Lavender Lies (Historical Romance)

by Constance O'Banyon

"You got just what you asked for, Julian. Did you think you could deny her the right to see her baby, accuse her of killing your brother, and use your highhanded methods with her, and not expect her to retaliate? For someone who appears to know all about women, you did not know your own wife. Along with your son, Lavender was the best thing that ever happened to you."

  He seemed to slump down on the bed. His hands balled into fists. "I never thought she would leave."

  "What did you think she would do? Live in torment for the rest of her life?"

  There was confusion in his dark eyes. "1 don't know, but I sure as hell am going to get her back."

  "Not if you use that attitude, Julian. A woman likes to be wooed and told that she is loved. You can demand loyalty of your servants; you must earn loyalty from your wife. 1 would say Lavender reacted exactly the way I would have in a like circumstance."

  Julian stared at his grandmother. "I have lost her, Grandmama. She must hate me a great deal if she could not even wait to tell me she was leaving."

  "Why are you still here? Why aren't you out scouring the countryside looking for Lavender? Go find her and bring her back. Tell her that you love her and want her to stay with you. My God, Julian, I have never known you to let anyone or anything keep you from what you wanted."

  Julian's dark eyes flashed with a determined light and he rushed from the room, calling for Hendrick. The dowager smiled to herself. Perhaps love would win out after all, but Julian would not have an easy time of it. She almost felt pity for what he would have to go through to get Lavender back—almost, but not quite.

  Julian entered the nursery and nodded for the nanny to leave the room. When he was alone, he lifted the child in his arms and held him tightly against him. This child was a part of Lavender. Perhaps the only part of her that he could ever hold on to. Closing his eyes, he rested his cheek against the baby's soft head, realizing what a fool he had been. He had driven away the only woman he had ever loved. Lavender had been so desperate to escape from him, she had been willing to risk her health.

  Love for his wife and love for his son washed through him With breathtaking intensity. He had to find Lavender and bring her back. At last he had admitted to himself that he needed her or his life would be pointless!

  The hue and cry went out all over England, and word spread that a reward was offered to anyone who had word of the whereabouts of the Duchess of Manning-ton, but no one came forward to collect, because no one suspected that the slender boy who went up the gangplank to board the merchantman, Sea Princess, was in fact the Duchess of Mannington.

  Julian rode to London himself, but he could find no trace of Lavender or Nicodemus. He became quieter and more brooding with each passing day. Those who knew him realized he was frantic to find his wife. Days passed into weeks, and still there was no word of Lavender. At last, after he had explored every possible route she could have taken to London, and finding no one had seen her, Julian had to admit defeat. He had to face the fact that Lavender had slipped past him and was most probably on her way to America.

  Lavender lay in the cramped cabin, wishing she were dead. She felt as if she were drifting like a cork bobbing on a stormy ocean. With tear-bright eyes, she huddled beneath the shabby covers, feeling as if her heart would break. Her teeth chattered from a chill. She realized she was ill with the influenza. Weakness had drained her strength, and the fever that raged through her body made her delirious at times.

  If she had ever held out any hope that she and Julian would be able to live as man and wife, those delusions had died a slow death when Julian had taken the baby away from her. He had been so cold and unfeeling, and she had realized that he would always think she was guilty of his brother's death. It was best that she had stolen away without telling him; otherwise, she might not have had the courage to leave at all.

  Nicodemus entered the small cramped cabin, and with a worried frown on his face, he dropped down on a stool beside Lavender. "I am going to talk to the ship's doctor, Lavender. I don't like the way you look. Of course, since everybody on board the ship thinks you are my young brother, I would have to tell the doctor the truth, and that could prove dangerous."

  Her eyes were fever-bright. "No, I do not want to see the doctor, and, besides, it is best if the crew of this ship go on thinking I am a boy. I will be all right, Nicodemus—truly I will." Her eyes, which were too heavy to keep open, drifted shut. "I just need time to rest."

