The Heiress Read online

  After a long time, Jamie pulled her arms from around him, and his eyes locked with hers. “Axia,” was all that he could say, and he kissed her chin and nose. Then with great reluctance, he pulled away from her. “We must go.”

  But Axia’s legs didn’t move, so Jamie swept her into his arms and carried her to the waiting horse, as usual, dropping her into the saddle. Within seconds he had mounted his own horse, and after urging her mount forward, they rode faster than Axia ever had before, and it was all she could do to stay in the saddle.

  It was nearly sundown before they reached the end of the forest, and there was an inn where they could spend the night. During the hours of the ride, Axia had given her concentration to the horse and not to what had happened. In fact, she did her best not to think of it. But images kept flashing through her head: Of the man holding her, of his threats, of his malignant little eyes. She remembered Jamie tossing the knife and how close it had come to her head. But instead, it had sunk deep into the man’s throat, just inches from her own head.

  It seemed that the farther they got from the scene, the more frightened Axia became with her thoughts of what could have happened. Maybe she was better off locked away in the Maidenhall estate. At least there she’d never had to contend with bandits with pistols.

  As the hours wore on and she grew ever more tired and more hungry, the forest seemed more threatening and more horrible.

  When at last Jamie pulled the horses to a stop and helped her dismount, he frowned at her. “You are pale. Come and I’ll get you something strong to drink.” Putting his arm about her shoulders, he supported her as they walked into the inn. “Axia, it is over. Do not think of it more. I will keep you safe.”

  With that he pushed open the heavy oak door and went inside the warm, well-lit dining room, where a fat, cheerful-looking woman came bustling forward.

  “Good evening,” she said cheerfully, then looked at Axia. “Oh, my, the young lady has been hurt. Come, dear, sit down, and I will see to you.”

  Axia didn’t know what the woman meant, but then she turned her head to the side and saw the blood on her shoulder and neck. She was drenched in the man’s blood, blood that must have come from the knife that Jamie threw into the man’s neck. And in that moment everything that had happened became completely real to her. All the danger, all the risk and threat, came before her eyes, and it all seemed to block out the light.

  As she crumpled in a faint, Jamie caught her in his arms.

  Chapter 22

  When Axia awoke, it was to Jamie sitting beside her on a bed in an unfamiliar room. It was dark, a single candle on the far side of the room, but she could tell that dawn was close at hand. She must have slept all night, and given how exhausted Jamie looked, he’d never left her side.

  Opening her eyes more fully, she smiled at him, then startled, she tried to sit up, but Jamie pushed her back onto the bed. “Is it gone?” she whispered.

  “Yes,” he said softly. “All the blood is gone. I cleaned it off myself. Even washed it from your hair.” As he Said it, he looked at her lying there with great masses of soft brown hair spread around her. During the day she kept her hair pulled back and covered so he didn’t see much of it, but now it lay about her like a soft, shining cloud.

  “Why are you looking at me like that? You’re ashamed of me, aren’t you? I have been a nuisance to you, haven’t I? Ever since I met you I have been horrible.”

  “Yes,” he said, reaching out to touch her hair. “Truly horrible. Before I met you my life was so calm and sensible, but now nothing is sane or logical.”

  “Are you teasing me?”

  He gave her a little smile. “Of course not,” he said as he leaned toward a table and picked up a bowl and spoon. “The landlady made you some soup, and I want you to eat it.” Carefully, he brought a spoonful to her lips.

  Whereupon Axia burst into laughter. “Oh, Jamie, I’m not an invalid.” She was not going to allow him to see her embarrassment, for truthfully, no one had ever found it necessary to wait on Axia. She prided herself on never having been sick a day in her life, and it was she who nursed others, not the other way around.

  “All right,” Jamie said, setting the bowl down. “You are healthy and well, so I will go to my own breakfast. I bid you good morning.”

  She could tell by his voice that she had hurt his feelings, but she’d not meant to. Throwing back the covers, she leaped from the bed, then put her hand to her forehead and began to sway on her feet. “Oh, I think …”

  When Jamie did not run to her rescue, she opened her eyes and saw he was smirking at her.

  “Go on,” he said. “You may finish your faint. The bed is behind you.”

  She laughed. “Oh, Jamie, I am starved. I do not want thin soup. I want beef and a couple of chickens and a great huge pudding. And—” She broke off as the images of that afternoon suddenly came back to her, and she sat down hard on the bed. “You killed them,” she whispered.

  Sitting beside her, Jamie put his arm companionably about her shoulders. “It was the only way. I had to do it. I never like killing anyone.”

  Turning her head, she looked at him. “I did not think you were capable of such a thing You are so very nice.”

  “I am what?”

  “You are very kind to everyone, such as Tode and Frances and your men. Everyone likes you.”

  Jamie was smiling at her as he stood up. “But you knew I was a soldier, did you not?”

  “Yes, but I thought you sat on a horse in pretty clothes and—” Jamie was laughing too loudly for her to continue.

  “Get dressed and I’ll go see what the kitchen has to offer in the way of breaking our fast,” he said, still laughing as he turned to leave.

  Rising, Axia caught his arm. “I have never had anyone take care of me before,” she said softly. “But you do. You see that I have hot water for a bath; you make sure I have paper for my drawings; you take care of Tode; you save me from bandits.” In a very natural gesture, she stood on tiptoe and put her arms around him. “Oh, Jamie, I—”

  “Axia, please do not say it,” he said, and there was pain in his voice. “Please, I could not bear it. You do not know what is in my heart, the fight I have between duty and—and love. I must remember my obligations to others. Please,” he said again, then firmly took her by the shoulders and held her away from him. “Get dressed and come downstairs. I will be waiting for you there.”

  With that he was gone. For a moment Axia felt bereft, but then she smiled as she leaned back against the door. It seemed that in the last weeks her mind had come to be filled with nothing but thoughts of Jamie.

  Her dreaminess lasted only moments before she looked about the room and saw that Jamie had put clothes for her across the back of a chair. A dress of deep red wool with black embroidery all along the hem and up the front.

  Dressing as quickly as she could, she flew down the steps and out the back toward the privy and nearly ran into Jamie where he was ransacking the great packs on his saddle.

  “Couldn’t bear to be parted from me, eh?” he teased.

  “Actually, you are on the path to the …”

  Chuckling, he stepped aside. “There is partridge for supper.”

  “Save me a dozen,” she called and closed the door. Moments later, when she emerged, she saw Jamie still taking things out, putting things back, so she went to stand by him.

  When something dropped to the ground, without thinking, she stooped to pick it up. “My cap!” she exclaimed. “My mother’s cap! Wherever did you find it? I lost it in—” Suddenly, she remembered where she had left it: in Jamie’s tent the night they made love. Cutting herself off, she looked at him, hoping that he would not remember where the cap had come from.

  But it was obvious from his face that he did remember, and she did not like what she saw, for Jamie’s face was a mixture of rage and—and, well, maybe murder. “Do not look at me so,” she whispered as she held the cap behind her and began to back up.

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