Axia had hoped that perhaps he would have been sweet to her, his only child, but she could see that this man had never loved anyone in his life. Rarely had she seen eyes as hard and unfeeling as his.
Pulling herself up, she stood straighter. If she was to survive this, she must use everything that she had inherited from him. “I am married to him.”
Maidenhall gave a snort of laughter. “It was but a moment’s work to have that marriage voided. You did not have my permission; you misrepresented yourself when you married him.” His eyes glittered. “In truth I think you will find that the parish register recording your marriage has mysteriously disappeared and the clergyman has now moved to France. I think you would be hard-pressed to prove your marriage ever took place.”
It took Axia a moment to recover herself. In her daily life and since she had left the estate, she had been able to make any bargain she wanted. She had always found it easy to persuade people to her way of thinking. But now, looking into the heartless eyes of her father, she knew she had more than met her match.
She took a breath. “What will you do to him if I do not go with you?”
Maidenhall again gave his rusty little laugh. “Is it love, daughter? I would have thought I had taught you better than that. I took away everyone you could love except a deformed man and a girl who had a heart as dried up as her face was beautiful.”
Standing back, he looked Axia up and down. “I must say that I am disappointed in you. You believed yourself in love with the first beautiful man you saw. I wondered if you could resist a face such as his. He is—”
“Go on, say what you must but leave his character out of it. I do not want to hear what you have no right to speak of.”
Maidenhall smirked at her, letting her know what he thought of her weakness. “I will break him. He will find that he is hounded by burned barns and livestock that dies mysteriously. He and his worthless family think they are poor now, but when I get through with them, they will be fighting swine for food.”
Axia’s hands clenched at her side. “To do this will cost you much money. What will you do for him if I go with you?”
For the first time, Axia saw some human emotion in her father’s eyes. She was sure she was wrong, but he seemed to be pleased with her. “I will restore everything to him.”
“He is proud, and he will not take charity from you.”
“Then I will make it seem that he has incredible good luck in his life. Someone will die and bequeath Montgomery his land. When he takes his grain to be milled, he will find that he receives more than he delivered. His sheep will multiply at an enormous rate.”
“Yes, I see,” she said softly and looked across the shady woodland to where the others were watching them. Jamie’s blind sister. How could Berengaria marry without a dowry? Then there was his sister Joby, who seemed to regret that she had not been born a man. It would take a lot of money to pay a man to marry her. Then what of Tode and Frances? Tode was now talking to Jamie, who had his back to her, and Frances was standing alone, her face showing her terror, for what Axia decided to do would decide her own future.
Axia knew that she had no choice. If she went back to Jamie, her father would ruin him. “I will say goodbye,” she whispered.
“And tell him of your noble sacrifice?” Maidenhall smirked. “Will he then draw his sword in order to protect you and give my men the pleasure of running him through?”
“Ah yes,” she said, understanding that she could not tell Jamie the truth. Again she was going to have to lie to him. She looked at her father. “Did he know? Did he know that I was the heiress?”
“He found out at Lachlan Teversham’s house. Someone there worked at my estate when you were younger; you did not recognize him.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that not where Montgomery first started to court you?”
“You seem to know a lot,” she said, her mouth a tight line. She needed time to digest this information, that Jamie had discovered that she was the Maidenhall heiress and that was why he had started paying attention to her.
“I find that information helps to make money. Did you know that those two demons you call sisters-in-law planned all of this? They organized the villagers around here to contribute to a grand wardrobe for your lover, so he could return with the Maidenhall gold.”
When he saw that she knew of this, his eyes narrowed. “They are the ones who paid Oliver to kidnap you.”
“Me?” she asked, then smiled smugly. “It seems you have been misinformed. Oliver wanted the heiress.”
“No, he was to take you away from their brother and leave him alone with Frances. He had been writing letters home about you, and they were concerned that you were trying to entice him away from the heiress.”
When she still did not seem to believe him, he said, “Their welcome of you was not especially warm, was it?”
She did not answer him but stared at Jamie, his back to her, one foot on the ground, the other on a fallen log. She did not have to see his hands to know that he was toying with his little dagger as he always did when he was thinking. Even if he had tricked her and lied to her about knowing who she was, she did not blame him. He loved his family, and they needed him. So, dutifully, he had asked Frances to marry him, but when he had been told that Axia was the heiress …
Without bothering to say another word to her father, she straightened her shoulders and walked across the soft pine needles of the forest floor toward Jamie. She knew that all eyes were on her, but she was not about to say anything to them. Had his two sisters really hired Oliver to kidnap her? Were they so naive that they thought an abduction was an innocent prank? Frances could have been hurt, even killed. And Jamie’s back had been whipped raw.
All for money, she thought. And pride. This poor Montgomery family had relatives they could go to, but rather than lower their pride, they chose to endanger a woman’s life so they could get the Maidenhall gold.
And Jamie had agreed with them in all things.
She knew that he heard her approach, but he did not turn around, and when she was standing in front of him, he wouldn’t look at her.
