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Page 381

| eyes and grabbed wildly for Sasha's hands. She held onto them desperately. "Please take him. You are so good. You would be a good mother!" |

| Sasha gave Ashton a frustrated look, seeing the compassion in his eyes as he held the child in his arms. Then she gazed down at Bianca again. "For now, please take your child and hold him," she urged. "He should be fed soon. Bianca, only you are capable of feeding him." |

| Bianca choked back a sob. She gazed a moment up into Sasha's eyes, then looked slowly toward Ashton. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she held her arms out to Ashton. "I will feed my son," she said. "Give him to me." |

| Ashton took the child to Bianca and gently placed him in her arms. |

| "His skin is white," Bianca murmured. "That is good. That will make it easier for you to raise him as your son than if he were dark-skinned like my people." |

| A knot formed in Sasha's throat when Bianca unbuttoned her dress and eased her son's lips to her breast. |

| "We must get her to Melbourne where she and the child can be looked after properly," Ashton said. "You stay with her, Sasha. I will search until I find enough wood to make a travois. Surely I can find enough limbs that didn't burn completely. That will be a hell of a way to travel to Melbourne, but since all of our wagons burned in the fire I see no other way to transport her there." |

| Sasha nodded. She sat down beside Bianca, feeling as though God had found a way to perform a |

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