The Raven's Revenge

by Gina Black

  The cousins embraced, and then Katherine was off.

  Jeremy accompanied her in the Pemberton coach. He had said little to her since she had announced the truth of his parentage.

  “Do you mind that I did say you are my brother?”

  “I know not what to think,” he said. “I am proud that you would wish it known. Yet, I cannot think our father will be pleased. And our neighbor was truly displeased. ’Tis kind of you to think of Ashfield for me, Katherine, but I do not think ‘twould be right for me to inherit the property.”

  “’Twere it entailed, I would not be in line to inherit.” Katherine sighed. “Truly, I do not wish to see the place again.”

  Jeremy made a tense smile.

  They spoke no more on the long trip to Whitehall. The clickety-clack of the wheels, and the pounding of Katherine’s heart combined to heighten her alarm. By the time they arrived, she was in a state of near panic. Taking a steadying breath, she allowed Jeremy to help her out of the vehicle.

  An unsmiling footman bade Jeremy stay behind. After an appraising look at Katherine, the servant led her through a labyrinth of back corridors and staircases to a small room. With a knowing smile, he closed the door, leaving her to wait.

  Did he think her one of the Kings sweethearts? Katherine repressed a snort at the outrageous thought.

  What would the King tell her? Would he really appear, or would he send Nicholas alone?

  It did no good to wonder. He would come or he would not. The King said he would help her discover the truth, and perhaps that truth would help her heart to mend.

  Katherine lifted her chin and looked around the room. Scientific books stood on the shelves, many in Latin. Several tables were scattered about, containing all sorts of devices and models. Katherine had no idea of their use. Some looked fanciful, others complicated. One, made of metal and glass, looked so delicate she could not imagine what it could be used for. A pile of charts and drawings topped another table.

  “Do you know what that is?”

  Katherine jumped. She had not heard the King enter. Now he stood just behind her.

  She shook her head.

  “Hazard a guess, Lady Ashton.”

  It seemed to contain an eyepiece, and looked vaguely similar to the strange object she and Jeremy had found in Nicholas’s cloak. “Maybe it is for looking at things,” she said.

  “Indeed, you are right.” Charles clapped a hand on her shoulder. “It is for looking at things that are very small, and making them bigger. Oft times, when we are able to see the finer parts of an object, we can understand it better.”

  Katherine nodded.

  “Science is very good for that,” the King continued, “for showing us how a thing truly works, helping us become acquainted with the fine details. But though it can show us how a heart beats, it cannot show us why a heart beats, nor for whom the heart beats.”

  He walked her across the room. “Shall we find out about Lord Ashton, the knave who called himself my friend, and who called himself the Raven to you?”

  “Yes, sire. I am well ready to know his heart.”

  A footman, who must have been standing just outside, entered, and Charles bid him get Nicholas. The King showed her where to stand in a concealed spot behind a curtain, masking an open door at the top of a staircase. There would be plenty of room for her. Now, Katherine could see how the King had been able to enter the room without her knowing.

  * * *

  “My liege,” Nicholas said, making a deep courtly bow.

  “You may rise,” Charles said. “I bid you be seated.”

  Nicholas sat in a chair. This was a good sign. It appeared they would talk, rather than the King talk and Nicholas listen.

  “How long have we known each other?” asked the King.

  Nicholas knew Charles remembered as well as he when they first met, but supposed the King wished to make a point.

  “Was it not twelve or thirteen years past we met in Paris?”

  “Yes, I believe that is so. You provided aid to me freely when others would do so only if I made them promises. For that, Nicky, I have always had a particular fondness for you. Yet, certain recent events try my patience.” Charles gave him a stern look. “You have taken a wife under most peculiar circumstances, without obtaining consent of her father, or, more importantly, consent of your King. Furthermore, your wife did not know who you were when you married her. Can this be true? And you perpetrated this deception to gain control of her lands, which I do recall belonged to your family before they were forfeit by that villain, Cromwell. Was there not an interview some two months past, when you petitioned me for return of those lands? And then…” Charles tapped his lip with a bejeweled finger. “I believe I have not seen your face again until this very moment.”

