Montgomery - The Heiress Part 17

Knowing what was in store for her, Tode had been unable to deny her these few weeks of freedom from being the Maidenhall heiress. To the very depths of his soul he knew what it was like to be stared at and considered a freak; it was one of the things that he and Axia had in common. In order to give her a brief time as a normal pretty girl, he had allowed her to switch places with Frances and now everything had gone awry. Frances's life was in danger and Axia was going to be taken by her father.

"I must do something," he said aloud. "I should have taken care of both of them. Both of them were under my care." Guilt nearly overwhelmed him at the way he had always favored Axia over Frances. Maidenhall had put him in charge of both females, yet he had neglected Frances to the point where she was so lonely that she'd marry the first man she saw, namely, James Montgomery.

But all anyone could do was wait. Jamie was combing the countryside, asking questions of everyone, but so far, nothing had come of his questions. In the morning, Jamie planned to go with Thomas, leaving the injured Rhys behind, and ride north, as that was where they were heading when Frances was taken.

Tode knew without a doubt that he too would be left behind. Jamie and his man would want to travel fast, and Tode would only be in the way. He wondered if Jamie planned to leave Axia behind or to take her with him. It was Tode's guess that he'd leave her behind, especially since he didn't believe she was in any danger from Maidenhairs men. Perkin Maidenhall would be interested in the whereabouts of his daughter, who Jamie thought was Frances, so he'd think Axia was safe.

But Tode knew, and Axia knew, the truth.

Since they had arrived, Tode had stayed in the old tack room off the stables. In his years with Axia he had grown used to comforts, but he well knew the worth of someone like himself in the outside world. For the most part Tode had stayed away from strangers, hiding inside his coa.r.s.e robe, keeping his face hidden.

But now he picked up his gnarled staff and walked into the stables, looking into each stall until he found the boy who had seen the man who had taken Frances. He was angrily rubbing down a big horse.

"Go away," the boy said without looking up. "I have no more answers."

Tode had had years of sitting on the sidelines and watching; he was good at a.s.sessing what people were thinking. Jealousy was what was wrong with this boy. "I just wanted to tell you that you do a better job of taking care of a woman than he does. You didn't lose yours." With that, Tode slowly turned away.

"Wait!" the boy said, then watched as Tode turned back. Turning his head like an inquisitive bird, he was peering into Tode's hood. "You one of his men?"

"Hardly," Tode said with a laugh. There was a torch on the wall just outside the stall, and a small stream of light flowed over the wall. Moving into the weak light, for just a second, Tode lowered his hood so the boy could see his lacerated face. It was more than enough time, and Tode turned away from the look of revulsion on the boy's face, then his superior laugh.

"I don't think you'll be taking anybody's girl," the boy said, unconcerned with Tode's involuntary wince.

"No," Tode said jovially. Long ago, he'd learned to hide his hurt. "I wanted to ask you about what you saw, but then you must be sick of speaking of it. But, still, it all must have been very exciting."

Tode watched the boy as he seemed to consider this. Truthfully, he had been so busy trying to get his hands under his girl's skirts that he hadn't paid any attention to what other people were doing. That she had was another sore point with him. Since this afternoon, the girl had talked of nothing but this earl- "An earl, " she'd gasped for the thousandth time. An earl talking to her and looking at her as though she were the most important person on earth.

"n.o.body wants to listen to me," he said bitterly. "No one wants to know what I saw."

"You did see something," Tode said eagerly. "I knew when I saw you that you were a clever boy. I thought then that Lord James should have paid more attention to you." Leaning toward the boy, he was careful to keep his face in shadow. "I travel from house to house, and I look for stories to tell. Your exploits could be told from one great house to another, but I would need to know more than I do now."

For a moment the boy stared in wonder. "He had half an ear."

"I beg your pardon?"

"The man had half an ear. Cut off right here," he said, motioning to just above the hole of his ear. "The top half was missing."

Tode could have kissed the boy, he was so pleased with this information, but instead, he forced himself to sit still for thirty minutes and listen to the boy tell everything that he imagined had happened since he'd seen the man with half an ear.

When, wearily, Tode was finally able to leave the stables, his first impulse was to take his new-found information to Jamie, but as he walked across the courtyard, he changed his plans. If he told Jamie, no doubt he would go charging off with men and weapons, and perhaps Frances would be hurt in the fracas. No, Tode thought, he would do better to do this himself, and as he well knew, he would be able to get into places that other men couldn't. And besides, this was all his fault, wasn't it?

Tode knew that from the way the message on the arrow sent into Rhys's leg was worded that it was expected that Jamie would know who had taken Frances, so perhaps someone close to Jamie would also know. Tode had no hope of duping Jamie into giving him information that he did not mean to give, but perhaps Rhys would like to have some company.

"I have come to make you laugh," Tode said as he poked his head around the door to Rhys's room, a skin full of very strong wine under his arm.

"And welcome you are," Rhys said, sitting up, then wincing with the pain. "Tell me what has been found. Any news on Frances?"

