My Lady Vixen (8 page)

Moreover, her breasts were tender to the touch and appeared to be fuller, the nipples darker. She was torn between telling Adam and remaining silent, certain that it would make little difference to him. In fact, her pregnancy probably would fit into his plans admirably. How fitting that he should be returned to her father not only dishonored but pregnant. How Adam would laugh when he found out! In the end she kept her own counsel.

Fighting off twinges of nausea rumbling through her stomach, Alexa wandered downstairs, wondering if Adam was about or off on another of his mysterious jaunts. On a whim she entered the study, for she rarely sought him out there, and spied him instantly, standing in an outpouring of sunshine as he stared somewhat pensively out the window, Only it wasn’t Adam. Almost immediately Alexa realized her mistake. Their muscular forms were nearly alike but there the similarity ended. The unruly mop of red hair could belong to no one but Mac.

Something must have alerted Mac to Alexa’s presence for he whirled to face her, his bright blue eyes twinkling merrily at the sight of her lovely face. He opened his arms wide and Alexa had no compunction about flying into them.

“Oh, Mac,” she sighed, “it’s so good to see you again! When did you arrive! Does Adam know you’re here? Where is he? Not off on one of his mysterious trips, I hope.”

Mac laughed, happy and relieved to see Alexa looking so well. Adam had not lied to him. He had done Alexa no harm. “One question at a time, milady. I arrived last night and I’ve already seen and spoken to Adam early this morning.”

“Is … is Fox here also?” Alexa couldn’t help but ask.

Mac eyed her curiously. “No, I’m here alone.”

Alexa bit her tongue to keep from inquiring further into Fox’s whereabouts. Instead, she asked, “What are you doing here? Where is Adam?”

“I’m here at Adam’s request. Lady Alexa.” Alexa’s heart rose like a stone in her breast.

“He’s gone, isn’t he?” To her dismay, her voice broke slightly and a shadow of alarm touched her face. Every fiber in her body warned her what was coming next and she steeled herself against the impact by sitting in a chair, her thin fingers tensed in her lap.

A look of tired sadness passed over Mac’s features. “Aye, Alexa, he’s gone. I’m to take you back to your father.”

A flash of wild grief ripped through her, and when she lifted her eyes, the pain still lingered. Beneath his breath Mac cursed Adam a hundred times over for hurting this young, innocent girl.

“It’s what you want, isn’t it?”

Biting her lip she looked away and stirred uneasily in her chair. Her composure was a fragile shell around her and she measured her words carefully. “Of course I want to return home. It’s what I’ve always wanted.”

“Good.” Mac smiled uncertainly, though her brave words did not fool him one bit. He could read in Alexa’s eyes the truth of her feelings for Adam. That damn fool had somehow made Alexa fall in love with him. Mac wondered if Alexa knew the extent of her own feelings for Adam. “How soon can you be ready?”

“I’m ready now.” She shrugged carelessly. What did it matter when she left? “But if Fox isn’t here, how will we leave? By coach?”

“I have a ship, milady. A captured British frigate. Fox has been so active in these waters the past three months that
The Gray Ghost
is too easily recognized and he dares
not venture into London Harbor as he did previously. It was agreed that I should escort you home. I … I renamed my ship. I call it the
Lady
A,” he said shyly. “I hope you don’t mind.”

Alexa smiled warmly. “Of course I don’t mind, Mac. It was thoughtful of you. I’ll be proud to sail aboard my namesake.”

“Er … I hope you have something more suitable to wear, milady. I’m afraid my men would forget their duties if you were to come aboard dressed like that.”

Only then did Alexa give a thought to the inadequacy of her attire. She blushed hotly at the warm look kindling in Mac’s eyes as he swept her thinly clad form from head to toe, liking what he saw. “I … I still have the sailor’s garb Adam gave me. I’ll change immediately.”

Alexa was out of the chair and nearly to the door when she turned to face Mac, asking, “About Adam. He’s with Fox, isn’t he?”

Mac nodded solemnly. “Fox was ordered back to American waters by Captain Jones and Adam went with him. The search for Fox was becoming too heated for the Captain’s liking. As for Adam, it was past time for him to return to his home.”

“What about his inheritance?”

