The Heiress Read online

  Axia had hoped that perhaps he would have been sweet to her, his only child, but she could see that this man had never loved anyone in his life. Rarely had she seen eyes as hard and unfeeling as his.

  Pulling herself up, she stood straighter. If she was to survive this, she must use everything that she had inherited from him. “I am married to him.”

  Maidenhall gave a snort of laughter. “It was but a moment’s work to have that marriage voided. You did not have my permission; you misrepresented yourself when you married him.” His eyes glittered. “In truth I think you will find that the parish register recording your marriage has mysteriously disappeared and the clergyman has now moved to France. I think you would be hard-pressed to prove your marriage ever took place.”

  It took Axia a moment to recover herself. In her daily life and since she had left the estate, she had been able to make any bargain she wanted. She had always found it easy to persuade people to her way of thinking. But now, looking into the heartless eyes of her father, she knew she had more than met her match.

  She took a breath. “What will you do to him if I do not go with you?”

  Maidenhall again gave his rusty little laugh. “Is it love, daughter? I would have thought I had taught you better than that. I took away everyone you could love except a deformed man and a girl who had a heart as dried up as her face was beautiful.”

  Standing back, he looked Axia up and down. “I must say that I am disappointed in you. You believed yourself in love with the first beautiful man you saw. I wondered if you could resist a face such as his. He is—”

  “Go on, say what you must but leave his character out of it. I do not want to hear what you have no right to speak of.”

  Maidenhall smirked at her, letting her know what he thought of her weakness. “I will break him. He will find that he is hounded by burned barns and livestock that dies mysteriously. He and his worthless family think they are poor now, but when I get through with them, they will be fighting swine for food.”

  Axia’s hands clenched at her side. “To do this will cost you much money. What will you do for him if I go with you?”

  For the first time, Axia saw some human emotion in her father’s eyes. She was sure she was wrong, but he seemed to be pleased with her. “I will restore everything to him.”

  “He is proud, and he will not take charity from you.”

  “Then I will make it seem that he has incredible good luck in his life. Someone will die and bequeath Montgomery his land. When he takes his grain to be milled, he will find that he receives more than he delivered. His sheep will multiply at an enormous rate.”

  “Yes, I see,” she said softly and looked across the shady woodland to where the others were watching them. Jamie’s blind sister. How could Berengaria marry without a dowry? Then there was his sister Joby, who seemed to regret that she had not been born a man. It would take a lot of money to pay a man to marry her. Then what of Tode and Frances? Tode was now talking to Jamie, who had his back to her, and Frances was standing alone, her face showing her terror, for what Axia decided to do would decide her own future.

  Axia knew that she had no choice. If she went back to Jamie, her father would ruin him. “I will say goodbye,” she whispered.

  “And tell him of your noble sacrifice?” Maidenhall smirked. “Will he then draw his sword in order to protect you and give my men the pleasure of running him through?”

  “Ah yes,” she said, understanding that she could not tell Jamie the truth. Again she was going to have to lie to him. She looked at her father. “Did he know? Did he know that I was the heiress?”

  “He found out at Lachlan Teversham’s house. Someone there worked at my estate when you were younger; you did not recognize him.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that not where Montgomery first started to court you?”

  “You seem to know a lot,” she said, her mouth a tight line. She needed time to digest this information, that Jamie had discovered that she was the Maidenhall heiress and that was why he had started paying attention to her.

  “I find that information helps to make money. Did you know that those two demons you call sisters-in-law planned all of this? They organized the villagers around here to contribute to a grand wardrobe for your lover, so he could return with the Maidenhall gold.”

  When he saw that she knew of this, his eyes narrowed. “They are the ones who paid Oliver to kidnap you.”

  “Me?” she asked, then smiled smugly. “It seems you have been misinformed. Oliver wanted the heiress.”

  “No, he was to take you away from their brother and leave him alone with Frances. He had been writing letters home about you, and they were concerned that you were trying to entice him away from the heiress.”

  When she still did not seem to believe him, he said, “Their welcome of you was not especially warm, was it?”

  She did not answer him but stared at Jamie, his back to her, one foot on the ground, the other on a fallen log. She did not have to see his hands to know that he was toying with his little dagger as he always did when he was thinking. Even if he had tricked her and lied to her about knowing who she was, she did not blame him. He loved his family, and they needed him. So, dutifully, he had asked Frances to marry him, but when he had been told that Axia was the heiress …

  Without bothering to say another word to her father, she straightened her shoulders and walked across the soft pine needles of the forest floor toward Jamie. She knew that all eyes were on her, but she was not about to say anything to them. Had his two sisters really hired Oliver to kidnap her? Were they so naive that they thought an abduction was an innocent prank? Frances could have been hurt, even killed. And Jamie’s back had been whipped raw.

  All for money, she thought. And pride. This poor Montgomery family had relatives they could go to, but rather than lower their pride, they chose to endanger a woman’s life so they could get the Maidenhall gold.

  And Jamie had agreed with them in all things.

  She knew that he heard her approach, but he did not turn around, and when she was standing in front of him, he wouldn’t look at her.

  “Did you have a good laugh at me?” he asked, looking off into the distance. “Poor naive Jamie. How you and Frances must have laughed! From that first day when I assumed she was the heiress and later when I said you could not go with us. Now I understand everything. Seize the day. Yes, you would need that when rich little you is going to marry your equally rich fiancé.”

  When he turned to look at her, his eyes were colder than her father’s. “Tode says the man you are to marry is impotent. Did you do what you could to get the child that he could not give you?”

  For all that his words hurt, for a moment, Axia wanted to go to him, throw her arms around his neck, and tell him that she loved him and that she understood what he had done and why. But what if he believed her, forgave her? The image of his drawing his sword and attacking all her father’s men came to her. Would Jamie, bleeding to death from a hundred wounds, smile up at her and say, “There were only three hundred of them.”

  “Yes,” she said. “I did. I told you our marriage would not hold. My father has destroyed all evidence of it. I am going with him now.”

  At that, for a fraction of a second, Jamie’s eyes looked as though he wanted to beg her to stay, but then they changed. “I hope you do not do this for any misplaced nobility.”

  He did not say he would do so, but she knew that with one word from her, he’d fight for her. To the death.

  With what she hoped was insouciance, she threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, Jamie, how droll you are. Did you really think I was going to give up the Maidenhall inheritance to marry an impoverished earl? Look at you! What do you have that I could want? Just taking care of your eccentric family would be a lifetime responsibility. A crazy mother, a blind sister, and another who cannot make up her mind if she is a boy or a girl. Why would any woman want that? All I wanted was something to pass the time until my father came to