“Why dinna ye tell me then?” If she had, Jamie would have stayed with Hana.
“Hana knew you didn’t love her. And I sensed your restlessness. Just as with your cousin, Laird Alex, the desert wasn’t the right home for you. You both left pieces of your souls behind. Nothing can change the past, but the future…”
“Do ye have proof my cousin is his sire?” Alex asked.
“Alex.” Jamie raised his eyebrows. “Have ye not looked closely at the lad?”
“What if she dyed his hair?” Alex asked critically. “Such deceptions are possible.”
“To a flame-red?” Jamie straightened and walked slowly down the two steps of the dais, stopping feet away from his son. “What did Hana die from?”
“Fever. She didn’t suffer, though, simply faded in her sleep.”
“I am deeply sorry.”
“Life and death are one in the same to me,” Nudar said. “My concern is for Ramsey. What you will do with him.”
Jamie reached for the child’s head, wanting to touch his hair, wanting to confirm the child wasn’t a dream. But he lowered his hand, unsure what to do.
“Jamie.” Kuresh came forward. “This is a common trick to entrap men, to gain financial support for a family. Let me interrogate the old woman and her escorts.”
“I doona want the woman and child turned out or harmed.”
“There are ways to get answers without breaking bones,” Kuresh assured him. “I know this woman well. She visited my home on many occasions, a respected adviser to the women in my father’s harem.”
“You are the son of Emine Hatun bint Mehmed. A rare beauty and favored wife to your father.”
“That life is long over,” Kuresh told her bitterly. “Why are you here, woman? What is it you seek?”
“Prince Kuresh,” she said. “The reason for my long trip is in my arms. Look upon him, he is awake.” She freed his tiny body from the confines of his fur. “Seek the truth in your son’s eyes, Master Jamie.”
The child cried out, fisting his tiny hands, and opening his blue eyes. The final proof Jamie needed to acknowledge him as his son. “Give him to me.”
Nudar handed him over, and Jamie lifted the lad so he could see his face. Aye, the golden-colored skin of his mother, with his eyes and hair. “Ramsey,” he said. “If ye could speak, what would ye say, wee one?” He kissed his head.
“Jamie?”
Jamie cringed upon hearing Helen’s sweet voice. This wasna the right time for her to find out about his illegitimate child. He had hoped Miran and Petro would keep her busy for a while. But that hope faded when he met her curious gaze.
“What child do ye hold?” she asked.
“Is treun te an eolais,” Nudar whispered to him.The woman that knows is powerful.“And she is the one who rules your heart.”
“Take him,” Jamie growled at the old woman. “Say nothing.”
Kuresh escorted Nudar to the far side of the hall, giving Jamie a chance to explain everything to Helen.
“Sit with me,” Jamie said, leading Helen to one of the trestle tables. “I doona know how to tell ye this…”
“Who is that woman? And the wee one?”
“We’ve spoken before about my time in Constantinople. I kept amàthair. Hana.”
“Did ye love her?”
“Nay, but we understood each other, respected each other.”
“I dinna know ye then, Jamie. That time in yer life is over.” Though her voice was steady, her face betrayed a hint of hurt and sadness.
