“Well enough to lie,” Axia muttered.
“Looked good to me. She seemed right pleasant. They was stopped by the road for the night, and the man was waitin’ on her like she was the queen of England.”
“Now I am sure it is Frances,” Axia said.
Under the table, Jamie gave her a little kick to tell her to be quiet. “What was the man like? Other than big, what did he look like?”
The man shrugged. “Nothing remarkable. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Not much to look at, but not ugly either. I don’t think I’d remember him if I saw him again.”
Frustrated, Jamie slumped against the bench. He still didn’t know much more now than he had before.
“Except his ear,” said another man who’d just walked up.
“Oh yes,” the first man said, “he had half an ear. The top half was missing.”
For a moment, Jamie just sat there, then he grinned, then he put his head back and laughed. Laughed wildly while everyone in the inn stared at him.
When Jamie could at last control himself, he managed to say, “Henry Oliver,” as though that should mean something.
Jamie managed to collect himself long enough to thank the two men who had given him this very welcome information, then when they were gone, he turned back to his breakfast.
It took Axia a while to realize that he had no intention of explaining anything to her. “You are going to tell me nothing?” she gasped.
When he looked at her and smiled slowly, she knew he was well aware of her impatience.
“Tell me!” she hissed.
“Henry Oliver is harmless. Frances could not be in better hands. He will see that she is unhurt.”
“But he has kidnapped her. Surely there is some harm in that. He must want a ransom from the—” She looked about to make sure no one was listening. “From the Maidenhall heiress.”
“Henry cares nothing about money. He did this out of love.”
“He loves Frances?” Axia sounded as though this were the most unbelievable thing she’d ever heard in her life.
“No, he loves my sister Berengaria. Since we were all children, he has been trying to get permission to marry her.”
“But you would not allow them to marry?”
“Oliver is stupid.”
“Ah, well, then he should love Frances. Kindred souls.”
“No, no, you do not understand. Oliver is genuinely, truly stupid. He believes anything anyone tells him, such as that money is found in caves in Africa. When we were children and playing hide-and-seek, he would hide by closing his eyes. He believed that if he could see no one, no one could see him.”
Axia had had too much of being the object of speculation. “But surely he has grown out of that. Perhaps now that he is an adult …”
Jamie looked at her with one eyebrow raised. “Last year he had a stone grain crib with a big hole in a wall, and rats kept getting in and taking the grain. So Oliver tore down the crib and burned the grain to keep the rats from getting it.”
“But why didn’t he just patch the hole?” she asked, then paused. “Oh, I see.” Axia sipped her ale. “Would he like to buy some dragon cloth?”
Jamie laughed. “Oddly enough, he’s not a bad businessman. When he makes up his mind, nothing on earth can sway him. There’s no way a person can reason with him; there is no ‘appealing to his finer sensibilities,’ so to speak. He makes up his mind about what he wants and what he will pay, and nothing in the world makes him change.”
“And now he wants your sister.”
“Always has, and knowing Oliver, he’ll probably die wanting her.”
“But he’ll die without her, I guess.”
“As long as I live he’ll never have her,” Jamie said fiercely.
“And she is very beautiful, is she not? The maid said that Oliver said Frances was the second most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.”
“Yes, Berengaria is beautiful.” Jamie smiled. “Henry Oliver will take care of her and give Frances the best of everything. He hasn’t a mean bone in his body. My brother, Edward, used to play endless tricks on him, but Oliver never resented him or got angry. Oliver thought Edward liked him because he paid him so much attention.”
Axia grimaced. “I know too well that someone paying attention to you doesn’t mean that he likes you.” As she said this, she gave Jamie her best sigh, trying to make him tell her that he liked her very much.
But Jamie only winked at her.
Two hours later, after she had drawn pictures of every man in the inn, Jamie said, “We should go.”
“Go where?” she demanded, stowing away her pens, which he had indeed packed.