“He never intended to remain long in England. He signed the lands over to a distant cousin, the money and title he kept for various reasons.”

“So this is how it is to end,” Alexa stated with finality. “I’ll never see him again. Did … did he leave a message for me.”

“No, milady, I’m sorry.”

“No need to be sorry, Mac.” Alexa smiled a parody of a smile. “I believe he left his message loud and clear last night.”

Alexa thought of the cold, perfunctory way Adam had made love to her last night, and what he was trying to
convey to her. His callous actions revealed to her that she was little more to him than a warm body, that his only interest in her was her close relationship to John Ashley, her father. Through her Adam was finally able to avenge his own father’s death. Now he was free to go on with his life, forgetting Alexa as if she never existed. Little did he know that he was leaving a part of him behind. Already she felt possessed by the child she carried beneath her heart.

Dragging in a deep breath; Alexa controlled her trembling and left the room. Behind her Mac cursed the day he met Adam Foxworth and agreed to his harebrained scheme.

Halfway up the stairs, Alexa froze, every nerve-ending tingling with a new discovery. There was one chance, albeit a remote one, that Fox had fathered her child, not Adam!

London
1778

Because of her unorthodox garb Alexa was grateful to Mac for hiring a closed conveyance to take her to her father’s house. Aware of the fact that the London season had just begun. Alexa knew her father would be at their townhouse located on a fashionable square surrounded by a green park. She prayed desperately that her arrival would pass unnoticed for soon enough her name would be on the tongue of every scandalmonger in London.

When they arrived at the gates of the huge two-story mansion. Mac insisted he accompany Alexa to the door, but she quickly disabused him of that notion. “No, Mac,” Alexa shook her dark head. “It’s best for all concerned that you not be seen. I have no idea how my father will react or what he might do.”

“He won’t harm you, will he?” Mac asked anxiously. According to Adam, John Ashley was the devil’s own disciple.”

“I’m his only child, Mac,” Alexa assured him confidently.
“He won’t punish me for something over which I had no control.”

Mac was not at all certain about that, but had no recourse but to allow Alexa her own way. “All right, Alexa, you know your father best. But if you should need me for any reason I’ll be staying at the Stag and Horn for two weeks before I leave London.”

“Will … will you be seeing Adam any time soon?” Alexa could not help but ask. She could have bit her tongue once the words were out of her mouth and she turned her face aside before she noticed Mac’s pitying look.

“I don’t think so, Alexa. But if I should do you wish me to convey a message to him?”

“No,” Alexa lied unconvincingly. “The sooner I forget him and get on with my life the better. I’m certain Charles and I will be married once he learns I have returned.”

Her words were spoken so bravely, with such conviction, that Mac felt compelled to place a tender kiss on her forehead. “Be happy, milady.”

There was great sadness in his eyes as he watched Alexa’s small form leave the carriage, and Mac knew he could remain no longer. From the first moment he laid eyes on Alexa he had lost his heart to her. Had he been on the same social level with her he would have offered marriage rather than return her as Adam ordered. But he knew his dreams were impossible. He was but one son among ten offspring of poor Irish immigrants. He could offer Alexa nothing but his love. Better she should marry her Charles and take her rightful place among her peers. Had he known from the beginning how deep his feelings ran for the beautiful Alexa he would never had allowed Adam to carry out his devious plan to avenge his father’s death through the innocent body of Lady
Alexa. Friend or not, Mac would have fought Adam to the death rather than allow him to defile Alexa.

Alexa felt her small frame shake violently as she grasped the large brass knocker in trembling fingers. Why should she feel such fear? she asked herself dully. This was her home and her father would no doubt be happy to find her safe and sound. Banging the knocker three times, she stood back to wait.

Within minutes the door was opened to reveal a pleasant-faced older woman dressed in a black dress covered by a voluminous white apron so spotless it dazzled the eyes. Her gray hair was drawn into a neat bun and her dark eyes viewed the bedraggled figure standing on the doorstep with compassion.

“Beggars are fed at the back door,” she said not unkindly as she started to close the door.

“Maddy, wait, it’s me!” Alexa cried, dismay clouding her perfect features. “I’ve come home!”

The housekeeper recognized her mistress the moment she heard Alexa’s voice. “Oh, my lady Alexa!” she cried, throwing her apron over her head, “you’ve come home!”

