Sweet Temptation

by Leigh Greenwood

  “You like him, don’t you?” Sara asked. She tried to smile, but her face refused. “You should ask him to marry you.”

  “Marry me!” Betty squawked so suddenly, Sara did smile. “I’m not such a bold piece as that,” exclaimed her maid. “Besides, what would a gentleman like him do with a female the likes of me?”

  “Thank his lucky stars you agreed to marry him.”

  “No, I like him well enough but not to marry. It’s just that he’s such a charming gentleman.”

  “Not to mention handsome, loyal, and ruthless,” said Sara. “Thank you, but I’m just as glad I fell in love with Gavin.”

  “I guess it is best, but …” Betty sighed and failed to finish her thought. Sara decided it would be useless to try and oust Ian in Betty’s affections. If her anger over his kidnapping Sara could only last a few days, she doubted anything else would serve to turn Betty against Ian. She would always remember his courtly behavior and delightful smile, and never see the vein of selfishness that ran so close to the surface. Oh well, it wasn’t necessary. Sara loved Gavin, and that was all that mattered.

  They hadn’t been on the road for much more than two hours when they suddenly became aware of the sound of several horses somewhere on the road behind them, coming toward them at a gallop. Sara and Betty looked at each other, unsure of what this could mean. Was Gavin coming after her for some reason? Could it be bandits? With so many men away from their homes with the Prince, there had been no one to keep the highwaymen in check all winter. Betty hung her head out the window.

  “It’s the Prince,” she told Sara in surprise, “and he’s coming this way as fast as he can.”

  “Tell the coachman to stop.” Sara didn’t have to wait long before the Prince reined in alongside them.

  “All is lost,” he declared dramatically. “There’s a reward of thirty thousand pounds on my head, so I must get away quickly. Cumberland’s men can’t be far behind.”

  “Is there anywhere you can hide?” Sara asked.

  “No. We must ride on and hope to find fresh horses before we are overtaken.”

  An idea suddenly sprang into Sara’s mind. It seemed wild and improbable, but it might succeed for that very reason. “I can disguise you as my maid,” she told the prince. “Then your men can ride off, and the soldiers will follow them. Everybody knows Betty is as tall as a man, and in the shadows of the carriage, they won’t be able to see your features clearly.”

  The prince was naturally reluctant to adopt such a disguise, but his vanguard heartily approved of it, and in a short time they had him in Betty’s clothes and seated opposite Sara. Betty was dressed as a man, given a hat and high collar which virtually covered her face, provided with a rifle, and told to ride in the box with the driver as a guard. Then the Prince’s men rode off to the south, promising to leave his horse where he could find it later.

  “This is a sad way to end our adventure,” the Prince observed with a heavy sigh. “If I had known so many would lose their lives in my cause, I doubt I should have come.”

  “You had to come,” Sara assured him. “It was your destiny, just as it was their choice to support your cause. They made the decision for themselves, so you must not reproach yourself with their deaths.”

  “You are such a comforting woman,” the Prince said thankfully. “I wonder if your husband realizes what a treasure he has in you?”

  “I’m not sure that treasure is the word Gavin would have chosen, but yes, I think he does know my worth.”

  “He is the most fortunate of men.” The Prince lapsed into a period of introspection, only occasionally rousing himself to make a remark. Sara left him to his thoughts. She was worried about the soldiers she expected would soon follow them. They had turned to the east, away from the most logical route for the Prince to take, but she was certain Cumberland’s men would follow her. She wondered what she would say to them.

  She didn’t have long to wait. Less than half an hour later, she heard the sound of thundering hooves again, and shortly afterwards Betty pounded on the roof with the butt of her rifle, the signal they had agreed upon to warn her the soldiers had come.

  “Let me do all the talking,” Sara told the prince. “You may pass for Betty in general shape, but not in voice.”

  A few moments later, the soldiers came alongside the coach, and Sara unfastened the window so she could talk to them.

