"How could this have happened?!"

I look at him with disbelief. He paces, his head lowered and eyes attached to the ground, across his chamber floor. A flame of anger ignites within me. I tighten my grip around my arms and reply scornfully, "Oh, did the King think that he was high enough to escape sin's punishment?"

His footsteps halt and his face hardens like stone. His bright eyes that once looked over me with passionate desire now rake across my frame scrutinizingly. I fight back against the urge to take a step backward.

"Do not speak to me as if I am your equal! I am your King. Your very next breath depends on my will."

My fingers loosen around my arms and instinctively travel to my concealed stomach. I smooth over the silk fabrics draping down my legs. Knowing that there is a child nestled within me gives me the courage I need to raise my eyes upward. I catch him stealing a lingering glance at my stomach, but his eyes shift away.

"Then you would condemn your own child to suffer my fate as well?"

"And how do I know that this child is indeed my own," He spits his words like venom while his hand motions toward me impulsively.

I take a step forward my heart beat matching the pace of my feet.

"My husband has been away for months fighting in your name! It cannot be his child as we have not known each other since he departed. This child could not have come from any loins but your own."

An eerie silence settles between us. I watch as King David's clenched fists relax enough for his knuckles to regain color. His hands shake as he pushes them through his flaming red hair. Before he turns his back to me I catch a glimpse of his lip beginning to quiver.

"You have surely condemned me," I whisper.

I can only imagine the expression taking shape of his face as he looks through his open air window and into the light of the setting sun. The waning rays from the sun reflect off of his golden rings and bangles causing bursts of light to scatter onto the walls of the large room.

His silence only strengthens the fear within me. The muscle within my chest begins to pound relentlessly. I take another hesitant step forward.

"You must claim this child as yours... I will be stoned in the streets. If not for my sake then for the blood and flesh you share with the baby I carry in my womb."

A heated sigh is his immediate reply.

"That is the least of our worries, Bathsheba."

"Our?"

He faces me slowly then nods his head gently.

"I will get us out of this mess," He breathes, his eyes gleam genuinely, but my fears are not quieted.

"You are mine now. I always take care of what is mine. Please, go home and rest. Stay hidden inside. I will send word to you soon."

Within mere moments the doors to his chamber are opened and two guards glide across the floor towards me. As they escort me from the King's presence I scan his somber figure as it is transformed into a vibrantly red silhouette that blazes in contrast against the sunset.