  Nicholas squirmed.

  “And now I assume you seek my pardon, which I am wont to give you, Nicky, as you did stand by me when others did not.” The King rose and walked to the window. “I ask you this, my old friend, were it in my power to grant you either the woman you took as wife, or Ashfield, but not both, which would you have?”

  Nicholas thoughts went back to that day long ago, to the young boy listening through silent tears as his father, infirm and old before his time, beseeched him to right the wrongs done to the family. At his father’s bidding, he’d placed his hand on the family bible and vowed to get back what was rightfully theirs. Just a lad of sixteen, he’d thought himself to be a man. But now, Nicholas knew he’d just been a boy who had carried a man’s responsibilities, and thought himself to be making a man’s pledge.

  He had never wanted Ashfield for himself. He’d made his own life out of the ashes of his father’s life. He would not know what to do with Ashfield if he had it.

  Nicholas had wanted revenge. And he had got it. But the revenge had been on him. He now knew his heart’s desire, and he’d lost it due to his own foolishness.

  He had made a man’s pledge to Katherine in the church. Although he had done it for the wrong reasons, he now knew the right one: he loved her.

  Nicholas silently begged his father’s forgiveness before speaking. “I would choose Katherine over all things. She is my destiny and my desire. I find that now I have lost her, she is all I ever truly wanted. I should have known when she discovered me ill and nursed me to health that I needed her with a fierceness I have never felt for anyone or anything before.”

  Charles eyes softened. He rose and walked across the room.

  Nicholas continued. “By my rash actions, I know I have lost her. I know you cannot give her back to me. Katherine is a woman who knows her own heart. ’Tis quite clear to me that if I did once have it, ’tis gone now.”

  “Are you certain of that, Nicky?” Charles pulled back a curtain to reveal a woman.

  Nicholas stood up in protest. Had one of the King’s mistresses listened to his heartfelt avowal? Then she moved, and a jolt of recognition hit him.

  Katherine.

  Yet, this was not a Katherine he had ever seen before. This Katherine wore a fancy gown, with lace and frills, and her hair had been dressed in the current fashion.

  “Katherine?”

  She nodded, and the curls on the side of her face bobbled back and forth.

  “I did not recognize you. The clothes…the hair…” He went to her and took a curl into his hand, letting it wrap around his finger.

  She looked up at him. “Clothes do not the person make. Perhaps ’tis time for you to see me for who I truly am.”

  He knew that to be true. He had forever been misjudging this woman. In her, he had found strength of purpose and love he had never known.

  “My liege,” he looked over Katherine’s shoulder. “Do I have your permission?”

  Charles nodded.

  Nicholas took Katherine into his arms and gave her stiff form a powerful hug. “I have long known that I need you,” he said. “But it is just recently that I have come to understand that I love you.”

  He looked d
own into her beautiful brown eyes, full of wariness, but not love. Clearly, he had not done enough to win her back.

  But he was on the right road.

  “The two of you must regale me with your adventures,” the King interrupted. “But now that you have reunited, ’tis time for us to resolve other matters that are before us.”

  Nicholas loosened his hold on his wife.

  “It is now established to my mind, and the courts will easily be persuaded, that an abduction did not occur. Yet, I am afraid there are still some very serious charges against the man who called himself the Raven.”

  * * *

  A different footman led Nicholas and Katherine down the stairs, through the warren of stairways and corridors. They passed through hallway after hallway until they came to the Gatehouse.

  Katherine felt no sense of triumph. No sense of elation or completeness coursed through her veins. While Nicholas might think all was fixed, she was sorely vexed.

  Once alone, they faced each other. Nicholas smiled and held out his arms to her.

