“Is this true? Am I in danger?”
“Only from your own imagination,” Axia snapped. “Yes, you will be kidnapped, in secret, of course, and Jamie will go after you.”
“And you?” Frances asked archly. “While I am being bruised in a wagon, what will you be doing? Sitting in hot baths? Eating stuffed peacock?”
“What does it matter to you if you are alone with your beloved James? I will …” She couldn’t think what she would do, for surely the letter identifying Frances as the heiress would make her father send someone who could identify Axia as his daughter. Or would he send Jamie a written description? “My daughter is the ugly one,” her father would write. “How could you have confused Frances with my plain, insignificant daughter?”
Now, Axia looked at Frances, and the early morning sunlight creeping in between the shutters in the room touched Frances’s perfect cheek so it looked as though her skin were made from peaches. Her dress was bright blue satin trimmed in black, and Axia knew to the farthing how much it had cost. For herself, she never wore such gorgeous clothes, as it seemed that to adorn herself so was to put diamonds on a donkey. No matter how you dressed it up, it was still just a plain little donkey.
“I hate it when you look at me like that,” Frances said. “You aren’t planning something horrible for me, are you? You and that dreadful Tode?”
“Frances,” she said patiently, “you got us into this. I had nothing to do with it, but as always, I will be the one who has to repair the damage.” And bear the consequences, she thought, but she wasn’t going to let Frances see her growing misery. “I will get Tode to take you away, then Jamie will follow you. He will tell everyone here that you were called away to home, but he will know the truth, and he will go flying out of here, his men behind him in pursuit of you. Therefore, when my father’s men come they will—”
Frances looked at her cousin. “They will take you,” she said softly.
Axia turned away so that Frances could not see her face. “It does not matter. It was only a few weeks of freedom that I was to have. And I have seen much and eaten much and met people who were not paid by my father. It is enough. It is more than I had expected.” She would not allow herself to think about what was happening. “Here,” she said as she fished inside a leather case and withdrew a little bag from inside the lining. “This is gold. Take it and go ready yourself. You must put what clothes you have back into the wagon, the unpainted one. Make some excuse, then stay in sight so Tode can find you.”
“Will he be wearing that awful hood again? I hate it when he wears that.”
“You hate his face; you hate his face to be covered. Whatever Tode does you hate. But yes, he will be in disguise, his face hidden. Go to him, and he will have arranged everything. It will be soon. Do you understand me, Frances, soon?
“Axia, why do you always have to be so bad tempered?”
What had Axia expected? Gratitude? From Frances? Suddenly, she couldn’t bear the sight of her cousin. “Go!” she said, and when Frances did not move, she nearly yelled, “Go!”
With that, Frances scurried from the room, closing the door loudly behind her.
Axia started to get up, as she had much to do. But then it all hit her. Her tiny bit of freedom was over. Why had she not thought of what would happen if her father found out about the charade?
But she knew why. Freedom had gone to her head and forced out all rational thought. And then, too, there had been Jamie. Her fights with him, the—Oh, heavens, but her lovemaking with him.
Flopping back on the bed, she closed her eyes for a moment and remembered. That lovely night when she’d been in his arms. She’d told him she loved him, and he’d kissed her and held her. Had made love to her.
But now that was all over. When he heard that his precious Maidenhall heiress was missing, he’d be out of here in seconds, and he’d never look back at Axia. After all, he thought that Axia had no money, and money was what he most wanted in the world.
Axia wanted to cry, to indulge in feeling sorry for herself. But she had no time, as she needed to get up and tell Tode what must be done. But first she needed to see if his legs had recovered. She knew that he’d never stay in bed for more than one day, no matter how bad the pain. And the driver, she thought, she’d have to hire a driver. She’d have to do everything for her cousin because Frances was so dumb she’d wait inside the wagon until doomsday for someone to come fetch her.
I must get up, was her last thought before she fell asleep.
