Protecting His Mistress - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,84

whispered brokenly. “How could you lie to me like that? How could you put me in this awful position?”

She turned her head away from his pillow, to get away from his scent, but everywhere in her room she seemed to see him. Sitting or laying on the bed beside her, laughing his deep, rumbling laugh when they joked around, having an indoor picnic, just the two of them, on the carpet, talking long into the night…

“I still love him,” Lilli whispered to herself despairingly. “I can’t help it. Even after he deceived me, I still love him. And now he’s gone to the mines. He…he’s going to…to die.”

The words came out in a choked sob and she pressed her face to the pillow once more and breathed in his scent. This was all she had left of the big Kindred, and soon it would fade too…

Just as the thought came to her, she felt a strange sensation in her lower belly. It was so odd and unexpected that Lilli stopped crying and rolled onto her back. There…there it was again! A fluttering in her lower belly—almost like a flutterbye was waving its wings inside her.

Lilli pulled down her skirt and put one trembling hand to her belly. She felt the fluttering again and something moved under her fingers. It was a motion so slight she wouldn’t have felt it if she hadn’t been so attuned to it. But it was most definitely there.

Suddenly, she realized what it was.

“His baby,” she whispered, a feeling of wonder filling her. “It’s Karn’s baby—his son—and it’s alive inside me!”

It won’t be for long, whispered a nasty little voice in her head. Not if Mother has her way. You’ll be losing it tomorrow, Lilli, so don’t get too attached.

A wave of fierce love and protectiveness swept over her and Lilli put both hands to her belly, cradling the tiny life there.

“No!” she whispered, stroking the barely-there bump. “No, I won’t let her kill you! I’ll protect you—I swear I will!”

But how?

Lilli had to face the facts—she was stuck in her mother’s house with no way to leave. She had a bit of money in her account, but what could she do with it? If only she knew how to fly a ship she might be able to get away, but that wasn’t a skill they taught at the convent where she’d been raised. Also, where would she go, even if she did get away?

“To the mines,” Lilli whispered to herself. “I’d go to the mines and save Karn, if I could.”

But again, it was impossible. Though the Diluthian mines weren’t that far away—they were just located on one of Yonnie’s Six’s moons—they might as well have been on the other side of the universe.

“Because I can’t fly,” Lilli whispered to herself. “And I have no one to fly me. Oh Karn, if only I could get to you! I’d forgive you for what you did and we could fly away together and make a life for ourselves and our son…”

It was a beautiful dream but that was all it was—just a dream. She had no way to get to him—she was a prisoner in her own home. Her mother would make her get rid of Karn’s baby so she could be impregnated with a daughter—an heir who would take Lilli’s place.

But I don’t want a daughter—I want a son—Karn’s son! The one growing inside me now, Lilli thought desperately.

“I don’t want to lose him,” she said aloud. Curling on her side, she cupped her barely swelling belly with both hands. “Oh please, can’t anyone help me?”

“I will help you, daughter.”

The warm, powerful, feminine voice which filled her room surprised Lilli so much she almost fell off the bed.

“H-hello?” she stuttered, looking all around. “Who…who is that?”

“I am the Goddess the Kindred worship—the Mother of All Life—including the tiny life now growing within you,” the voice told her. “And I say to you now, my daughter, that you shall not lose your baby.”

“But how?” Lilli asked, her voice trembling. Karn had spoken to her of the Kindred Goddess, the female deity his people worshiped, and it had been clear that he really believed in her. But Lilli had never expected to actually speak with her!

“Do not worry about how—only be on the lookout and help will come to you,” the Goddess told her. “Seize the opportunity when you see it, for it will only be offered once.”

“All right,” Lilli said, nodding her head to the unseen