  “We’re looking for the Stuart Prince,” a soldier called out to her.

  “We haven’t seen him. We left quite early this morning.”

  “I know, but we were told he had come this way.”

  “We did think we heard a troop of horses some time back, but they must have turned off. No one passed us.”

  “Who goes with you?” the soldier asked.

  “My maid and a rather surly young man my husband hired to safeguard us from highwaymen.” The soldier peered into the dim interior of the carriage. It was the man Betty had knocked down that very morning. “Surely you recognize my maid, or would you rather she got down, so you might inspect her more closely?”

  “I remember her,” the man replied, wanting to give Betty no further opportunity to assault his person. Lt. Gen. Hawley had told him the Prince was heading this way; he had also told him that Lady Carlisle would not be above helping him escape. Still, there was no doubt that this was her ladyship’s maid. There couldn’t be two women in the whole world that size, and he wasn’t about to ask her to step out of the carriage. She might decide to fetch him another blow to the jaw in front of his men, and he would have to quit the army if they saw him bested by a woman twice in the same day, even if she was taller than he was. No, it had to be the maid, and that was all there was to it. “Would your driver have any idea where the horsemen turned off?”

  “I don’t know, but you may ask him.” Sara waited patiently while the soldiers questioned the driver. At last they started back down the road at a gallop, and she was able to breath a sigh of relief.

  “I congratulate you, Lady Carlisle,” the prince said, “but weren’t you afraid he would demand that I get out, so he might see me better.”

  “No. This morning Betty knocked that same soldier down. I was certain he wouldn’t wish to give her the opportunity to do it again.”

  The prince laughed softly. “Now, what do we do next?”

  “I was hoping you would have the answer to that question. I suppose we just now turn our thoughts to its solution.” But neither of them had the opportunity to think for long. Within what seemed like minutes, they heard hooves approaching once again. The prince stiffened, and Sara turned white.

  “Could they have returned?”

  “But why? They couldn’t have had time to find your vanguard.”

  “I have a pistol.”

  “That won’t account for more than one, and you can’t get away without a horse. Sit quietly. I’ll think of something.” But moments later Sara could have cried with relief when Gavin’s beloved face came into view.

  “I should have known I would find you here,” Gavin said, as soon as he saw the prince sitting where Betty should have been.

  “Your wife was kind enough to suggest the disguise.”

  “Foolish is the word I would have chosen,” Gavin said, “but there’s no time to worry about that now. We’ve got to get you out of those petticoats. If they should come back, they’re bound to have you out of the coach.”

  “What did you tell them about Betty?”

  “Just that she was a guard you had hired.”

  “Did they show any interest in her?”

  “No.”

  “Then Betty and the Prince will exchange places.”

  “But why?”

  “Betty was the only one they couldn’t see, and she will be the only reason for them to come back. She must be Betty.”

  “Then what about the Prince?”

  “Did your men leave a horse for you?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long will it take yo
u to reach it?”

  “Under an hour.”

  “Then you’re going to be the guard. I’ve caught up with my wife, and I’ve sent you back home. You’ll point the soldiers in our direction, think of something slightly suspicious to tell them about my arrival, if you can, but make sure they’re interested in us, not yourself. Once they’re past, you can safely leave the road, find your horse, and rejoin your men. They won’t follow you again.”

  “Will you be safe?”

  “Yes. You’re the only one in danger. Can you speak Gaelic?”

  “After nine months’ intimate acquaintance with Highlanders, I can speak it like a native.”

  “Good. Cumberland’s soldiers can’t, so they won’t know if your accent is not exactly true. Make them have enough difficulty understanding you so they won’t question you extensively, but be sure they understand well enough to know to come after us.”

  The Prince smiled. “If you had been on my side, we might not have lost today.”

  “If I had been on your side, you would never have left France,” Gavin replied brutally. “You have cost Scotland more than you can know.”