"Nothing yet, but that is not why I am here. Come, come, you must forget that, or your leg will never stop aching. Let me tell you an amusing story I heard."

Two hours later, Tode left Rhys's room, and he was smiling beneath his hood. It had not been difficult to get Rhys to talk about extraordinary people he had known in his life.

"But no one is dumber than Henry Oliver," Rhys had said after the first hour of gossip and stories. "He thought he was deaf because he had only half an ear." When questioned, he told how Jamie's older brother, when they were children, had hit Oliver on the side of the head with a sword, and when the top half of his ear had fallen off, Oliver had cried that now he would be deaf.

"To this day, I think he still believes he can't hear well out of that side of his head."

"And what sort of man is this Henry Oliver?" Tode asked, trying not to sound frantic. "Dangerous?"

"Oliver? No, not at all, unless blind stupidity makes a man dangerous. He loves Jamie's sister, and he's been trying for years to force Jamie's family into allowing them to marry."

"Force them?" Tode was glad Rhys was getting drunk so that he couldn't hear the rising panic in Tode's voice.

"For years he tried to buy her from Jamie's older brother, and Edward would have sold her, but Jamie's father looked up from his books long enough to say no, that he didn't think that was a suitable match." Rhys chuckled. "I think this decision was influenced by Berengaria saying she'd throw herself off the roof before she married Henry Oliver. And since the death of the brother and father, Oliver has offered Jamie some lands that flood every spring, a few run-down cottages, and some ancient horses in return for Berengaria's hand." Rhys took a deep swig of the wine. "And once he tried to kidnap Berengaria."

"Kidnap her?" Tode asked, unable to breathe.

"Well, at least he threw a sack over her and carried her off."

"What happened?" Tode asked.

Rhys could hardly contain his laughter. "Somehow-Oliver has very poor eyesight-he got the other sister in the bag. Joby. You don't know her, but believe me, no man wants to rile that girl. I'd rather open a bag full of Scottish wildcats than one that contained an angry Joby."

"Like Axia," Tode said softly.

Rhys smiled in a dreamy way. "No, they are not at all alike. Axia is a terror to one man only. Joby makes everyone's life difficult. Except for Jamie's and Berengaria's. Let me tell you what she used to do to her brother Edward."

And with those words, he launched into a completely different story, but Tode had his information, so now it was going to be an easy matter to find out where this Henry Oliver lived and easier still to guess where he was going. No doubt he was taking Frances to his home. No wonder Jamie had not understood his message: "You took my woman so now I'll take yours." In Jamie's eyes his sister never had and never would belong to Henry Oliver, but obviously Oliver thought differently.

So now, leaving Rhys's room, Tode was smiling. He'd found out a great deal, but what could he do with this information? Take it to Jamie? But he knew what Jamie would do, he'd run after Frances and leave Axia behind, as was right. But Tode knew that it was Axia who needed protection, and Tode knew that if Jamie knew that, he would protect her with his life.

How could he get Axia and Jamie away from the Teversham estate before Jamie found out what Tode knew? How could he get Jamie to protect Axia and leave Frances to Tode?

Chapter 18.

Jamie angrily crumpled the message into a tiny ball. He was going to show this to no one. With every pa.s.sing minute he felt more stupid, more helpless, as he couldn't figure out what he should know. Who had taken Frances? From the way the first message was worded, it seemed that he was supposed to know, but he didn't.

He hadn't slept in two days now, and his chin was black with whiskers, but he wasn't going to rest until he found out something. There had to be a clue somewhere. He'd just told Thomas to bring him the stable lad again when this second message had arrived. It said that Jamie was to go west to his uncle's house and wait there for another message.

But what bothered Jamie was that at the bottom of the message was written, "Better take care of your women."

Not "woman," but "women." Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe the writer's pen slipped. Maybe he meant that only Frances was in danger and no other woman.

And too, Jamie was bothered that he'd found the message on his bed, which meant that it had come from inside the Teversham household. It had been put there by someone who was inside the castle, someone so familiar his presence would interest no one.

Jamie could not lose much time in contemplation. He would go to his uncle's house and await further instruction. In the meantime, to make sure she was safe, he'd send Axia away with Tode and Thomas; they were the only people he could trust.

Thirty minutes later, Jamie was cursing, for both Thomas and Tode were down with a debilitating flux. Clutching his stomach as he ran to the garderobe in agony, Thomas was ashen, his guts gripping.

As for Tode, he was so weak he could hardly look up as he clung to Jamie's arm. "Do not let the kidnapper take Axia. You must protect her. I fear that she is not safe here. That man took Frances with everyone looking on. He could do it again."

Tode echoed Jamie's worst thoughts. As Axia had told him, people knew that Frances was the Maidenhall heiress, and perhaps because Axia was traveling with them, they would think that she had something to do with all that gold as well.

Because Jamie had not slept in days, he was not aware of time, was unaware that it was the middle of the night when he burst into Axia's room. Frowning, he was instantly aware that there was no maid sleeping in her room. She was unprotected.

