She choked on her eggs.
He patted her back solicitously and handed her a cup of milk.
David was looking from Eachann to her with an odd expression.
“Cabot,” she said through gritted teeth. “His name is John Cabot.”
“That’s right. I keep forgetting the fellow’s name.”
“I’d like to forget yours.”
He saluted her with his fork.
David punched the dough a few more times, then covered it with a damp towel. He looked at her, then at Eachann, and shook his head a few times before he left the room through another door. She could hear his shoes clumping down some wooden stairs.
She ignored the MacOaf and looked out the window. The fog hugged the hillside. She wondered if the stuff would ever lift. It was like a curtain that closed them off from the world. Her world. The world she had to get back to.
“Worried you’re not going to get home, George?”
The man could read her mind.
“I’ll get home.”
He laughed. “That’s what I like about you. You’re more stubborn than I am.”
“Huh! A barn-soured mule isn’t as stubborn as you are. I can hardly believe you are real.”
“Come upstairs with me for about an hour and I’ll show you how real I am.”
“I really hate you.”
He laughed.
“I can’t believe you are a father.”
He stopped laughing.
“You go around ruining people’s lives. Why can’t you just raise your children and leave innocent people alone?”
He was angry now. She could see it and she was glad.
“I don’t know anything about children.” His tone was gruff.
“You don’t know or you don’t care to know?”
“I don’t have to know. That’s why I snatched you.”
Her fork froze in midair. “What did you just say?”
“I said that was why I snatched you. I needed someone to look after my children.”
“You kidnapped me towatchyour children?” she said, trying to absorb it. She recalled snatches of their conversation in her garden. His comments about handling children. He had been interviewing her for the job!
She stood very slowly and planted her hands on the table. “You ruined my life because you couldn’t just hire a nursemaid?”
He didn’t say a word.
“My God... You are an idiot. That is the most selfish, stupid, arrogant, and completely asinine thing I have ever heard!”