  “I will do my best not to increase the price of her allegiance,” promised the prince, as he alighted from the carriage. Minutes later, clothed in the shabby clothes Betty had worn, and his face smeared with enough grime to make him seem the peasant he claimed to be, the prince headed back down the road.

  “Are you certain he will be all right?” Sara asked, as the coach resumed its journey. “He has no way to protect himself now.”

  “He has his wits and half the people of Scotland on his side,” Gavin replied. “He would do well enough with either, but with both, Cumberland will never catch him, even if it’s months before he can find a way to get to France.”

  They had nearly reached the inn where they were to meet Ian, when the soldiers overtook them a second time. The men were tired and obviously out of temper.

  “What are you doing here?” the soldier in charge demanded, when he saw Gavin seated next to his wife.

  “What does it look like I’m doing?” demanded Gavin. “My wife and I are returning home.”

  “You weren’t here before.”

  “You will notice my horse tied to the rear of the coach,” Gavin said patiently. “I left after the battle and caught up with my wife and her maid.”

  “As to that maid, I’d be obliged if she would step down, so we could have a look at her.”

  “Betty? Surely you don’t suspect her of helping the princer?”

  “As to that, I can’t say exactly, but he’s somewhere along these roads.”

  “And you haven’t been able to find him,” Gavin finished for them.

  “There’s people only too ready’ to help him, even if there is a godless amount of money on his head.”

  “And just what do you expect my wife’s maid to have to do with his escape?”

  “Well, you see, sir, the Prince wasn’t with that escaping party of Jacobites, and he wasn’t on this road neither, but he must be somewhere.”

  “I can’t fault your logic so far.”

  “Well, we met that guide you hired for your wife a ways back …”

  “I sent him home because we didn’t need him, now that I’m here.”

  “… and he suggested there was some funny business about the maid.”

  “Funny business?”

  “What he actually said was, that we ought to see about that maid. He said it weren’t natural for a female to be that big.”

  “So you’re thinking that we may have the Prince in here, disguised as Lady Carlisle’s maid.”

  “Begging your pardon, sir, but we have to check every possibility.”

  “Certainly. Betty, would you like to speak to the soldier?”

  “You bet I would,” declared Betty, opening the door and preparing to step down. “I may have grown a bit more than was necessary, but I won’t have any trouble convincing this turnip there’s nothing false about me.”

  The man needed no more than the sound of that well-remembered voice to convince him this indeed was Betty, and not the prince.

  “You don’t need to get down, Miss,” he said, before Betty’s foot could touch the ground. “Anyone can see you’re not the prince.” Betty got down anyway.

  “I want you to be sure this time,” she said, approaching the young man and towering above him intimidatingly. “This is the second time you’ve stopped milady’s coach, which to my way of thinking is two times too many. I don’t want you messing about with us anymore. You can search under the seat and inside the trunks if you must, but if I see you again, they’re going to have to carry you back to your captain.”

  “Now, Betty, he’s just trying to do his job,” Sara said, her voice unsteady with suppressed laughter.

  “No more than I’m trying to do mine,” Betty answered promptly.

  Ian didn’t arrive at the inn until quite late that evening. Gavin had a doctor waiting to treat his wounds. Ian looked so bad the doctor immediately banished them from the room. After he had done all he could, the doctor gave Ian something to ease the pain and make him sleep, so it wasn’t until they were on the road again the next day that Gavin and Sara had a chance to talk with him. Betty was once again riding in the box so Ian might be able to lie down on her seat.

  “For a man who didna believe in the rebellion, ye have been put tae some shifts tae save the pair of us.”

  “I couldn’t leave you to be butchered by Hawley’s henchmen, but you’ll have to thank Sara for helping the prince. I’d have told him to be on his way.”