  Nicodemus stood up, wondering if Lavender was more sick in spirit than in body. She never smiled anymore, and several times when he had paused outside her cabin, he had heard her crying. He cursed the day Julian Westfield had come into her life, bringing his arrogance and unbending ways to bear upon Lavender. Nicodemus wondered if Lavender would ever get over having to give her own baby up.

  Nicodemus silently left the cabin, knowing he must play his part as a loyal Tory while aboard the Sea Princess. He must not let his guard down for a moment lest he be clapped in irons. The ship's ultimate destination was Charleston, but Nicodemus knew it would be a long voyage since they would first be putting into Trinidad. Even when they reached Charleston, he would have to hire a fishing boat to take him and Lavender on to Norfolk. He drew in a deep breath of salt air, thinking how good it would be to breathe in the fresh air of Virginia once more.

  With his eyes on the North Star, he hoped the stiff breeze that had aided their progress for the last week would continue. If it did, they would be home within a month. From the beginning, Lavender and Nicodemus had both agreed that it would be better if she continued to pose as a boy. Since Lavender was so ill, they did not associate with the other passengers, so it was easy to keep up the pretext.

  It was a rough voyage from England to Trinidad, and Lavender's illness seemed to intensify. By the time they reached the island, the sea calmed and a warm sun greeted them, but Lavender's fever still raged.

  When the Sea Princess had taken on food and fresh water, she continued her voyage to America, but without Lavender and Nicodemus. Lavender was still too ill to make the voyage, so Nicodemus insisted that they wait for another ship and give her time to recover. For almost two months, Lavender walked on the stretches of sandy beach, while the warmth of the sun helped heal her body, if not her spirit.

  Finally, one morning in August, they boarded a British frigate called the Green Dragon. When the ship spread her sails and caught the morning tide, Lavender turned her eyes toward America. She felt no joy in her heart at the thought of returning home. She was too heartsick to feel anything but sadness and a deep emptiness.

  Williamsburg, Virginia

  Julian rapped on Amelia Daymond's door and waited for an answer. When he was shown to the parlor by Phoebe, he found Lavender's aunt watching him suspiciously.

  "I cannot imagine what you are doing here, Mr. West, or Duke, or whatever you call yourself."

  "May I sit down? I have something important to discuss with you."

  "The only thing we have to discuss is my niece. Where is she?"

  Julian's shoulders seemed to slump, and his dark eyes were filled with unbelievable pain. "She is not here?"

  Amelia looked at him like he had lost his mind. "You know she is not. You are the one who spirited her away to England, with no thought of how her brother and I would worry."

  "I..." He seemed to have difficulty in speaking. "I learned that Lavender and Nicodemus left England on a ship called the Sea Princess. I just received word that the ship went down off the Carolina coast." He stood up and walked about the room, finally stopped beside Amelia. "I came here hoping ... but. .. there were no survivors."

  Amelia came to her feet. "I do not believe you! I will not accept the fact that Lavender is ... dead. She was a strong swimmer. If it wasn't too far from shore she

  488

  could have made it."

  Hope sprung alive in Julian's eyes. "There was a storm."

  "That does not matter. Nicodemus would never have allowed Lavender to drown."

&n
bsp; Julian studied Amelia's face, recognizing the same stubborn pride that he had admired in Lavender. "I am going to borrow from your faith, Miss Daymond. I will not believe Lavender is . .. gone until you tell me you believe it."

  "Can I assume she left England without your knowledge?"

  "Yes."

  Amelia looked into the dark eyes, seeing more than he was saying. She knew in that moment that the duke loved her niece and he was tormented by the thought that she was dead. "We will wait together for some word of Lavender," she said with confidence.

  When Lavender stepped off the fishing boat at Norfolk, she felt her heart plummet at the sight of the British soldiers that stood guard at the waterfront. Her eyes met Nicodemus's, and they both wondered if Virginia had fallen to the British.

  After being questioned by an English officer, they were allowed to leave the waterfront. Lavender hastened her footsteps toward a hired carriage, hoping to find someone who would give her news of the war and tell her what had happened in her absence.

