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Page 244

| door of the cabin leering at them both. At this distance he would be able to hear anything that was said and because of this Sasha would have to guard her every word. Perhaps by coming today, she had already placed Bianca in jeopardy. Sasha felt utterly helpless. |

| "You shouldn't have come," Bianca whispered, her back to Stanford so that she had some semblance of freedom to speak. |

| "You haven't been at the river," Sasha said. "I was concerned." |

| "I have been too ill," Bianca said, her voice breaking. She placed a hand on her abdomen. "My baby. I feared for my baby after a fall from . . . from a horse." |

| Sasha paled. She wanted to reach out for Bianca to comfort her, yet again she refrained from doing so. Stanford staring at her was like having the eyes of the devil on her. "You fell from a horse?" she gasped. She searched Bianca's face and neck again, studying the contusions. Could that be how she had truly become bruised? |

| Sasha's jaw tightened. She very much doubted if Bianca was being truthful. Surely she had been coerced into lying. "I see," she murmured. "I am so sorry." She gazed down at Bianca's swollen abdomen. "Did the fall harm the child?" She wanted to ask if her beatings had harmed the child! |

| But she had to hope that she was coming to all the wrong conclusions and that Bianca had indeed fallen from a horse. It would be simpler. |

| But one usually fell from a horse only once. Beatings from a man could be repeated numerous times! |

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