“Did you have a good laugh at me?” he asked, looking off into the distance. “Poor naive Jamie. How you and Frances must have laughed! From that first day when I assumed she was the heiress and later when I said you could not go with us. Now I understand everything. Seize the day. Yes, you would need that when rich little you is going to marry your equally rich fiancé.”
When he turned to look at her, his eyes were colder than her father’s. “Tode says the man you are to marry is impotent. Did you do what you could to get the child that he could not give you?”
For all that his words hurt, for a moment, Axia wanted to go to him, throw her arms around his neck, and tell him that she loved him and that she understood what he had done and why. But what if he believed her, forgave her? The image of his drawing his sword and attacking all her father’s men came to her. Would Jamie, bleeding to death from a hundred wounds, smile up at her and say, “There were only three hundred of them.”
“Yes,” she said. “I did. I told you our marriage would not hold. My father has destroyed all evidence of it. I am going with him now.”
At that, for a fraction of a second, Jamie’s eyes looked as though he wanted to beg her to stay, but then they changed. “I hope you do not do this for any misplaced nobility.”
He did not say he would do so, but she knew that with one word from her, he’d fight for her. To the death.
With what she hoped was insouciance, she threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, Jamie, how droll you are. Did you really think I was going to give up the Maidenhall inheritance to marry an impoverished earl? Look at you! What do you have that I could want? Just taking care of your eccentric family would be a lifetime responsibility. A crazy mother, a blind sister, and another who cannot make up her mind if she is a boy or a girl. Why would any woman want that? All I wanted was something to pass the time until my father came to
get me.”
“Yes,” he said coldly, “I can see that now. You must have had a good laugh at all the things I said to you in private.”
“I shall dine out on them for years. Now, excuse me, I must go. My father awaits me.” With that she swept aside her skirt and walked past him. “Come, Tode,” she said as she passed him.
But Tode held Berengaria’s hand tightly and said, “I am not coming.”
Axia knew that if she thought about that statement, she would collapse. It seemed that today she was losing everything. Turning, she looked at Frances and raised her eyebrows in question.
Instantly, Frances held out her hand, and together, without one glance backward, the two women walked toward where Perkin Maidenhall waited with saddled horses.
Chapter 30
Tomorrow was Axia’s wedding day.
She made no pretense at being happy at the prospect of such a day, for she knew without a doubt that it would be the unhappiest day of her life. No, she corrected herself, that would be the day three months ago that she had last seen Jamie. Yes, that had to be the worst day of her life.
Since then she had many times wanted to write to him, explain what she had done and why, but her fear kept her from contacting him. What if he believed her? she kept asking herself. What if he knew that she loved him and believed that her prank of exchanging places with Frances had been innocent?
With one hand on her belly, she raced for the chamberpot to be sick again for what had to be the thousandth time that day. Maybe some small part of her had known that she was pregnant when she left Jamie. Maybe she had realized that she had to protect their child as well as her husband.
True to his word, her father had delayed her wedding to Gregory Bolingbrooke until he saw that his daughter was pregnant, and when she was, he upped the bride price. “Selling his own grandchild,” Axia had muttered, but nothing that had happened to her since she’d left Jamie seemed to matter to her.
She had been told by the women her father had hired to take care of her that she was going to live like a queen. No more would she “have” to scrimp and save; no more would she spend days in a shed trying to concoct a perfume. From now on she’d have servants who could anticipate her every thought. People would dress her, undress her, cut her food for her. “And shall they chew it?” she’d asked, but no one had understood. It seemed that the goal of all the people on the earth was to do absolutely nothing. It was inconceivable that a woman as rich as she would consider selling cloth from a peddler’s wagon as one of her favorite memories in life.
But Axia tried not to have memories, tried not to think or feel anything. She had already been told that her child would be taken from her at birth and given to others to raise. “London is so unhealthy for a child,” she was told.
“Then why do I have to live in London?” she’d muttered, but no one understood her sarcasm or her anger.
And anger was what grew inside her daily. Why hadn’t Jamie believed in her? Why had he thought only bad of her? And had he actually known who she was? Had he courted her for her money? Her father had said that Jamie did not want her if he could not have the Maidenhall gold with her.
“It is time for bed now,” a pretty woman whispered beside Axia. All the women her father had hired were pretty, not as beautiful as Frances, perhaps, but all lovelier than she, Axia, was.
With a sigh, Axia raised her arms and allowed the women to start unbuckling her from the heavy satin dress she wore, a dress that was so stiff it imprisoned her, hampering her movements. Hanging from a hook on the wall was her wedding dress, all of cloth of gold, so heavily encrusted with gold lace that she did not know if she would be able to walk with it on.
And tomorrow she would meet the man she was to marry. In these months neither he nor his father had shown the slightest interest in seeing Axia, for it was her father’s money they wanted, not her.
When at last Axia was down to her linen undergarment, the bedcover was pulled back, and she climbed the steps to get into bed. Only at night did she have any privacy, so only then did the tears come.