  “Maybe,” replied Ian, the pain of his wounds making it difficult for him to adjust his position so that he could see both Sara and Gavin, “but I thank ye none the less. Now, how do ye propose tae get me off yer hands? Ye can’t be meaning tae hide me in yer cellars, and my father willna have me.” He paused as a thought struck him. “I don’t suppose he’ll be able tae keep anybody now. No doubt yer precious Cumberland will give our land tae one of his German cronies.”

  “You must emigrate,” Gavin said. “Many of your people have already done so.”

  “Aye. I wouldna mind it so much, if ye had the land,” Ian said. “At least I would know ‘twas in the hands of someone who loved it as much as I do.”

  “Then you didn’t hear what Cumberland said on the battlefield?”

  “No. I passed out when ye rolled me over.”

  “He did give me your land. I will send you some money, as soon as you get to America. Then, maybe in a few years, after everything is settled down again, you can come back.”

  “Nay, I’ll no’ be coming back,” Ian said sadly. “It will never again be the Scotland I loved. Ye can change with the times, but I canna do aught but wish for the old days.”

  “But this is still your home,” Sara said, unable to understand how Ian could turn his back on everything that until this morning he had been willing to give his life for.

  “Not any longer. Some men can bend in the wind, adapt tae change, but I canna. Tis why I fought for the Stuart, and ‘tis why I canna stay.”

  “We’ll miss you.”

  “Aye, and that’s another reason why I must go, lassie.” Ian’s gaze defied Gavin to refuse him the use of the endearment. “I might be tempted tae kidnap ye again.”

  “They don’t approve of kidnapping, even in America,” Gavin told him.

  “Aye, but I willna be tempted in America, unless ye be meaning tae come for a visit.”

  They laughed at that and talked much more easily afterwards, hut later, after Ian was settled in his room at Estameer, and they were preparing to leave him, Sara couldn’t help but ask him again.

  “Do you really have to stay away forever? Can’t you come back someday?”

  “It wouldna be wise. Gavin and I will part as friends, but too much lies between us. Besides, I canna face him day after day, knowing he possesses the two things in the world I hold most dear.”

 
“Two things?”

  “My land and you.”

  Chapter 27

  As she waited for Gavin to come to bed, Sara allowed her mind to wander back through the most recent of the several turning points in their lives. Now that it was over, she could see that the last few days had cleared away all the remaining debris between them, and that their relationship would be the stronger for it, but it had been a painful purging, and she hoped they would never be forced to endure anything like it again. But Gavin was so much happier, so much more natural, she found herself unable to regret any of the suffering or unhappiness. After all, it’s a lot like having a baby, she told herself. The discomfort is intense, but it’s temporary, and is followed by a joy that will last forever.

  The door between their rooms opened, and Sara felt sure her cup was full beyond holding. She could never look at Gavin without feeling almost overcome with wonder. That any of the events of the past several months should have happened to quiet, shy little Sara Raymond was incredible, but nothing was more unbelievable than that this gorgeous man was her husband. And he was her lover, too! Well, she still had trouble believing that.

  “I have something for you,” Gavin said, and handed her a piece of paper. “It gives you absolute control of your fortune, the principal and the income. I’ve already signed it.”

  “But why?”

  “Do you remember what you said in Glasgow? You said you wanted a home, a family to belong to, and control of your money. Well, Estameer is your home, and our child will be the beginning of a family. Now you have your money.”

  “And you said you wanted something you could do without interference from your father, and someone who could love you unconditionally.”

  “I have both.” Gavin slipped into bed and took Sara into his arms. “But you are the more important of the two.” His kiss was gentle at first, but then it became hard and insistent. “I thought I had lost you when I saw you with Ian. I don’t know what happened to me, I’m not even sure I know what I did, but I felt like I was losing my mind.” Sara tried to put her fingers to his lips to stop him, but he would not be quieted. “No, I must tell you. I must convince you it will never happen again. I don’t know why I did it, but I guess it was the shock of thinking I was losing you, and that after finally falling in love, life was going to cheat me again.”