Devil and Honoria had already taken their leave; Richard stood beside Devil as he handed Honoria into their carriage, then, with a last word to Richard, and a last rakish smile and a wave to Catriona, Devil climbed up and Richard shut the door. He paused for a moment, watching Gabriel hand the twins into the Dowager’s carriage. His horse tied to the carriage’s back, Gabriel would travel with them to Somersham, then escort the twins back to London.
Vane and Patience were heading for London, too, but they would stop at Somersham first to allow Patience to rest before joining Vane’s family in the capital. Richard returned Patience’s wave as Vane handed her into the carriage; with a salute, Vane followed her in.
A groom shut the door—others scurried around checking straps and harness. Smiling, Richard strolled back to the front steps. He arrived to see Helena release Catriona from one of her extravagant embraces.
“You must promise me you will visit in summer.” Clinging to Catriona’s hands, Helena looked into her eyes. “The Season, I can understand, might be difficult and not to your liking, but in summer, you must come.” She shook Catriona’s hands. “You have not been part of a big family before—there is much you yet need to learn.”
Catriona saw the worry in Helena’s fine eyes; smiling serenely, she leaned forward and touched cheeks. “Of course, we’ll come. Exactly when”—she drew one hand free and gestured—“is in the lap of The Lady, but we will come, you may be sure.”
Helena searched her eyes briefly, then beamed. “Bon! It is good.” With that, she pressed Catriona’s hand and turned to her second son. “Come—you may lead me to my carriage.”
Surprised by his wife’s promise, Richard masked his concern and suavely offered his arm.
Helena took it; he led her down the steps and over the cobbles to where Gabriel and the twins were waiting. With a last hug, and a last cling, Helena let him go; accepting Gabriel’s hand, she climbed into the carriage. Gabriel followed and Richard shut the door. Helena leaned out of the window as Catriona, who had strolled in their wake, linked her arm with Richard’s.
“You will not forget!” Helena wagged a finger at Catriona.
Who laughed. “I won’t. June—July—who knows? But sometime in summer.”
“Good.” Helena beamed her brilliant smile and sat back. The coachman cracked his whip.
“Farewell!”
“Safe journey!”
The carriages rolled smoothly out, the ducal carriage in the lead, followed by the Dowager’s with Vane and Patience’s carriage bringing up the rear. The grooms and outriders rode alongside, all in the ducal livery. It was a scene from a pageant, a sight the vale had never seen before; the manor household lined the courtyard and the drive, waving their unexpected but very welcome visitors on their way.
Catriona watched them go, waving until the drive dipped and they were lost to view, conscious of a sadness of a type she’d never felt before. She didn’t try to push it from her—this was one of the things she needed to learn. Pensive, smiling rather mistily, she let Richard turn her; arm in arm, they strolled back to the house.
She felt his gaze on her face as they climbed the steps. At the top, he halted; looking up, she met his gaze and found it serious and concerned.
He hesitated, then asked: “Did you mean what you said about going to London?”
“Yes.” She smiled reassuringly. “I don’t intend to let Helena down.”
“But . . .” He frowned. “I thought you never left the vale—or at least, only under legal edict.”
“Ah, well.” Her smile deepening, she tried to find words in which to explain something he’d never stopped to think about, something he’d known all his life. Even more, to explain that through the evil of his poisoning, good had come—that having his family here had opened many doors into the future. Not just for the vale, but for the two of them, too. Instead, after searching his eyes, she smiled, deliberately enigmatic; raising a hand, she traced his cheek, then stretched on her toes to plant a kiss by the side of his mouth. “Times change.” Turning, she glanced toward the mouth of the vale, to where a collection of dark specks travelled down the road. And smiled. “It’s time for the lady of the vale to learn about the wider world.”
* * *
When the road curved, finally hiding the manor from view, Devil grinned and sat back. An instant later, he reached out an arm, drew his wife to him and kissed her soundly.