  Katherine crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you think that by telling the King you love me everything is fine?” She tapped her foot. “Methinks you should have more to say.”

  Nicholas put up a hand. “Whoa, dear wife. ’Tis plain any thoughts I had on that matter were mistaken.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I know I have much to atone for. And although I have spent these days in jail, have confessed my heart before my liege, have lost any claim to the lands of my family, I must still make amends with the woman who has discovered my heart.”

  He came to her and put his hands on her shoulders, despite her uninviting stance. “I have not had much love in my life. It is not a feeling I understand. So it has taken me some time to realize that these feelings I have for you—of happiness when I am with you, of emptiness when you are gone, of my need to protect you, and the desire I have for you, not just for the pleasure I find in your body, but for your gentle yet firm presence and good sense—I now know these feelings are love.” His voice broke as his eyes reached into hers, touching her in that place he had hurt so badly.

  Katherine softened.

  “I would wish you love me too. I know you said so before. But I could understand, after my actions, that any good feelings you once had for me are now gone. I have played you false, my dearest Katherine, and I can only hope that you have it in your power to forgive, and that there is room in your tender heart for me.”

  His eyes pled for her love and understanding.

  Katherine looked away. “’Twould be more convincing had you given up something that belonged to you, Nicholas. Ashfield was never yours. ’Twas your father’s, then my father’s.”

  “I gave up the dream of Ashfield, Katherine. ’Twas bigger than the real Ashfield. And a bigger loss as well.”

  “You confessed your love to the King, yet you have not said it to me,” she said.

  “He was the first to ask,” said Nicholas.

  A glance showed Katherine the twinkle she so loved to see in his eyes.

  “I’truth,” he said, “I did not know my own heart until the door shut behind you at the Tower, and I heard your footsteps echo down the hall as you walked away. But I feared it was too late. I had not thought to see you again. I thought it best to leave things as they were, with you hating me for what I had done. Especially since I had no reason to hope I would be forgiven for my crimes. My future is still cloudy. I can only think because you are here you must harbor some good feelings for me.”

  He went down on one knee before her. “I do hereby vow, my dearest Lady Ashton, that I love you with my whole heart and body, and I shall never lie to you again. Never.”

  Katherine smiled down at him. “Rise, Lord Ashton, and know my love for you has never left. Although at times I wished it, I could not make it go.”

  Nicholas rose and took her into his arms. Molding to each other they kissed, a magical kiss of fire, desire, and joy.

  * * *

  The next afternoon, a footman brought the lovers to the crowded banquet hall. Even when Katherine saw Richard Finch scowling at her from across the room, her rosy glow did not leave. Jeremy stood with James Pemberton and smiled at her. To her surprise, Gerald Welles was there as well, looking like a country squire clearly out of place in such magnificent surroundings.

  She held Nicholas’s hand, savoring every moment, knowing that their brief happiness could be shattered or cemented by the outcome of this next interview.

  At last, they were summoned. A footman brought all of them to an inner chamber.

  King Charles smiled as they entered, but he did not bid them be seated. He addressed Nicholas. “Ravens are bothersome birds, loud and messy. There have been some at the tower for quite some time now. I did once try to rid the place of them. Do you know what I was told?”

  “No, sire.”

  “I was told that as long as there are ravens at the tower, the Monarchy will stand.” The King nodded at Nicholas. “Do you say you are this Raven? This outlaw as you have been accused?”

  “Sire, once there was an outlaw Raven, but he is no more. Any ravens at the tower from this point on, I hope will only be birds. I vow to you, I will always do what is in my power to keep your crown safe.”

  “I trust what you say is true, Nicholas Montford, for I have come to a decision.