When he touched her shoulder, she snuggled deeper under the covers, so deep in fact that he had to reach down under them and pull her up.

"Axia," he said softly, "I want you to get up. I want you to go with me."

"Sleep," she murmured, keeping her eyes closed.

"No, not sleep. You have to get up. Where is the maid to help you dress?"

"Jamie helps me dress."

Tired as he was, he smiled at that, then gave her a little shake. "We are going to my uncle's. He has a very nice wife named Mary, and she will take care of you."

Yawning, Axia was beginning to wake up. "What are you doing in my room again?" she asked. "Why are you always in my room?"

"I'm a soldier, remember? I go where the danger is."

Axia tried not to smile but couldn't prevent it. "Have you found Frances?"

"No, but I've received a second note, and I'm to leave here at once and go west to my uncle's. It is about a day's ride from here, and you are to come with me."

"Why?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Both Thomas and Tode are ill, so they can't take care of you, and since there is no one else, you must go with me."

He was not prepared for the suddenness of her leap from bed. As she flung the covers back on him, one corner caught him on the eye. Pus.h.i.+ng the covers off his body, his hand to his eye, he wasn't surprised to see a spot of blood on his finger.

With a hand to his eye, he pivoted on one foot and, stretching, caught Axia by the arm before she ran out the door in her nightclothes.

"Tode!" she gasped, pulling against him with all her strength. "I must go to him if he is ill."

Jamie held her easily. "Axia, I am tired; I am worried; do not make my life more difficult. Now come here and see if you have blinded me."

Turning, she saw a tiny spot of blood at the edge of his eye. That didn't bother her, but when he sat down on a chair by the bed, she saw his shoulders sag, and that posture made her see the burden he felt. "Your beloved Tode is all right," he murmured, "merely a flux."

She was fully awake now as she went to a basin and wet a cloth, then standing between his knees, she touched the cloth to his eye. "What is the news?" she asked softly.

"None. I am to wait."

When he looked up at her, she saw the strain of him. There were black circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. If she were missing, poor that he thought she was, would he be looking for her this hard?

She knew the answer to that. Yes, he would.

Fighting an impulse to put her arms around him, she stepped away to stand by the bed, her back to him. "You want me to go with you?" She hated how much hope built up inside her as she waited for his answer.

"I cannot leave you here. I wanted to send you away with Thomas and Tode, but they are both ill. Thomas will join us as soon as he is able."

"And Tode?"

"He is to remain here. Lachlan will look after him."

Whirling about to face him, she said, "Could not Lachlan look after me as well?"

"No," Jamie said. "The note hinted that more than one woman was in danger. That could mean you as well as Frances."

"But Lachlan could take me away somewhere," she said, her eyes pleading. "Oh, Jamie, please. Do you forget that he has asked me to marry him?"

"He meant it in jest!" Jamie snapped. "You had made a fool of yourself in front of all the company so he tried to save you embarra.s.sment."

"Oh? Is that what he did? Then he is indeed a good man. He would be a good match for me, so perhaps if you could persuade him to take me away somewhere, he would propose again. This time not in jest."

He was frowning at her, but he did not answer.

Moving toward him, she again stood between his knees. "Please, Jamie, please. You know that I have no money. Like you I must make a good match, and this Lachlan with his adorable sons would be a very, very good match for me." She was standing very close to him. "Please," she whispered.

Jamie was too tired to think what he was doing, but he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard on the mouth. At least the kiss started out hard, then it turned into such soft sweetness that he was all too aware that they were alone in her bedchamber and she was naked under her nightclothes.

Abruptly, he thrust her from him. "Are you so eager to get a husband that you will take anyone?"

"Oh yes," she said happily. "Anyone except you, that is. You would make me remember that I was poor all the days of my life and that I had cheated you out of the Maidenhall heiress."

With that, Jamie jumped up from the chair, raising his hands skyward. "You know that Frances's father will not allow the match. Most of the trouble now-" Halting, he glared at her. "What is the use trying to talk to you? You are not going to remain here with Lachlan and make a fool of yourself. You are under my protection, and until I am released from that duty, I will see to your care. Is that understood?"

"Quite well. And I am sure that half the household heard you too."

Jamie grimaced. "Get dressed. We ride at dawn." With that he left her room, not bothering to close the door behind him.

But Axia closed the door. Closed it, leaned against it, then smiled. Then she moved away from the door and danced about the room, humming a very happy little tune to herself.

Chapter 19.

Jamie was tired, and his temper was blacker than the circles under his eyes. What in the world had made him decide to take Axia with him? He knew very well that Lachlan would guard her with his life, as would Rhys, and when Thomas got out of bed, so would he. She would have been safe. They would protect her from kidnappers and from Frances's father.

But even knowing that, he could not leave her. It made no sense to him, but he knew that he had to have her with him, where he could see her. Perhaps later he could leave her with his uncle, but truthfully, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to then either.