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" 'Do you knohere the child is?' I asked 'Mona, I'll go get the child! I'll bring it back ¡¯

" 'Quinn, you're so strong, so confident,' she said 'It's really totallywith you But no, I don't knohere the child is I think the child is in England But I don't know And ere in Europe I was sort of looking for it There's no word from the man that took it ¡¯

" 'Mona, this is ghastly ¡¯

" 'No,' she said, shaking her head, the teardrops hanging in her lashes, 'it's not the way it sounds Theman, and the child -- the child was exceptional ' Her voice broke 'I didn't want to give it up, but I had to It had to go with this loving entle man that could care for it ¡¯

"I was too perplexed to ask a sensible question

" 'If you have an inkling where this o to him ¡¯

"She shook her head 'We used to kno to reach him Rowan and Michael -- those are my cousins and foster parents now, they knew the man very well But noe don't ¡¯

" 'Mona, let o after the baby ¡¯

" 'Quinn, my family has tried to do it They've used the resources of the Mayfair Legacy to try to find both the child and the man and they can't do it I don't need your vow that you'll try I don't want you even to think about trying I only need you to listen to me I only need your vow that you won't ever tell another hu what I told you ¡¯

"I kissed her

" 'I understand,' I said 'We'll have other children, you and I ¡¯

" 'Oh, that would be so lovely,' she said 'So very lovely ¡¯

"We snuggled down into the covers, taking off each other's clothes, button by button and zipper by zipper, and then ere naked where I had always slept so chaste with Little Ida or Big Ra properly christened, and I was happy

"Then I slept

"Inon the door It was as if I ake, but I knew that I wasn't And in the dreao away I told her I had done all that I could do for her We fought, she and I We fought at the head of the staircase She ild againsther she had to leave Blackwood Manor, that she was dead and gone and that she had to accept it