But tonight she did not cry. Tonight when she was alone in her room, the candles extinguished, her eyes were hot and dry, and the only word that was in her mind was Jamie. Jamie, where are you? Jamie, do you ever think of me? Do you miss me as I miss you? Jamie, did you ever love me?
It was very late before she fell asleep, and even then she was restless, tossing about in the bed, thinking she heard odd sounds, waking, then falling asleep again to dream that people were chasing her.
When she did awake, it was to fear, for someone had his hand over her mouth and a heavy body was on top of hers. Frightened, she could not seem to focus her eyes.
Then she realized it was Jamie on top of her. Immediately, she was afraid, afraid for his life. If her father found him here, he would have Jamie murdered.
“Do not speak,” he said softly, and she could see that there was blood on his face and his doublet was torn in several places. What had he been through to get to her?
“I have been to France and found the vicar who married us,” he whispered. “And I have found the witnesses, and the parish register has also been found. If it is your wish, I can prove that we are indeed married.” He hesitated. “But only if you wish it. If you want to marry Bolingbrooke—”
He was cut off when Axia had managed to get her arms from under the covers to put them around his neck and glue her mouth to his.
“We do not have time for this,” Jamie managed to whisper, making no attempt to pull away from her.
It was Axia who finally turned her face away. “I cannot go with you,” she whispered. “My father—”
“Hell and damnation to your father!” Jamie said fiercely as Axia put her hand over his mouth and looked anxiously toward the door.
But Jamie pulled it away and began kissing it.
“My father will disinherit me,” she said. “He will give me nothing, and he will do awful things to you. You do not know him.”
“I know that he is merely rich; he is not a king with power of life and death. Axia, I want you, not your money.”
Axia blinked at him for a moment. “But what of your family’s needs?”
“We have moved in with my Montgomery cousins.”
“Oh, Jamie, you did not want to do that. You will not like living on someone else’s charity.”
He kissed her softly. “I will do whatever I have to to be with you. I love you more than I love my pride.”
It took Axia a moment to comprehend what he was saying, and she knew how very romantic this was but also how very impractical. “Your sisters hate me. They—”
Jamie kissed her to silence. “If they are angry at anyone, it is at me. Everyone misses you very much.”
At this Axia looked skeptical since she remembered that Berengaria and Joby had arranged her kidnapping.
When Jamie saw the look on her face, he smiled. “Much has happened in these months that you have been gone from me. Tode and Berengaria are in love and want to marry. You were right, Berengaria says he is the most beautiful man she has ever seen, and she’s been trying to mix perfume, but she says she needs you.”
Watching her, Jamie knew he was making some headway when he saw the spark in her eyes at the word need.
“Joby does not want me,” Axia said.
“Joby feels worse than anyone, except me, of course. She says that you loved me so much that you were willing to give up the Maidenhall fortune for me. She says she could never love a man that much. Do you? Do you love me that much?”
Axia took a deep breath. “More than that much. I love you—” Shaking her head, she started to push him off of her. “No, no, it will not work. My father will ruin you. He will—”
“Yes, I know, but not even your father is more powerful than all the Montgomery clan. If we must, we will go live in Scotland. My family owns places in Scotland that not even God can find. But it is all your wish, Axia, my love. If you will but follow m
e.”
Looking up at him, she caressed his cheek. “I would follow you to the ends of the earth.”
“Even if I have no gold?” he asked softly.
“You have given me all the gold I want,” she answered, meaning the child she now carried, but she would not tell him of that now. That would come later.
After a moment she pulled away from kissing him and said, “How do we get out of here? My father’s guards—”
“Come,” he said, pulling her out of bed, then when she stumbled, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the window. Four stories below, the rising sun behind them, were what could only be described as an army: thousands of men on horseback.
“Who?” was all she could manage to whisper.
“Montgomerys from England, Scotland, Ireland, and France. I would have brought more, but the ones in America did not arrive in time.”
“Jamie,” she whispered. “You did this for me?”
“That and more. I love you, Axia. With all my heart and soul. I love you more than gold, more than myself.” Pausing, he kissed her lightly. Will you come with me now … wife?”
“Yes,” she said. “I will follow you, my husband, anywhere.”
Epilogue
What is it?” Axia asked sleepily. Now, in the last month of her pregnancy, all she seemed to want to do was sleep. After much discussion between her and Jamie, she had insisted that the two of them live in the deep, remote mountains of Scotland, away from anyone who could find them. Jamie had protested virulently, but after he’d found out that Axia was pregnant, he’d given into anything that made her feel safe. And safety from her father was what she now needed most. Nothing Jamie could say could alleviate her terror of him. She seemed to think that he was all powerful and all evil and that no one on earth could fight him.
“It is letters,” Jamie said, holding up the leather pouch that showed the effects of its journey across sea and over mountains. Since their voluntary exile, they had heard little of the outside world, and Axia liked it that way. She feared hearing that her father was turning the world upside down to find her, then hearing Jamie swearing to kill her father’s men upon sight. Or worse, maybe her father was offering great rewards for Jamie’s head.