“What was that for?” Honoria asked, prepared to be suspicious. She didn’t think she’d yet forgiven him for his three-day disappearance, but she couldn’t entirely remember what she’d said the night before.
He grinned in unlikely innocence. “Just because.”
The carriage jolted; he glanced out of the window. “Well, that’s Scandal well settled.”
“Hmmm.” Honoria closed her eyes and settled against his shoulder. “She’s just what he needs.”
Devil gazed at the fields and woods beyond the window, then murmured: “This place is what he needs, too. She’s given him a home, in the right place, at the right time.”
A moment of silence ensued, then, in precisely the same tone, Honoria, her eyes still closed, murmured: “There are times when I could almost imagine you believed in fate.”
Devil shot her a sideways glance, one she didn’t see. Noting her closed eyes, he let his lips curve, then he looked out of the window—and let the question in her words pass unanswered.
Chapter 20
Together, Catriona and Richard reentered the front hall.
“Excuse me, sir.” Henderson came up. “Corby was wondering if he could have a word before he goes back to Lower Farm.”
“Of course.” Releasing Catriona, Richard beckoned to Corby, who’d hung back by the wall.
By Richard’s side, Catriona hesitated, then quietly glided away. Leaving Richard conferring about the orchard fence, she silently made her way upstairs.
She had unfinished buisness to attend to.
It had been easy to set aside the question of Richard’s poisoner while his family—their family—had been here. In truth, it would have been difficult to deal with the matter appropriately while they’d been about.
But they were gone now.
There wasn’t a single person in the vale who did not know who had poisoned Richard. But all her people would, with their usual unwavering confidence, leave the matter in her hands—to be settled as The Lady willed.
Which was as it should be, but she wasn’t looking forward to it—to what might have to be.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Catriona looked back, down into the hall to where Richard’s dark head was bent as he spoke to Corby. She looked for one long moment, then drew in a deep breath, straightened her spine, straightened her shoulders, and turning, headed for their chamber.
Richard knew the instant she left his side. From the corner of his eye, he saw her climb the stairs, her steps slow and measured, saw her reach the top, hesitate as she looked back at him, then quietly walk away.
The instant he finished with Corby, he followed her.
He opened the door to their room and immediately saw her, standing at the end of the bed, pushing a thick shawl into a saddle bag.
She looked up and saw him, then continued with her packing.
He shut the door and advanced on the bed, on her. “Where is she?”
Catriona looked up as he halted beside her; she met his gaze, then raised a questioning brow.
Richard’s lips thinned. “Algaria. It’s obvious it was she who poisoned me.”
Catriona hesitated, then grimaced. “We can’t say that for certain.”
“It hasn’t escaped my notice that, other than you, only she knows enough of those elixirs and potions you store in the stillroom to mix whatever it was in that coffee.”
“Wolfsbane. Plus a little henbane. But that doesn’t convict her.”
“No, but it makes her the obvious suspect.” He hesitated, then asked, rather more quietly, “Besides, if it wasn
’t she, where are you going?”
Her gaze on her saddle bag, Catriona grimaced again.
She heard Richard sigh, then felt him shift. He reached past her, bracing one arm on the bedpost; sliding the other around her, he turned her, trapped her—lifting her hands to his chest, she looked up.
He trapped her gaze. “Don’t you trust me yet?”
She looked into his eyes and saw nothing but devotion—selfless, committed, and unshakable; with a sigh, she closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on his chest. “You know I do.”
“Then I’ll come with you. No—” He held up a hand when she looked up, her mouth opened to argue. “Consider me your protector, your champion—your consort. I’ll hold myself at your command.” He studied her eyes. “In this matter, I won’t act without it.”
Determination and commitment were etched in his face, enshrined in his blue, blue eyes. Catriona studied them, then drew a deep breath and nodded. “We’ll be gone for two days.”
Mounted—she on her mare, he on Thunderer—they reached the mouth of the vale just after midday. Richard followed as Catriona turned the mare’s head north; he waited until they were trotting steadily before asking: “Where exactly are we going?”
