexandra change into the new clothes. Once Edith let Greysen know it was now “safe” to return, Parnell and Rylan came back into the room along with him, and Alexandra looked up at him and smiled.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice nearly reverent.

Greysen bowed slightly, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I looked between them both and wondered just what had transpired in the dark cell at the bottom level of Sterling Castle.

Alexandra must have noticed my tension, for she moved slightly closer to me and placed her hand on my arm. I moved my gaze back to her and raised a brow, questioning.

“If it had not been for him…” Her voice trailed off, and I felt my body tense again as I imagined everything that could have happened to her.

“Did Remy touch you?” I asked. I did not want to know, but I needed to know.

“Remy?” Alexandra’s eyes tightened in confusion. “Sir Remy? I have not seen him. Why did you ask that of me?”

“Never mind,” I said as I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and brought her against my chest. “It does not matter now.”

She touched the side of my face.

“You are hurt.” She traced her fingers just outside the cut near my temple.

“I am fine,” I told her.

“Remy?” she asked again, and I wondered how she could be so intuitive.

I shrugged and glanced off to the side.

“He will not have the opportunity to say such things again,” I said simply. “I am only glad the words he spoke were false.”

Alexandra tilted her head up and looked to my side to where Greysen and Parnell stood near the door.

“If it were not for Greysen, I do not know what would have happened,” she said softly. I nodded, imagining in my mind how Mother’s cousin must have placed himself between my wife and danger.

Then Alexandra began to speak again.

“When he hit me…”

For a moment, my mind went blank with fury. I heard nothing else she said, for the vision that had been in my head had just changed drastically. I turned to Greysen, my eyes narrowed and deadly.

“You laid a hand on my wife?” I growled through clenched teeth. I gripped the hilt of my sword as I turned and started to step toward him.

Greysen lowered his head and began to speak quickly.

“I had to do something, sire. They would have harmed her, and I could not give away my position and keep her safe! I did not harm her, I swear.”

“Silence!” I yelled. “I asked you a simple question. Did you or did you not lay a hand on my wife?”

“Branford…” I felt Alexandra’s warm hand against my cheek and immediately felt myself soften to her. “He had to…to save me.”