“Henry will have taken Frances to his home, which is very near my home, so I am going there to get Frances. But first I am going to take you to my aunt, and please, Axia, do not argue more with me. I have decided.”
“True, and I am sure there is no appealing to your finer sensibilities.”
“None at all.”
“But why cannot I go with you? Especially now that you know that it is only your Henry Oliver. You said there is no danger. Oh, please, Jamie, I will cause you no trouble at all.”
“You would cause me trouble even if you slept the whole trip. Axia, do not look at me like that. You must know that it is not seemly for us to travel together alone. Your guardian, Maidenhall, has given you to me in trust. How will it seem if we have been traveling all over England together, just the two of us? Last night was bad enough, both of us sharing the same room.”
“Maidenhall need not worry about you touching me,” she said in disgust. “You are only interested in Frances.”
At that Jamie took her hand and kissed the back of it. “There, my dear, you are mistaken,” he said softly. “If I were free and had no need of making an advantageous marriage, I would court you so hard you would think a mountain had fallen on you. Landlord! Our bill please.”
Axia was staring at Jamie with wide eyes. “Would you?” she whispered, but he was too busy handing out coins to the landlord to notice her. So Axia turned her mind to figuring out what to say to persuade him to take her with him.
“If I go with you, it will save you much time,” had no effect on him. Eyes full of tears and telling him that she did not want to stay with strangers did not move him. Telling him that she was afraid that Perkin Maidenhall would show up and take out his wrath on her didn’t make him so much as blink. Threatening to escape and return to the waiting arms of Lachlan Teversham only made him laugh. Telling him she’d tie the bedsheets together and escape out the window of his uncle’s house made him laugh harder.
It wasn’t until the horses were standing waiting and he was about to toss her into the hated saddle that she realized she was indeed going to be stuck with an old man and woman who she was sure would prove horribly boring. There was no adventure in spending her days behind a sewing frame.
Standing at the side of the horse, she gave a great sigh, the force of which almost turned her lungs inside out. “I guess there is no hope that this aunt of yours has children that I can play with.”
Jamie snorted. “All of them grown.”
“Grandchildren?”
He had his hands cupped to help her onto the waiting horse. “No,” he said impatiently. “Aunt Mary has six grown sons, none of them married.”
“Oh?” Axia said, and for the first time, she thought that perhaps visiting his aunt Mary might not be so boring after all. She put her foot into Jamie’s waiting hands, but he didn’t lift her onto the horse. When she looked at him to see why, he had the oddest expression on his face.
“Jamie?” she asked. “Are you all right?” When he didn’t answer, she said louder, “Jamie!?”
“You are going with me,” he said quickly, then tossed her into the saddle so fast and with so much force that she nearly went over the other side.
It didn’t take Axia half a second to add up the facts. “No,” she said with resolution, “I think you are right. I should go to
your aunt’s house.”
Jamie didn’t answer but grabbed the reins of her horse and led it out of the courtyard toward the road.
“But this is south,” Axia said at the crossroads. “Jamie, I think we should talk about this. You are always taking me away from marriageable men. First that dear Lachlan and lovely Rhys and now your very own relatives. I really think you should take me to your aunt’s house and leave me there in safety. It is not right that an unmarried couple such as you and me should travel alone. And, besides, to meet six fullgrown Montgomery young men would be a magnificent opportunity for me! You can go and save Frances, and maybe Maidenhall will be so grateful that he’ll reward you with her hand in marriage, and meanwhile, maybe I could find myself a handsome husband. And a Montgomery at that! Such a fine old name. And to think of it, Jamie, we will be relatives.”
Halting his horse, Jamie turned to look at her. “Axia, if you don’t close that pretty little mouth of yours, I am going to sell you to the gypsies. And I’ll sell you to whichever one offers me the lowest price.”
When he’d turned his back, Axia wiggled her shoulders and gave a silent laugh of triumph, then smiled at the sunshine.
