The Heiress Read online

  “Do not speak of your father so. Do not—” Jamie knew that what was wrong with him was that he could not seem to think. Marriage was a major decision, and it could not be taken lightly. If he enraged someone as rich as Maidenhall, what would happen to his family? He must think of them. “I will—”

  “You do not like me,” Frances said, her lower lip stuck out in a pretty pout. “You do not like me at all.”

  “But of course I like you,” Jamie said, but even he knew there was no conviction in his voice. Truthfully, he hadn’t thought much about Frances one way or the other.

  “I believe I understand,” Frances said coldly. “It has often been this way. I am, after all, the Maidenhall heiress, and that tends to frighten men. No man can love me for who I am. It is only the money they want. It is Axia who inspires men to love her. Look at Tode, horrid thing that he is. He loves her. Your man Rhys cannot take his eyes off her. He is courting her. Even your Thomas has thoughts of her. It is only me men cannot see for my gold. Axia is right: I am not human, I am my father’s gold.”

  With that she turned back toward the camp, but Jamie caught her arm. Joby had always said that a woman had only to tell Jamie a sad story and he turned softer than rainwater.

  “Frances,” he said softly, “it is not so. You are a very sweet woman. Any man would be happy to have you for his wife.”

  “Oh, Jamie,” she said and threw her arms around his neck. “I knew you loved me. I knew it. I will make you the best of wives. And your family will have warmth and food and all the best that the Maidenhall money can buy. You shall see. You will be the happiest man on earth.”

  Pulling away from him, she took his hand. “Come, let us tell the others.” Her eyes lit as an idea came to her. “Yes, and you must write my father. I will write him too. We will put our letters together and send them by the same messenger. I am sure my father will agree, as he will love having a daughter called by the title of lady. Come, come, do not hesitate.” Pausing, she looked at him. “Is something amiss? Is not this what you wanted? You are going to be married to the Maidenhall heiress. Please tell me now if this is not what you wanted.”

  “Yes,” he murmured. “This is what I must do. It is what my family needs.”

  Stretching out her arms, Frances twirled about. “I am the happiest woman on earth. And you? Are you not also happy?”

  “Oh yes,” he said, “very, very happy. Truly happy.” But there was only the sound of sad resignation in his voice. “Come,” he said slowly, “we must return to the others.”

  “Yes, we must tell them,” Frances said happily, then paused. “But, Jamie, dear, let us not tell about the letters to my father. Axia will … Well, you know what she is like. We will just say that we are to be married secretly. Is that all right with you?”

  “Yes, of course,” he said, then with a great sigh, Jamie followed her down the path back to the camp.

  My dearest sisters,

  All your dreams may come true. It seems that I may be married to the Maidenhall heiress. No, do not think it is a love match, it is not. Frances is in need of rescuing. She needs protection and we need a new roof. Is that not how all the best marriages are arranged?

  However, I do not believe this marriage will take place as I am insisting on begging her father’s permission. As he has already contracted for his daughter’s marriage, I cannot see how he will agree. But Frances thinks he will give his permission; then we must be married immediately.

  I will let you know what comes of this.

  Do you remember Axia who I told you about? She is proving herself to be quite useful, as she buys and sells wherever we go. Although she told outrageous, but highly amusing, lies to make the sale, she sold an entire wagonload of cloth for coins and animals. Then she traded some of the animals to a country merchant for a hundred pairs of shoes, and she used the coins to buy a thousand buttons from a widow walking back from her husband’s funeral. Afterward, she put all of us, except the heiress of course, to sewing the buttons on the shoes and the next day sold them for twice what she’d paid for them.

  Rhys says that in one week she has tripled the value of the original cloth, and he laughs that in a month she will be able to buy a house. But I fear that Rhys may be in love with her. And Thomas too.

  However, due to Axia’s bargaining, I have not spent any from the Maidenhall purse for days now.

  We will be staying at Lachlan Teversham’s house for a few days while we await the arrival of the Maidenhall wagons and the letter from Frances’s father, so you may write me there.

  I send you both my love and my prayers.

  Your loving brother,

  James

  PS. I am sorry, but that purple silk doublet was ruined when Axia set fire to it and to me, but do not worry, for the burns healed quickly.

  * * *

  “Well?” Joby asked her sister. “What do you think now? He is going to marry the Maidenhall heiress, I am sure of it. I am sure Perkin Maidenhall will be delighted for his daughter to marry Jamie. After all, he is an earl.”

  “I am not so sure,” Berengaria said as she breathed deeply of the aroma of the flowers that grew in the tiny garden behind the old castle. “Do you think if this rich man had offered his daughter to Jamie, our brother would have refused the Maidenhall heiress? Would any man? So there must be hidden reasons that he offers her to a rich merchant’s son, as there are many impoverished titled men who would have taken her.”

  “True,” Joby said thoughtfully but not wanting to think about that. “What do you think of this Axia?”

  Berengaria hesitated before answering. “I think she is the most interesting person I have ever heard of.”

  “Interesting? I would imagine that woman walking back from her husband’s funeral did not find her ‘interesting’. It is a wonder someone did not put this Axia in a dunking stool.”

  “On the other hand, what was the woman going to do with a thousand buttons? Perhaps she was grateful for someone stupid enough to want to buy them.”

  Joby stopped walking and looked at Berengaria. For some reason, their roles seemed to have reversed. Usually, it was Joby who was cynical and disbelieving, but now Berengaria was the one putting grief on a monetary level. For some reason, there was something about this Axia that Joby did not like.

  “Oh, Joby,” Berengaria said with a sigh, “are you never romantic? You are afraid that our dear brother, who is very romantic, will fall in love with this impoverished Axia and we will never have enough to eat.”

  “According to you, he already is in love with her,” Joby muttered. “But what do you mean that our dear brother is romantic? Was it romance that has made him such a good soldier?”

  “Of course.”

  “You are crazy! What is romantic about killing and maiming?”

  “You know very well that Jamie hates all that. What he loves is the feeling of honor and justice and fighting for good over evil.”

  “True,” Joby said slowly, “but what does that have to do with this Axia? I think she is making our brother demented. He says she has set fire to him.” She narrowed her eyes. “I would like to set fire to her.”

  Berengaria looked sightlessly into the distance. “Will you gather me some of those cherry blossoms? By the smell of them we will have a good crop this year.”

  Taking her dagger from her side, Joby cut some branches off the nearest cherry tree. “What shall we write to our brother?”

  “You mean, what can we write to him to make him truly fall in love with this rich woman who he says he might marry but admits that all he wants from her is a new roof?”

  “Exactly. You do not think Jamie’s sense of honor would extend to love in a marriage, do you? We are too poor to think of love.”

  “And he has too many burdens,” Berengaria said with bitterness. “Mother and I are—”

  “And me,” Joby said. “I want to be like the queen and never marry!”

  “Well, I want to be like a queen bee and have a