Free Daughter of the Spellcaster by MAGGIE SHAYNE

She raised her hands to her head and made the universal gesture for crazy.
    “Nuts?” he asked.
    “Frenetic. And fake, too. A lot of those people are only here for their own ends. To see or be seen, or...I don’t know. Definitely not out of any love for Ernst, that’s for sure.”
    “They told you that?”
    She frowned, cocking her head and wiggling her fingers in a woo-woo gesture. “Of course not. Witch , remember?”
    He almost smiled, because he’d forgotten how expressive she was with her hands. And her face. She could never hide her feelings, and he didn’t think she saw much reason to try. “Right.”
    “I’ve got to get back home, Ryan. I don’t like it here anymore, and it’s upsetting the baby.”
    He nodded, stepped aside and took her arm, drawing her back into the den. Then he closed the door behind her. “We can slip out the back, and I’ll drive you to the hotel and your car.”
    “I took the bus.”
    “The bus? ”
    “Don’t act like I just said I rode a donkey. For crying out loud, Ryan, not everyone can afford a three-hundred-dollar flight for a day trip.”
    “No, not everyone. But you can. Now.”
    She met his eyes, and hers flashed with what looked like anger. “I will never touch a penny of that money. It’s all going to fold right back into itself for the baby. I don’t want it, didn’t ask for it and don’t need it.”
    “All right, all right, I wasn’t insulting you.” Damn, she was sensitive.
    She shrugged and turned away.
    “Listen, I want to talk to you.”
    “About what?”
    “Bahru. I don’t trust him, Lena.”
    “You never have. But I thought his insistence that he didn’t want any money from your father’s estate might have convinced you that he was sincere.”
    “His insistence wound up getting him an income for life and a free place to live. Not to mention a VIP pass into the life of my child, who, in case you forgot, just inherited a fortune.”
    “ Your child?”
    “ Our . I meant our .” He turned away, pushing one hand through his hair, knowing he was blowing this utterly.
    “You’re jealous, aren’t you?” she asked.
    He gave her a don’t-be-ridiculous look, but she went on anyway. “You’ve always been jealous of Bahru. And no wonder, Ryan. Your father abandoned you but took Bahru with him, and that was wrong of him. As much as I loved the man, I know that was wrong. But it wasn’t Bahru’s fault.”
    “I am not jealous.”
    “How could you not be? You were eleven. Your mother had just died, and your father left you behind and walked away with his guru. No one in their right mind could blame you for how you felt. And now it looks as if Bahru has once again usurped your place, this time in the life of our child. But you’re forgetting one very important element in all this, Ryan.”
    “What element is that?” he asked. He knew he sounded angry, sarcastic, and while he regretted it, he couldn’t seem to help himself.
    She walked up to him, slid a hand over his shoulder. “Me.”
    Frowning, he lifted his head and turned to face her even though there were hot tears burning in his eyes, tears he hadn’t thought he had in him—not for his father.
    “I am not a stupid woman. Nor am I a gullible one. I am, in fact, probably the most powerful woman you’ve ever met in your life—besides my mom, anyway—even though I’m powerful in ways you don’t respect or even understand. But you can trust me on this, Ryan. I would never keep you from being in our baby’s life.”
    “I don’t know if I believe that.” How could he believe it? he wondered. “I mean, look at you. You’ve been pregnant for how long? And you never said a word.”
    She sighed as if emptying her lungs to the bottom, nodding, not arguing. “I know it looks bad. But, Ryan, I truly had no intention of keeping this from you. I just kept putting it off, and the next thing I knew months had gone by. And the longer I waited, the harder it was. But I always meant to tell