“Algaria has a small cottage.” Catriona gestured with her chin. “It’s almost directly north. It’s not all that far as the crow flies, but the tracks are not easy.”
That was an understatement. They followed the road from the vale, a relatively well-surfaced lane, until it joined the road to Ayr. Crossing this, Catriona led the way up a narrow sheep track, the little mare picking her way daintily. Thunderer hurrumphed—and clomped in the mare’s wake.
From there on, it was nothing but sheep tracks, barely a trail worn into the rocky ground. Studying the poor land through which they passed, Richard noticed a field, some way away, planted with a low-lying crop. Crossing the field was a straggling line of gaunt cattle.
After considering the sight for a moment, he transferred his gaze to his witchy wife’s hips. “Aren’t these Sir Olwyn’s fields?”
“Yes.” She nodded without looking around. “Both to the north and south.”
Richard looked to the south, to where the cattle now stood morosely hanging their heads. “Looks like he’s just lost some more cabbages.”
Catriona looked around, then followed his gaze to the distant field. She studied the evidence, then humphed. “He never would listen when I tried to help him.”
Surveying the bleak scene about them, an amazing contrast to the vale, no more than a few miles behind them, Richard raised his brows. “I can see why he wanted to marry you.”
Catriona merely humphed again.
They plodded slowly on through the afternoon; Richard called a halt, an enforced rest, on the crest of a small hill. The track wound about the top then descended into shadow. Sitting in the sunshine, he looked across the rocky, largely barren landscape through which they’d travelled. In the distance, a purple haze hid the vale. Catriona came up, dusting her hands on her skirts after feeding dried apples to Thunderer and her mare. With a soft sigh, she slid down beside him, settling against him when he lifted an arm about her shoulders.
They looked out in silence. Eventually, he said: “It’s beautiful here. Not pretty, but majestic. It’s all so hard, harsh and rocky, it makes a place like the vale all the more wondrous, all the more precious.”
Catriona smiled and leaned more heavily against him. “Yes.”
They looked some more, then Richard asked: “Are we still on Sir Olwyn’s lands?”
“Theoretically yes, but he’s never farmed this area. Algaria’s cottage lies just inside his northern boundary.”
Resting his chin in her hair, Richard frowned. “So Sir Olwyn is Algaria’s landlord?”
Catriona looked up at him. “Well—yes, I suppose that’s true.” Turning back to the scenery, she clasped her hands over his at her waist. After a moment, she sighed. “If there’s one thing I know about Algaria, it’s that she must have had a very strong reason to poison you. She would not have done it lightly—not just because she didn’t like you—not even because she felt so strongly that you weren’t the right husband for me.”
“She never made any secret of that.”
“No—that’s not her way. She never hides what she thinks. But to act as she did, she must have had some compelling reason.”
Hearing the fervor in her voice, Richard hugged her tighter. “Why are you so sure?”
It was a simple question, accepting rather than dismissive.
“Because the only excuse for any disciple of The Lady to take a life is in the service of others. That is, she must be acting in defense, usually of others.”
“Others—such as you?”
Catriona nodded. “Me. Or the people of the vale.” After a moment, she sighed. “But that doesn’t make sense—because no matter what Algaria thought you might do, you haven’t done anything to harm me or the vale. Quite the opposite.”
Turning in his arms, she looked into Richard’s face, into his blue eyes. “Can you think of anything—any act at all—that you’ve committed since coming to the vale that she could misconstrue as a real threat?”
Richard saw the worry in her eyes and knew it wasn’t for him. He would have eased even that burden for her if he could. But . . . framing her face, he looked deep into her eyes. “Since the day we wed, I’ve only had one aim in life—your well-being—and that isn’t compatible with harming you or the vale.”
She sighed; turning her head, she pressed a kiss into his palm, then wriggled around and settled back into his arms. “I know. That’s what bothers me so.”