Chapter 21
Four hours later, Axia was wishing that Jamie had kept to his original plan and left her somewhere soft and safe. As it was, it seemed that she’d never been off the horse, for her legs were stiff and sore. She very much wanted to beg Jamie to stop, but she knew she’d die before she did. With a crooked smile, she thought that Jamie really did have a soft heart. If she worked at it long enough, she was sure that she could talk him into anything.
She was riding beside Jamie, they were moving too fast to talk, and besides, it took all her concentration to stay on the horse. It was a beautiful day, and they were surrounded on either side by dense forest. Axia had asked if they could stop and eat the bread and cheese they had purchased in one of the villages, but Jamie had said they couldn’t. She’d argued with him about that, but he’d warned her there were bandits in the forest, and he didn’t want to encounter them.
Frowning, Axia had glanced into the dark forest, looming on both sides of them, wondering what was lurking inside there. From the way Jamie spoke he was very afraid of the bandits and didn’t want to risk an encounter. Since she’d known Jamie, for all that he’d had enormous difficulty with her and Frances, he had been the soul of sweetness. For all that he had turned her over his knee—and she’d never forgiven him for that—he seemed to be a nonviolent man. He seemed to fight with words rather than a weapon. She could imagine Rhys and Thomas fighting, but she couldn’t imagine Jamie in a fight.
This was one reason she was adamant about getting him away before he met her father. If a sweet man like Jamie met Perkin Maidenhall, Jamie would never live through it. Thinking of this, she smiled, because if she told Tode what she was thinking, he’d say she was a snob. He’d say that Axia believed that only people who were not born with money could actually do anything on the earth. The sons and daughters of earls would starve if their pretty clothes and houses were taken from them.
So now, glancing at the dark forest, she urged the horrible creature between her legs forward.
But only minutes later, she was startled by two men jumping out of hedges growing alongside the road, one of them grabbing the reins of her horse. “Your money or you won’t see the sunrise,” the man said, looking up at her with an ugly grin on his face.
Another man, a huge, bearded ruffian, his little eyes glittering, held the reins to Jamie’s horse. “Ain’t you a fine gentleman?” the man said, eyeing Jamie in his spotless black velvet doublet. “Get down.”
“Please don’t hurt us,” Jamie said softly. “We will give you what you want if you’ll just let us go free.”
Axia saw that the man holding the reins of her horse had a pistol. Feeling real fear for her life was not something Axia had bargained for when she said she wanted to experience the adventure of life. In fact, fear was not an emotion she was very familiar with, so now she couldn’t seem to move.
As Axia sat, staring, Jamie dismounted slowly and came to her, holding up his arms to her to help her down.
“I like this horse,” said a third man behind them, a man Axia had not known was there. “Think I’ll take it.”
“Say nothing,” Jamie whispered to her with warning in his eyes.
Axia did not have to be told that, for she was too afraid to say anything. What would she and Jamie do if the bandits took everything they had and left them alone on the road? Or what if they decided to kill her and Jamie? She had to think of something to do, some clever way to get them out of this mess.
“Over here,” said the man with the pistol, motioning toward the shadow of the trees. “Come over here, rich man, and empty out your pockets.”
“We have nothing,” Jamie said in a voice full of fear. “We are merely traveling from one place to another. Please do not hurt us.”
Axia, standing to one side, heard the fear in Jamie’s voice and was disgusted. Even if he was afraid of them, he should not show it. He should stand firm and show them who was in charge.
“How dare you assault us!” she said loudly, her shoulders back, her chin high. “We are on the business of the queen and if you touch us, you will be drawn and quartered.”
At that she had the satisfaction of seeing the three bandits and Jamie pause and stare at her. Now they will leave us, she thought in triumph.
But unfortunately, her words seemed to have the opposite effect. Whereas before they had paid no attention to her, now the biggest of them grabbed her from behind, one huge hairy arm about her waist, the other about her neck.