  “First,” Charles said, “since taking a woman against her will and marrying or defiling her is a felony, you will forfeit any claims to Ashfield.” The King turned to James. “Although I have been assured he did not truly take her against her will, I have no doubts that had the young lady known his true identity, she would never have gone with him.” Charles eyed the group and seemed satisfied by the looks on everyone’s faces. His gaze came to rest on Katherine and he smiled. “So perhaps ignorance was good in this case.

  “Secondly, for the crimes of the Raven, Lord Ashton will be encouraged to emigrate to America. With seven other Lords, he will be appointed a Joint Proprietor of the Province of Carolina.” He winked at Katherine. “I am sure that your husband’s pluck, good humor, and inventive strategies will prove a boon in developing this territory.

  “Third, since it is customary in our land for sons to inherit from fathers, Jeremy Welles, though filius nullius, will take his place as heir to the property called Ashfield.”

  Gerald sputtered.

  Charles continued. “Fourth, since Lord Ashton, has no use for his title, he will lose it. I hereby rescind the letters of patent, and bestow the title onto the young lad here,”

  Jeremy’s eyes almost popped out of his head. Everyone turned to him. Gerald raised his hand to his heart. Finch had turned white with shock.

  “In that way, it will stay with the property, and he will make himself worthy of it.” Charles smiled at Jeremy. “Nicky can retain the title of Baron Eddington, which he was before his father passed, a title which I understand he has been willing to use.”

  “Finally, I charge Lady Eddington to accompany her husband to the New World. I give her the assignment of reporting directly to me should Nicky be up to any mischief!”

  EPILOGUE

  Province of Carolina

  November, 1664

  NICHOLAS MONTFORD, newly appointed Lord Proprietor, dodged low hanging tree branches as he moved quickly through the woods. Blood congealed on his left arm.

  At a rustle in the brush behind him, he glanced over his shoulder, ready to draw his pistol if need be. But it was just the wolf—his wolf Katherine called it—that was ever guarding his rear. Or perhaps today, tantalized by the smell of blood, it would not let its prey out of sight.

  Nicholas planted each foot firmly on the blanket of brown pine needles that coated the forest floor. Each crunch released their pungent aroma to mingle with the crisp morning air.

  At last he made the clearing that held his home.

  Their home. The small wooden cottage he fully intended to replace with a brick mansion once the materials arri
ved from England. One day his boots would tread upon a finely tended lawn with topiary, but for now he dashed across a hard dirt glade before hurdling the steps to the cabin’s entrance.

  He burst into the small main room. Katherine looked up from the table where she was writing with a smile that fell away when she saw his arm.

  Nicholas hastened to reassure her. “I have brought you something.”

  Katherine rose and took a step toward him. She looked closely and frowned. “Our dinner?”

  “No. At least I think ’tis not dinner yet.” Nicholas uncurled his arm and held out the quivering bundle of brown fur and blood. “I think it can be fixed. That is, I think you can fix it.”

  Katherine could not gainsay him. She took the rabbit and turned it on its back. It stopped shuddering and went limp in her arms.

  Nicolas watched with dismay. “Is it dead then?”

  “’Tis just a rabbit trick.” She ran her fingers lightly over the blood-covered bunny, examining its eyes, nose, and paws. “Ah. I see. It’s lost a claw. So much blood from such a small wound. I wonder how that happened.”

  Nicholas looked out the door at the wolf hovering at the woods edge. “Perhaps because it tried to climb a tree.”

  A slow smile spread its way across Katherine’s face, and their eyes met, both surely remembering when another small furry animal climbed up a tree.

  “Rabbits don’t climb trees,” said Katherine.

  “They try to if a large gray wolf is chasing them.”

  “First a wolf and now a rabbit. You bring home many pets when what we really need is a cat—perhaps two. I was just writing this to Alicia, asking her to send them from Montford’s recent litter once they are old enough to travel.” She examined the bloody paw again. “’T’will not be serious unless it putrefies. I will need to clean and bandage it. Since ’tis washday, Lizzie has started to heat the water. I need you to fetch some and clean rags, too.”