“Me brother.”
She raised her hands in despair. “If I kent that, do ye think I would have snuck into yer castle?”
Connor did not move. The dungeons’ damp air felt colder against his neck. He had expected lies, perhaps a hired thief, perhaps some scheme from MacAdair’s side to worsen the insult and force Moore into weakness. He had expected a mother, if fate felt particularly cruel.
He had not expectedthat.
“I take it ye ken the child’s mother, if ye feel this strongly about him,” he concluded.
The woman swallowed. For the first time since he had entered, her gaze dropped to the floor, as if the name had weight and she had to lift it carefully.
“Jane. Her name was Jane.”
“Jane,” Connor echoed, feeling the word on his tongue.
That was the last name he had expected the mother of the babe to bear. Frankly, he didn’t know what name he had in mind, but it definitely wasn’tJane.
“Aye.” The woman nodded. “Jane Tolford.”
“English.”
“Aye.”
“Is she yer sister. Yer friend?”
“Was.”Her sharp tone told him that this was a serious issue. “She is dead now.”
“I see.”
Her face tightened. Defiance remained in the set of her chin, but something moved beneath it. Pain, held hard enough that it would not spill in front of him. Her eyes shone, and she blinked once, slow and furious, as if even tears were enemies to be beaten back.
“She was me dearest friend,” she said.
Connor’s questions suddenly fell quiet before he chose to make them so.
“She died after giving birth to him,” the woman added. “They told her the bairn was dead.”
“Yet ye came here.”
“Because Iheardhim cry and didnae believe them.”
Connor’s fingers tightened around the key.
“Jane heard him too,” she said. “She kent they lied.”
“Wholied?”
“Her family.”
“Why?”
“Does it matter?”
“It matters if they come for him.”
Her mouth tightened. “Then ye understand why I came first.”
Connor studied her. She had snuck into his castle without help that he knew of. She had followed the baby’s cries and had fought his guards to keep hold of a linen bundle. She had refused to say the dead woman’s name until she believed silence might cost the baby more.
