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"Don't," she pleaded, "please don't Have mercy on me, Christopher I did the best I could under the circumstances I swear I did my best!"

"Your best?" He laughed and sounded like Moer half brother walked into Foxworth Hall at age seventeen, did you immediately seize hold on an inspiration?--the supre you dislike yourself? Did you set out to make our father fall in love with you? Did you? Did you hate him in a way too, because he looked like Malcolm? I think you did I think you schemed and plotted to wound your father in the one way that would shatter his ego ht never recover And I think you succeeded! You eloped and ht you'd won in tays You had stung hiain his treh our father!--but it didn't work, did it? I haven't forgotten those days e lived in Gladstone, when I overheard you pleading with htfully his But our father refused to cooperate He loved you and ht you were, and not for theabout"

Stunned again, I stared at ; even her rocking chair see too-- inside

"You're wrong, so wrong, Christopher!" she sobbed, her chest heaving "I loved your father! You know I loved hiave him four children and the best years of ive to anyone"

"Your best is so poor, Mrs Winslow, so very, very poor"

"Christopher!" she cried out, getting to her feet painfully She spread her hands in a helpless way, stepping closer to look up into his face The black shroud she wore fluttered as she shook She threw a fearful glance around the roo me to shrink smaller into the dim shadowy corner Her voice lowered

"All right, we've said enough about the past Live with Cathy, but accept me into your lives Let irl you adopted Let o away, so far away you'll never see or hear froain I swear I'll never let anyone know about you and Cathy I'll do what I can to protect your secret--but let me have Bart for my own, please, please!"

She fell to her knees and clutched at his hands, and when he quickly moved them out of reach, she pulled on his jacket

"Don't embarrass me further, Mother," he said uneasily, but I could tell he was touched "Cathy and I don't give away our children He is not our pride and joy at this moment, but we love him, we need him, and ill do what is necessary to see that he is ain"

"Tellher cheeks as at last she caught hold of his evasive hands and she crushed the but leave I need to see hiifted" She began to kiss his hands as he tried to pull them away, but he must not have tried too hard, for she was able to retain theth

"Mother, please" he begged, looking away before he sat down and hid his face

"He needs me, Chr

istopher, more than any of my own children have ever needed me He loves me tooI know he does He sits on my lap and I rock hi, so vulnerable, so bewildered by things he can't understand And I can help I know I can help him

"So inside of me says I won't be here too

er," she whispered, and I had to strain my ears to hear "Let ift to the mother you used to love very muchthe mother of your youth, Christopherthe mother who cared for you when you had theoutside in the snow too long Reood tih the bad"