Chapter 15
What have you done with Frances?”
Axia was so hard asleep she couldn’t at first understand what was being said or who was saying it. She was draped across the bed sideways, her feet hanging over the edge. When she opened her eyes in the dark room, she smiled. “Mmmm, Jamie,” she murmured and closed her eyes again.
At a groan from him, she opened her eyes again. He was lying on the bed beside her, not touching her, his eyes closed and an arm thrown across his face.
“What is wrong?” she murmured and felt a surge of—of … Oh, dear, maybe it was just memory of that night they had been together. She so much wanted to kiss the skin of his neck, just above the soft velvet of his doublet.
“Why are you trying to kill me?” he asked, his voice deep within his throat, his eyes still hidden, not looking at her.
There had never been any sex play in Axia’s short life, but she knew when a man was angry with her and when he wasn’t. And right now Jamie Montgomery was not angry at her.
Smiling, she rolled toward him and slipped the little dagger from its sheath at his side, then playfully held it to his throat. “Shall I do the job now? Take your life from you?”
Slowly, he moved his arm from across his eyes and looked at her with such a hot stare that her breath caught in her throat. “You do not know what you play at.”
“I think I know more than you believe I do,” she whispered, and for a moment she thought he was going to kiss her.
Abruptly, he sat up and glared at her. “I am not one of your pastries!”
“My what?” she said, smiling, leaning a bit toward him.
“Axia, I warn you, stop that. You do not know what you do. You may think you want to taste everything, see everything, that you want to touch all that is in the world, but you cannot—” He broke off and looked at her, covered only by her undergarment, the long linen shift that went next to her skin. He knew that she had on nothing beneath that thin piece of linen. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
“Axia,” he said, and his voice was a moan.
“Yes, Jamie,” she whispered, leaning toward him. One minute he was sitting away from her, his mind firmly made up in resolve that he was not going to touch her, then the next second he had her on her back on the bed, his mouth on hers.
Even as he touched her, he wondered at the ferocity of his desire for her. This was Axia, the girl-woman who’d made his life hell ever since he’d first seen her, yet he’d never felt such desire in his life.
His body was half on hers, his thigh pushing hers apart as his mouth devoured hers. Perhaps he could have controlled himself if she had offered even the least resistance, but she opened to him like a flower to a bee. Her mouth opened under his, her legs opened, her arms clasped him to her.
His mouth, hot and searching, was on her neck, her cheeks, his hands clutched her breast, his thumb on her nipple, then his mouth descended lower, seeking her breast.
“Axia?” came a whisper from the doorway. “Axia, are you in here?”
“Just—” her voice broke as she tried to clear her brain and throat. “Just a minute.” Looking up at Jamie hovering above her, he looked as dazed as she felt.
But only for a second. With a soldier’s sense of urgency, Jamie sprang off the bed, threw back the covers, tossed Axia under them, then he slipped behind the screen that was in one corner of the room.
“Axia?” Tode said, silently stealing into the room, making sure no one in the brightly
lit hall saw him. His face and body were covered by a coarse robe, the hood of it cleverly made deeper on one side so it covered the mutilated half of his face.
“Mmmm?” she said, trying to pretend that she had been asleep.
“I apologize for waking you.” His remorse for disturbing her sleep was in his voice, because he knew that she had been awake all night tending to him. “I think something is amiss. Your father—”
Axia started coughing so violently that his words were cut off. Whatever happened, she could not let Jamie, hiding behind the screen, hear the secrets that she and Tode shared. Nor could she give Tode a hint that there was someone else in her bedroom.
“Axia, are you all right?”
She flung back the covers. “I think we should discuss this privately.”
“And where is more private than your bedchamber?” he asked archly. “Axia, what are you up to?”
“Nothing. Really nothing. Leave me that I may dress, and I’ll come to you later.”
Tode stood still and looked at her. “Something is wrong. You are upset about something.”
