“And I am his uncle.”
“Then act like one and stop frightening him.”
His lips thinned. “He is Jane’s child. You know very well how this works.”
“Aye,” Violet said. “And he is mine now.”
At once, Henry’s expression lost its careful grief, and something hard moved beneath it. He stepped forward, and Violet felt her heart drop.
Without a second thought, she turned to shield the baby and tried to retreat, but Henry caught the blanket before she could twist away.
“Give him back,” she snapped.
“You forget your place,” Henry said, his voice low.
“Me place is wherever he is.”
She grabbed his sleeve with one hand and held the baby with the other, but Henry was stronger and ready. He tore the child from her arms with a sharp pull. The baby cried, the sound high and terrified.
Violet lunged for him, but Henry shoved her hard. Her back struck the rough stone edge beside the path, pain splintering across her shoulder. She pushed off it at once, refusing to give up.
“Give him to me.”
Henry held the crying baby against his chest with an awkward, possessive grip. “You have done enough. What is your deal with the child anyway?”
Violet seized his cane and yanked. “He is frightened.”
“Oh, trust me, he will live.”
That did it.
She clawed at his sleeve again, reaching for the baby’s blanket. Henry twisted out of her grasp, and the baby wailed harder.
Then a voice cut through the grounds.
“Take yer hands off him.”
Henry froze, and Violet felt the blood in her veins thicken. She didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.
Connor crossed the open space with Alex close behind him, sword already drawn. His gaze moved first to the baby, then to Violet’s shoulder where she had hit the stone, then to Henry’s hand gripping the baby too tightly. The anger on his face did not burn. It wentcold.
“Stay back,” Henry said quickly. He shifted the baby higher, placing the child between himself and Connor’s blade. “You would not risk him now, would you?”
Connor stopped several paces away, and Alex halted at an angle to his left.
“Hand the bairn back to Violet,” Connor bit out.
“Why? So she can keep playing mother?”
“Now.”
Henry laughed, but the sound was strained at the edges. “What are you going to do? Kill me while I’m holding a baby?”
Connor lifted his sword and extended it so it pointed at Henry. “Exactly that.”
Violet’s breath caught. Henry believed him. She could see it in the flicker in his eyes, in the way his mouth tightened, in the way his grip shifted around the baby.
“Alex,” Connor said.
