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Page 356

| "Child?" Ashton said, idly scratching his brow. "She's pregnant?" |

| "Yes," Sasha said, sighing. "She is with child." She gave Ashton a pensive stare, recalling Bianca begging her to take her child to raise as her own. That would now be an impossibilityand Sasha doubted if Bianca or the child would survive. Being at the mercy of Stanford Sidwell was surely a death sentence in itself. |

| Sitting just inside the cave where the sun couldn't reach with its pounding heat, Bianca dropped wild onions into a pot of stew slowly cooking over a fire. Stanford was keeping them well supplied with meat, since every hour it seemed that another hare would drop in its tracks because of the intense heat. Except for the smoke that filled the small spaces of the cave that snaked underground, Bianca felt blessed that she was being spared the ravages of the drought. The nights and days were pleasantly cool and Stanford had quit touching her since her stomach had grown so large and distasteful to his eyes. She was finding it not all that hard to wait out the weather and Stanford's decision on when he was going to move on. |

| Stanford came into the cave, sweat rolling down his face. He ran his hand over his brow and flicked the perspiration from his fingers. "It can't be much longer now," he said, settling down beside the fire opposite where Bianca was preparing their evening meal. He reached inside his shirt pocket and removed a half-smoked cheroot. "And I'd say it's about time. I'm almost out of cigars." |

| Bianca gazed at his arm and how easily he was |

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