“No, no, of course not.” Nervously, she glanced at the screen to see if any of Jamie’s long form could be seen.
Following her eyes, Tode walked toward the screen, but Axia leaped from the bed and ran behind it. “Let me dress, then we shall …” Now that she was behind the screen, she looked at Jamie sitting calmly on a little stool and grinning at her. His long legs were stretched from one side of the screen to the other, and the only place to stand was between them.
“All right, dress then,” Tode said with annoyance in his voice, unable to figure out what was wrong with her. It wasn’t as though he’d never seen her in her nightclothes before.
Jamie was looking at Axia as though to say, Yes, do. Please get dressed.
Reaching out, Axia put her hand over Jamie’s eyes to let him know he was to close them, but he just pulled her hand away, kissed the palm of it, and grinned.
Narrowing her eyes, pursing her mouth, she gave him a look that would have been translated into a vulgar expletive—if she knew any. Then, with a nasty little grin on her face, she reached across Jamie and up to the corset that was hanging on the wall above his head. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on the viewer, her breasts were momentarily pressed firmly and fully into his face.
When she had the corset in her hand, the smug expression was gone from his face. Now he looked like a man in pain.
“Where is Frances?” Tode asked from the other side of the screen, having no idea what was happening behind it.
“How in the world should I know where Frances is? Did you look inside the largest cluster of men you could find?”
Axia slipped the corset about her middle, then turned and motioned to Jamie that he was to fasten it for her. To her great delight, his hands were shaking.
“Axia,” Tode said, “do not toy with me. What have you done with her?”
“Me? Why do you suspect me?”
“I heard what happened this morning. What made you agree to marry that man? Do you know that he is telling everyone that you are to be married?”
“Ow!” Axia yelped as Jamie pinched the back of her with a corset latch. “No, I did not know that, but I rather like it,” she said over her shoulder to Jamie. Turning, she started to reach for her dress, a long, seamless gown, perfectly fitted to her body, a dark gold color, trimmed in narrow black velvet ribbon. There was nearly a yard of lacing down the back to secure the dress.
But this time Jamie didn’t allow her to press herself against him as she reached for the dress. Instead, he lifted it from the hook himself and sat with his arms folded across his chest as she struggled to get it on over her head.
“Axia, you are telling too many lies,” Tode said.
Quickly, Axia glanced at Jamie to see if he’d heard this, and of course, he had. He lifted one eyebrow at her in question.
“I think we should talk of this later,” Axia said loudly. “I will explain everything to you when we are in private.”
“And we are not now private?” Tode asked quietly. “Axia, what is wrong with you? You have done something with Frances, have you not?”
“No, of course not,” she said honestly, her head buried inside the dress. Usually, she didn’t have trouble dressing herself, but then she didn’t usually perform for some man, so now her arms and fingers seemed to catch in every seam and fold.
Then, as her head poked through the dress, she suddenly remembered everything she and Frances had talked about before she went to sleep. With the way Jamie had wakened her, no wonder she had forgotten the stupid thing Frances had done. She had told Frances to wait for her in the unpainted wagon and she would arrange for Tode to meet her there. But there had been no time to arrange anything. And from the look of the sun peeping down low in the shutters, she must have slept for hours.
In spite of everything, Axia smiled. “I know where Frances is,” she said and almost laughed. For all Frances’s insolence, she could be quite obedient. Once when they were children, Axia had told Frances to hide, saying she’d search for her. Something had happened on the estate that made Axia forget all about games, and so it was many hours before Tode noticed that Frances was gone. One of the gardeners had found her asleep inside a shed at the bottom of the garden.
So now Axia knew that Frances was waiting for her inside the wagon in the stables, waiting for Axia to tell Tode and for Tode to take her away—and get her out of the mess she was now in. Thinking of Frances waiting for hours inside a hot wagon, nervous and not knowing what was going on, made a little giggle escape Axia.