  After Lavender and Nicodemus were seated in the carriage, they tried to draw the driver into conversation. "The English seem to be guarding the waterfront," Nicodemus said, watching the man's face.

  "Yes," the man answered, offering no further information.

  Lavender, feeling the heat with her powdered wig on, leaned her head closer to the window, hoping to catch a breath of air. "We have been out of the country for several months and do not know how the war is going. Will you tell us?" she said.

  "It goes one way and then the other. I saw you talking to them redcoats. Why didn't you ask them how it was going?"

  Nicodemus eyed the man. "I think you mistake our politics, good sir. Both my . .. brother here and myself are freedom lovers."

  The man looked at them suspiciously. "You gentlemen can't fool me for one minute. I know London attire when I see it. If you are trying to find out my loyalties, I don't mind telling you straight out that I fought with George Washington, and I'd still be with him if it weren't for the musket ball that shattered my kneecap."

  "We have been in London all right, sir, but we are true patriots. All we want from you is to find out how the war is going."

  The driver lit his pipe, taking his time in answering. "Well, now that's hard to tell. There are more British than you can shake a stick at, and them damned Hessians, too. I'd say that they have decided to take Virginia, with the help of that traitor and coward, Benedict Arnold." The man puffed on his pipe. "I heard tell if we was to catch Arnold we would bury with honors his leg that was wounded at Saratoga, while we hanged the rest of him. Now that's all the information you are getting from me. I get paid to drive this carriage, I don't get paid to satisfy the curiosity of people who may or may not be who they say they are."

  Lavender couldn't help but smile at the driver. It was good to be home, she thought.

  "Sir, would it be possible to hire you to drive us all the way to Williamsburg?" Nicodemus inquired.

  "You ain't got enough money to convince me to drive you to Williamsburg. My God, you must have been out of the country. There's a shooting war going on between here and there, and all around this part of Virginia!"

  Lavender felt her heart stop beating. "Take us to the blacksmith shop where we can find horses," she said with panic rising in her voice. "And please hurry."

  The ride from Norfolk to Williamsburg seemed as if it would never end. Several times Lavender and Nicodemus would hear a patrol coming in the opposite direction and would be forced to hide in the woods as the redcoats passed. Lavender was desperate to find out how her aunt was faring in the middle of the war. She needed to know that Chandler had not come to any harm, because she knew wherever the fighting was, that's where her brother would be.

  When they neared Williamsburg, the sound of distant cannon fire spooked Lavender's horse, and she had to pull back hard on the reins to control the frenzied animal.

  As they entered the town, Lavender was astounded by what she saw. French troops crowded the streets, their guns ready, their eyes trained on anything and anybody who looked suspicious.

  "Dear Lord, Nicodemus, is the world coming to an end?" she asked, whirling her horse out of the road so a wagon loaded with cannons could pass.

  His face held a grim expression. "It seems the war has found us," he stated dryly.

  Lavender nodded, her eyes searching the streets as she looked for a familiar face among the hoard of soldiers. "We must hurry, Nicodemus. Aunt Amelia may be in need of us."

  25

  After Nicodemus had seen Lavender safely inside her aunt's house he had gone directly to his quarters. Lavender stood in the entryway, thinking how quiet it was, and feeling uneasy. However, she was encouraged when she found nothing had been disturbed and everything appeared to be neat and orderly. A floorboard creaked at the top of the stairs, and she whirled around to see Phoebe staring down at her. Lavender forgot she was dressed as a boy and dashed up the stairs, causing the servant girl to back against the wall in fright.

  "Phoebe, it's me, Lavender. What's wrong with you? Don't you recognize me?"

  Phoebe looked doubtful for a moment, and then a smile lit her face. "Miss Lavender, we was thinking we'd never see you no more. Dis man came looking for you, and he don't know where you was."

  Lavender could not make sense out of Phoebe's excited rambling. "Where is my aunt? Is she in?"

  "Yes'm she done went and laid down, since she was feeling poorly from thinking you was dead."

  "Why ever would she think that?”