Alexa stepped inside and shut the door behind her, then moved to take the sobbing Maddy in her arms. Maddy had been their housekeeper for as long as Alexa could remember and the closest thing she had to a mother. Maddy had bestowed love and understanding freely on the motherless child when Alexa’s father was too busy to care.

“I’m home, Maddy,” Alexa crooned consolingly. “Don’t carry on so. I’ve not been harmed.”

“But the note, milady! The note your father received said you were … were …”

“We’ll talk about it later, Maddy,” Alexa said, fully
cognizant of Adam’s cruelty. His note to her father must have been explicit in revealing his intentions toward Alexa. “I need to talk to my father first. Is he home?”

John Ashley stood at the top of the stairs, thoroughly annoyed at having his work disturbed by loud voices. Still handsome and trim at forty-five, he frequently displayed a raging temper and mean streak that kept the servants terrified. To Alexa, he rarely showed this side of his nature, but with his cohorts he earned the reputation of being a man easily aroused to vindictive acts when crossed. He was invaluable to King George for he could be counted upon to deal swiftly and ruthlessly with enemies of his country and his king. No compassion existed in his stalwart body.

With the possible exception of his daughter, John Ashley exhibited strong feelings for nothing or no one. At least that had been so for the past eighteen years. And had Alexa not been such a loving and dutiful daughter, his disposition would have been entirely different. After he had killed his wife’s lover he watched carefully throughout the years for some manifestation of his wife’s unfaithful nature in her small daughter. But thankfully the child had grown up in her father’s shadow exhibiting no sign that she would develop into the wanton her mother had become. Until now, that is.

“Oh, Sir John!” Maddy cried joyfully, “Lady Alexa has returned!”

Sir John stared incredulously at the slim figure ill-clad in a dirty white shirt and trousers, her long dark tresses covered by a wrinkled kerchief. “Alexa, is it truly you? What are you doing here?”

Alexa had been in the process of throwing herself into her father’s arms when his words stopped her cold. Her violet eyes gew wide with confusion as she watched him slowly descend the stairs until he stood before her.
Alexa gasped as he skimmed her slim figure with barely concealed contempt.

“Father, what’s wrong? Aren’t you glad to see me?”

“I would think you’d have the decency not to return.”

“I … I don’t understand.”

“Well, I understand only too well where you’ve been and what you’ve become. Your lover’s note explained all too clearly. To think that a daughter of mine should become whore to the spawn of Martin Foxworth, the man responsible for your mother’s death!”

“My mother! You said my mother died in an accident.”

“So she did. One of her own making. When I killed her lover she took her own life. They wanted to go away together. Did Foxworth tell you why I killed his father?”

Stunned, Alexa nodded miserably. “He told me.”

“Your mother claimed she loved him. She wanted to take you and go away with him. I threatened to kill them both before I’d allow that to happen. I did kill Foxworth, quite handily, I might add. Who knows, I might have killed your mother had she not been too cowardly to face me and taken her own life. You were abandoned by her. Alexa. Abandoned because her life held no meaning without her lover. And now you, my own daughter, have been corrupted by another Foxworth. Bah! You disgust me!”

“Father, you must know I didn’t go along with Adam willingly! I was taken against my will, forced to submit in order to satisfy one man’s thirst for revenge. I was nothing but an instrument through which Adam Foxworth gained his end. Surely you can’t hold me responsible when I am innnocent of any wrongdoing.”

“All these years I’ve done my best to raise you into a decent young woman,” Sir John contended coolly, “despite the fact that your mother was a slut. But to
what end? You’ve proved that you’re both cut from the same cloth. You allowed yourself to be corrupted by a man whose name I have reason to hate above all others. Did you swoon in his arms and cry out with ecstasy when he touched you?”

Alexa flushed. Did her father know how close he came to the truth? “It wasn’t like that! What was I to do? Kill myself?”

“Aye!” Sir John shouted despite Maddy’s loud gasp. During the entire exchange Maddy had stood helplessly by while her employer heaped abuse upon his daughter. “That’s exactly what any decent woman would have done. She would have killed herself rather than submit. Just how did Adam Foxworth manage to carry you off from your own party beneath our noses? How did he get into the grounds?”