“On the queen’s business, are you? Then a ransom for you should be high,” said the man holding her.
Axia’s eyes were full of terror as she looked at Jamie, and for just an instant, she saw his anger at her disobedience.
“We don’t really know the queen,” she whispered, but no one listened to her.
“Empty your pockets,” the man with the pistol said, waving it at Jamie. “And do it quick before she dies.” Turning, he grinned at Axia. “I’ll make use of her before she goes, though.”
To her shame, Axia could feel her knees weakening. She’d always hoped that in a situation like this she would be brave, but these horrible men were so awful and so frightening. Were they going to kill her and Jamie?
“There’s nothing in my pockets,” Jamie said, and his voice was nearly trembling now. “Please do not hurt her. She is an innocent, and she has no value.”
“I’d say that parts of her have a great deal of value,” laughed the man holding Axia so very tightly. She could smell his foul breath, and to her horror, he began to move one hand upward toward her breast.
“My money’s in my boot,” Jamie said loudly. “I keep all our gold in my boot, and I will give you everything if you will but leave us with our lives.”
At that the man with the pistol laughed as he looked toward Axia. “I love these fancy gentlemen. Such fine clothes, such fat purses, and such weak stomachs.”
Axia could feel her heart sinking as she watched Jamie bend down toward his boot. He was right to give in to the men, of course, but part of her wished that he’d show a bit of spine.
Everything happened at once, and it happened so quickly that Axia almost saw nothing.
Jamie did not draw a purse from his boot, but a thin dagger that she had never seen before, and with a flip of his wrist, he threw it. At Axia! She saw it coming, but it was so unexpected and so fast that she had no time to get out of its way. But, thankfully, it missed her, sailing right past her head.
In the next second, Jamie whirled in a blur of moving arm and flashing steel. He always carried a long sword at his side, but all gentlemen did. It had never occurred to Axia that the sword was for anything but show. Now Jamie seemed to extract it from its sheath in one blinding, fluid motion, and in the same movement, he stuck it straight through the man holding the pistol.
With her eyes wide in disbelief, Axia saw the man look down at the sword, where it was up to its hilt in his belly. What he could not see and Axia could was the long pointed tip of the blade protruding from his back.
The third man, standing on the other side of Jamie, could also see the tip, and with a glance at Axia and the man holding her, he disappeared into the forest.
But Axia did not move, for the man who had grabbed her still held her as tightly as ever, both his arms clutching at her in a deathlike grip. Now that Jamie had killed his companion, what would this bandit do to her?
Axia was too scared to speak as she watched Jamie withdraw his sword from the dead man, then saw the man crumple to the ground. She still did not try to speak while she watched Jamie clean the blood off his sword and resheath it at his side.
Axia didn’t speak nor did the man holding her. Was he as afraid after what he’d just seen as Axia was?
When Jamie had his sword resheathed at his side, he walked toward her, unconcerned with the man holding her. To her disbelief, he put his hand on the man’s arm and pulled it from under Axia’s breast.
It was only then that Axia turned her head and saw the man, still in exactly the same position, but he had a knife sticking out of his throat. And he was very dead.
“Don’t faint on me now,” Jamie said as he pried the man’s other hand from around her waist. “I think we should get out of here in case these fellows have friends.”
Axia could only stare at Jamie.
He gave her a little smile as he pulled her away from the man, for her body was rigid with fear. “Do not look at me like that. There were only three of them.”
She did not know what to say. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined such action as Jamie’s. He was like a prince out of a fairy tale come to save her.
“Hold on to me,” he said, smiling in amusement at her expression. “I think your legs have gone again.” He was chuckling at the way she was staring at him.
As Jamie bent slightly, Axia slipped one arm around his neck, then the other, then on an impulse she could not control, she put her mouth on his and kissed him. She kissed him long and hard, kissed him to say thank you, and kissed him to let him know what she was feeling about him.
The Heiress Page 21