  "Well, it was this man, and he—"

  "Never mind," Lavender said. Tossing her powdered wig at Phoebe, she dashed down the hallway and into her aunt's bedroom. The room was in shadows, and Lavender approached the bed silently in case her aunt was asleep.

  "Lavender, is that you?" Her aunt's voice cut through the silence. Scrambling off the bed, Amelia Daymond grabbed her niece and hugged her tightly. "Child, child, God be praised, I had given you up for dead!"

  Lavender felt her aunt's cheek pressed against hers in a rare show of affection. "Why would you think I was dead, Aunt Amelia?"

  Amelia Daymond held Lavender at arm's length, looking her over carefully. "Your husband was here, Lavender, and he said you left London three weeks before his departure. He discovered the ship you boarded in London was called the Sea Princess. That ship was hit by a squall off the Carolina coast and sank. Since there were no survivors, he naturally feared you had drowned. Even then he did not give up entirely."

  Lavender felt her knees go weak. "Aunt Amelia, what are you talking about? Are you saying that everyone on board the Sea Princess lost their lives?"

  "Yes, dear. But we thought you were on that ship when she went down. How did you escape?"

  Confusion muddled Lavender's brain. "I became ill in Trinidad and was unable to continue the voyage when the Sea Princess left port. Nicodemus and I took a later voyage. I am saddened that so many people lost their lives."

  "Yes, you could have been among them. Thank the Lord you were not on that ship."

  "You did say Julian is here in Williamsburg?"

  "Yes, he is, child. He comes by to see me every day, hoping there will be some word of you. He has had men searching for you all up and down the coast on the slim chance that you survived the shipwreck and were washed ashore. He is not a man who gives up easily."

  "Where is he staying?"

  "He is at the King's Arms Tavern. Do you want to see him?"

  She shook her head. "No. I cannot see him just now." Lavender felt her body tremble. "Why would Julian come here? Doesn't he know he could be taken prisoner by one of the French soldiers I saw parading the streets?"

  "You forget the people in Williamsburg believe he is Julian West from Georgia. They do not know that he is an Englishman."

  "Did you never tell anyone that Julian was an English duke?"

  "No, I merely told them that you and Julian West were married and you went with him to his home. Never mind abou
t that now, Lavender. Open the curtains so I can have a look at you. I want to see with my own eyes that you are not a ghost."

  Lavender did as she was told, and soon the room was bathed in bright sunlight. As her aunt's eyes moved down Lavender's trouser-clad form, Lavender saw her smile. "Is that what the well-groomed young lady is wearing this season in London?"

  Lavender was too shaken by the knowledge that Julian had come all the way from England to find her to find humor in her aunt's witty observation. "I had to pretend to be a boy so I could sneak out of England," she explained. "After I was aboard ship, I was forced to continue with the farce."

  Amelia took Lavender's hand and led her to a chair, where she made her sit down. "You look dead on your feet, child. 1 believe you should have something to eat and then go straight to bed."

  "What do I do about Julian? He did not come this far just to pass the time of day with me. I suppose he should be told that I was not on the Sea Princess when she went down."

  "1 will send Jackson to the inn where the duke is staying to inform him that you have arrived safely. Anything else you may want to do concerning your husband will keep until you are rested."

  Lavender knew her aunt was right. She was just too weary to face Julian at the moment. She did not know whether to be happy that he had come for her, or angry because he had pursued her all the way to Williamsburg. Rising to her feet, she hugged her aunt. "1 will just go to my room and lie down for a bit. I find I am very fatigued. Just tell me if Chandler is all right."

  "As of a month ago, he was in the best of health. The last 1 heard, he was in Richmond."

  Lavender felt as if at least one weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She was thankful that her brother was still alive.

  Lavender awoke with a start. Everything was cast in darkness, but she knew someone was in the room with her. She did not have to be told that Julian was nearby, because she could feel his disturbing presence in some inner part of her being. She swallowed hard, fearing to face him. Slowly her eyes became accustomed to the dark and she saw his outline where he was standing by the window.