Despair filled him at that revelation.
It was female… just like its mother…
"What sort of reckless father are you?!" the woman continued as she drew closer. Her eyes were sharp and terrifying as she faced him. "Abandoning your child like this and taking advantage of our good graces. We cannot be raising her for you. I found her in the meadows near the hiln flowers and under the pouring rain! She could have died!"
She shifted the child in her arms, and Herrin saw it clearly for the first time.
She was tiny. Her lips trembled with each shallow breath, and when she caught him staring, she quickly shifted, as if to hide from Herrin within the folds of the woman's dress.
But it was her eyes that stopped him cold.
They were fixed on his face with such fear that it nearly crippled him.
She was afraid of him.
That wasn't right. Why was she… why was it looking at him like that?
Watching his fear mirrored back at him left Herrin with such confusion that he didn't know what to do.