They pressed on as the afternoon slowly waned into evening; as the chill in the air deepened, Catriona turned into the mouth of a narrow cleft and pulled up before a rude hut. To Richard’s questioning glance, she replied: “We would have made it in a day if we’d started early enough, but we can’t go on in the dark.”
Richard didn’t argue—the track they were now following was little more than a ribbon worn into the rocky hillside, and aside from the cold, there were gullies and clefts aplenty, traps for the unwary. He dismounted, then lifted Catriona down. “What is this place?”
“It’s an old shepherd’s hut. I doubt it’s been used since last I was here.”
Unstrapping their bags, Richard glanced at her. “Since last . . . ? I thought you never left the vale.”
Taking the bags from him, Catriona pulled a face. “I don’t count my herb trips.”
“Herb trips?”
“At least once every spring and again in late summer, I travel to collect herbs and roots which don’t grow in the vale.”
Unsaddling Thunderer, Richard narrowed his eyes at her. “I foresee a developing interest in botany.”
Catriona grinned. Hefting the bags, she threw him a provocative glance. “There’s quite a lot I could teach you.”
Richard raised his brows. “Indeed?” Hauling the saddle from Thunderer’s back, he met her gaze squarely. “Why don’t you go and sweep the spiders out, then I’ll get a fire going—and you can teach me all you will.”
Catriona’s grin widened; her eyes danced as she turned away. “Why not?”
Richard watched her hips sway as she climbed to the cottage, then he grinned and turned back to the horses.
The first lessons his witchy wife taught him had nothing to do with botany. The first thing he learned was that despite her delicate appearance and her usually cossetted state, she ranked with the most experienced camp-follower in the not-at-all-easy task of making a rude shepherd’s hut seem comfortable and warm. In conjuring a warm and sustaining meal out of what they’d carried in their saddlebags and the roots and leaves she’d gathered before the light died.
In making him feel relaxed and rather cossetted himself.
It was a distinctly pleasant feeling.
Smiling serenely, Catriona watched the heavy muscles in his shoulders ease, watched the glow of comfor
t suffuse his expression. And inwardly smiled all the more.
She hadn’t been sure whether to bring him with her on this journey, not until he’d asked and sworn his allegiance. Then she’d known it was right—that he should be by her side when she faced Algaria at her cottage, and whatever truths awaited them there.
But she could do nothing about Algaria tonight, and, regardless of what transpired with Algaria, her own life would go on—and she had a goal, a personal aim, one vitally important to her.
She needed to show Richard she loved him. Needed to convince him of that fact—drum it through his Cynster skull so that, someday, he would be confident enough to openly show his love for her. She wasn’t holding her breath, of course—she knew it would take time. Men as reserved as he did not change their habits overnight. But she was prepared to be patient; she would persevere.
The first thing to do was to start.
And now was as good a time as any.
Sliding the wooden eating bowls back into her saddlebag, she set it aside, then approached Richard where he sat on a round stool before the fire, staring at the flames. Resting her hands lightly on his shoulders, she brushed her lips along his cheek. “Come to bed.”
The soft whisper had him standing immediately; he’d already banked the fire. Taking his hand, a soft smile playing on her lips, Catriona led him to the pallet lying on a crude frame in the corner. She’d had him fetch fresh spruce to slide into the dry straw, then she’d covered the whole with a blanket, keeping two others to wrap about them. The warmth in the cottage released a faint tang from the spruce; their warm bodies crushing it would release even more.
Stopping by the bed, he drew his fingers from hers and immediately reached for her laces. Laying aside the warm shawl she’d draped over her shoulders, she let him do what he did so well. He divested her of her gown and petticoats, then considered her fine lawn chemise.
“You might want to keep that on.”
Catriona considered her own plans for the night and shook her head. “Not tonight.” Quickly, fingers flying, she slid the tiny buttons undone, noting his blink, his sudden stiffening as she opened the bodice. Then she grasped the hem and whisked the chemise off over her head. She dropped it on a stool with the rest of her clothes, then grabbed one waiting blanket, shook it out, and slid onto the bed beneath it.