“Axia,” Jamie said patiently, “it is not good for the babe to be so fearful.”
With difficulty, she sat up. “If those letters can find us, he can.”
Jamie did not have to ask who “he” was, so he gave a great sigh as he sat on the bed. “These were sent to my uncle, and he has sent a lone messenger all the way here to give them to us.”
“He was sure to be followed.”
“Yes,” Jamie said sarcastically, “and no doubt I will be dead by nightfall. Do not look at me so, Axia! It was a jest.” After some minutes, he was able to loosen the strings that held the pouch shut, then turned it upside down onto the bed. Two letters fell out and with a gasp, Axia saw the familiar writing of her father.
“He has found us,” she gasped.
“No, his letter has been forwarded to us. Axia, do not hide under the covers, come and read what the man has to say.”
“He will threaten us with death. He will—”
“This is from Frances,” he said, holding up the second letter.
For a second, Axia was speechless. She had not heard a word about Frances or from her since her father had separated them after they’d ridden back to London. Many times she had asked, but no one had an answer for her.
“Which shall I read first?” Jamie asked, holding the two letters aloft.
“Frances,” Axia answered, wanting to postpone hearing her father’s threats as long as possible.
Smiling, Jamie opened Frances’s letter, but as he began to read silently, his face changed. “Hell and damnation,” he muttered, his eyes wide.
Axia snatched the letter from his grasp.
“My dearest cousin,” Axia read aloud, “I know that you always thought that I was helpless and stupid, but I want you to know that I learned some things from your clever ways. After Jamie took you away, your father came to tell me what had happened. Yes! that is true: he came to me in person to tell me. He did not seem angry, only very sad, and I was sure it was because he was going to have to go back on his bargain with Bolingbrooke. I know that it is said that no one can best him in a deal, but it is also said that once the bargain is made, Perkin Maidenhall honors his word.
“Oh, Axia, I do not know where I got the strength to do what I did, but I pretended I was you and afraid of nothing, so I made a bargain with your father. We agreed that since Bolingbrooke had never seen you, perhaps he would not be displeased when he saw me standing at the altar beside him.”
At that Axia looked up at Jamie, her eyes wide, and in the next second she began to read again.
“So I married Gregory Bolingbrooke, and now I am known as the Maidenhall heiress. I did not think you would mind because I know how much you hate the title. But as much as you hated it, Axia, it is as much as I love it. All the attention! I wear the most splendid clothes!
“But I am sure you are not interested in that. Your father has settled enough on me that I am rich beyond imagining, and if it is not all the money he has, no one but he knows that.
“Axia, I know you will think I am stupid, as you always have, but there is something I must tell you. I am entrusting this letter to Jamie’s relatives and no one else because you must burn it. If what I am about to tell you became general knowledge, it could ruin me.
“Axia, I am pregnant with Tode’s child.”
When she read that last sentence, Axia was so stunned, she dropped the letter, so Jamie picked it up and began to read.
“You must never tell Berengaria, who is Tode’s wife now, but only Jamie, for I think he will understand how it was in those days when Tode and I were held captive. He was so good to me, Axia, so very good.”
“I should say that he was,” Jamie said, making Axia snatch the letter from him and keep reading.
“Axia, do you not think it is ironic that Tode’s child is going to be the heir to the Maidenhall fortune? Unfortunately, it is an irony I can share with few people.
“I never thanked you for all that you did for me. And I’m not going to now. You and Jamie will have to come and stay with Gregory and me, and I will thank you then. By the way, I quite like my husband, and even though he never touches me, he is wildly happy about the baby, and he has never asked me a question about who the father is. Nor has his father.
“My love to Jamie and tell him I am so very happy that he didn’t marry me. Yours with love, Frances.”
When she’d finished reading, Axia fell back against the pillows. “I have never heard anything like that in my life. Tode! And Frances! And they were doing that while I was so worried about them when she was being held prisoner. They—”
“If you say another word, I will think you are jealous. Now, we shall read this,” he said, holding aloft her father’s letter.
“No,” Axia began, but Jamie paid no attention to her as he broke the seal and began to read.
To my dear daughter,
As you know, I am believed to know more about business than any other man in England. I know how to choose merchandise. I can tell good cloth from bad. I know how to tell quality in furs, in food, in land and ships.
And I know how to judge quality in men.
You think I did not love you because I never saw you. But you are the only thing I ever have loved. I locked you away to protect you, to keep you safe. Had you lived among men as my daughter your spirit would have been tainted, corrupted by the power of money. I gave you what you could not buy: freedom to be a person and not the bags of gold you so often think people see you as.
And yes, I chose a husband for you. As though I were choosing a stallion for the best mare in the world, I searched until I found James Montgomery. His record for honesty, courage, for his care and concern and love for people other than himself, could not be surpassed. No man, rich nor poor, could better him.
But, being a businessman, I did not rely on the judgment of others. I put him to the ultimate test: love versus money.
For all that you think I do not know you, for years I have been told of your escapades. My “spies” as you call them. Yes, I removed any man or woman who I thought was not worthy of you. When I saw someone getting too close to you for your money, I removed that person. Only Tode and Frances passed the test. Tode loved you, money or no, and even though she did not appear to be, Frances was dedicated to you, as I believe she has proven.
I gave you a good man, your young Jamie, then I did what I could to force him to prove himself to you, to me, and maybe even to himself. Had I proposed marriage between him and the Maidenhall heiress I am sure he would have taken it. Then you, my dear daughter, would have spent your life believing he did not love you. And nothing he could have done would ever have been able to prove to you that he did love you. But I knew that he would. How could he not? It seemed that every other young man who met you asked to marry you. You did not know that, did you? I told them all no. If they returned to me, I told them that if you married against my wishes, I’d disinherit you, and after that, not one of them ever returned.
But your Jamie did. He fought dragons for you. Risked everything, did he not?
And now you know he loves you. Not your wealth, but you.
You are not disinherited. It will all be yours, as I have pledged only a pittance to Frances. A great deal of the money is yours now. You may have as much as you want, as I find the enjoyment in earning, not in owning. I guess I am like my daughter in that way.
I wish you great happiness in your life, and you will have it, as I know you have a good man. As I said, I am an excellent judge of quality, both in men and in daughters.
You have all my love, my dear daughter. All my wealth, and all my love.
Your loving father,
Perkin Maidenhall
When Jamie looked up at Axia, there were tears running down her cheeks.
“I would think this would make you happy,” he said softly, not knowing how he felt about being part of a bargain made by Maidenhall. But then he pulled Axia toward him, felt her big, hard belly against his body, a
nd he didn’t care how he got her, all that mattered was that she was his and that they were free.
“I am the happiest person on earth,” she said as she sobbed into his shirt. “The very happiest.”
“Second only to me,” Jamie whispered as he kissed her hair. “Second only to me.”
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