“Axia! What have you done?” Tode demanded.
Axia had to think quickly. She couldn’t tell Tode the truth, not with Jamie listening to every word. What would he do if she told him that she feared that her father was going to send an army of men after them?
Instantly, Axia’s mood went from laughter to fear. How many hours had she slept? “Did you look inside the wagons?” she asked as innocently as her nervousness would allow.
“Of course I did. The painted wagon is gone, and she’s not in the other one. Did Montgomery take the wagon?”
After a glance at Jamie to see him shake his head, she said, “No. I mean, I doubt that he did. Maybe it needed repair. Maybe someone liked my painting.” What in the world had Frances done now? Fallen asleep in a wagon that was to be taken to the blacksmith’s?
Turning her back on Jamie, Axia stood still while he drew the laces together and fastened her dress. She could tell that he was extremely interested in what was being said.
The second the laces were tied at the bottom, she fairly leaped around the screen to see Tode standing by the window, his hood pushed back, and when he saw her, he opened the shutters, filling the room with the dying light of the day.
“I have slept most of the day,” she gasped, and a faint feeling of alarm crept into her body.
“Axia,” Tode said softly. “I think Frances has been abducted.”
“No, of course she hasn’t. How could she have been? I have not told you—” With a glance at the screen she stopped.
“Not told me what?”
“No one here knows that she is the Maidenhall heiress,” Axia said loudly. “So why would she be taken? I am sure she is around somewhere. Did you look in both wagons?”
Tode narrowed his eyes at her. He was not going to answer the same questions twice, and he was growing more suspicious by the minute of Axia’s behavior. “Why would Frances want to be in the wagons when there is a house? You know she hates the wagons.”
“Frances hates so many things I cannot keep up with them. Let us go outside and—and look for her. Yes, I will help you search.” Axia’s mind was racing. Frances couldn’t have arranged her own abduction, could she? She did not like Tode, so maybe she had decided to get away without him. But the idea was to make Jamie leave as soon as possible in pursuit of her so he would not be here when Axia’s father sent an an
gry army. So a silent departure was defeating the purpose. Even Frances would understand that, wouldn’t she?
Axia was saved from answering by a loud, urgent knock on her bedchamber door. When the door was flung open, she saw Thomas standing there, his face showing that something was wrong.
“Is he here?” Thomas asked.
Axia did not like the assumption that she would know who “he” was. “To whom do you refer?”
Thomas didn’t waste time telling her. “The Maidenhall wagons have come, and they bring with them the body of Rhys.”
Jamie did not waste time as he knocked the screen to the floor and strode across it. Without one look at Axia or Tode, he followed his man from the room.
Axia started to run after them, but Tode caught her arm. “What is going on?” he demanded. “And I want no lies from you.”
Axia took a breath. She didn’t know why, but she was beginning to be sure that everything had gone wrong. “Jamie sent a letter to my father asking for permission to marry his daughter. Frances.”
It took Tode a moment to comprehend what this meant. They had never before been so stupid as to incur the displeasure of Perkin Maidenhall, but they had heard of it. If Maidenhall knew of the switch, what would he do to Frances and Tode? Would he lock Axia away for the rest of her life?
Axia clasped Tode’s arm with both her hands. “I was going to get you to fake a kidnapping and take Frances away. Jamie would follow you and so none of you would be here when my father and his—Oh, heavens, but I do not know what he will do to us when he finds out.”
Tode pulled himself up to his full height. Had his legs not been as they were, he would have been a tall man. “This is all my fault. I take full responsibility. I should never have allowed you to do this, but—”
“But you loved me,” she said with resignation. “That is the problem. You wanted me to have some happiness, some freedom for however long I could.” Her head came up. “Rhys! I must go to him. Oh, Tode, what have we done?”
Chapter 16
All right,” Jamie said as he glared down at Tode and Axia, “I want to know what is going on.”