He looks to the lounge door then cups a palm under my elbow, steering me away from the lounge door. Then, dropping his voice even further. “She’s going to be fine, but she was in the most appalling condition by the time we reached her.” His face tightens. “Even before she was abducted, Charlotte was worrying about the birth. She was very nervous about what was coming. But then, when they took her… The conditions they were keeping her in…” His voice cracks and he presses fingers to his forehead…
“James?”
The distress in him is palpable. He draws a breath. “They’d chained her to a wall, left her lying on concrete. She was in labour, in the cold and the damp, quite alone.”
His throat ripples. “Charlotte hasn’t had an easy life. She knows what it is to suffer. But it’s hard to imagine anyth
