The Heiress (33 page)

Joby was not put off by this unusual retaliation. “Did you trick my brother into marriage?”

“Yes!” Axia answered immediately. “I put on an alluring
gown and used my fatal beauty to ensnare him. After all, he was such a marvelous catch. Not a penny to his name and three women to support. Of course, there is that beauty of his, and that certainly puts bread on the table. Tell me, how do you people make it through a winter here? I have never seen such mismanagement in a kitchen as in yours. And just look at these fruit trees! They haven't been pruned in ten years, so you'll get half the crop you should have. And look at those flowers. They're a waste of space. Since you have so little land, you should use all of it for what you need. Put beans in there or onions.”

It took Joby a moment to catch her breath. “The flowers are for Berengaria. She happens to like them. She has little enough in life, so she can at least have flowers to smell.”

“Heavens above, but your sister is merely blind, there is nothing
wrong
with her. She'll like the smell of a good bean porridge this winter more than all the roses in the world this summer.”

“How dare you—”

Berengaria's laugh cut her off. “Joby, I think you have met your match. I think—” She cocked her ear, as she could hear someone coming.

With a smug look directed toward Axia to let her know that she understood Berengaria even if she didn't finish her sentences, Joby turned and ran through the gates. Berengaria knew the steps of every person on the estate and when there was a stranger, she was the first to know.

“What a truly horrid child,” Axia said the minute Joby was out of sight.

Feeling a bit of a traitor, Berengaria could not help giving a small smile. “I am sorry—”

Axia cut her off as she did not want to hear what she had to say. There was part of her that wanted to tell them the truth of who she was, but she did not want to be hated because she did not have money, then loved because she did—if she hadn't already been disinherited, for surely her father had heard of her defection by now.

Joby was not going to leave her sister alone with the usurper, so she was back in seconds with a message. “It is from Jamie, and he says that he needs to stay longer. Oliver will not release the heiress.”

“There was nothing else?” Axia asked, hating herself for lack of pride, but she so wanted to hear from Jamie, and now she wished that he had sent something personal to her. It seemed years ago that they had made love and he had held her in his arms.

“Nothing,” Joby said in triumph as she handed the letter to her blind sister.

Watching, Axia saw Berengaria run her hands over the letter. “He is lying,” Berengaria said. “Jamie is in danger. He wants us to get help.”

“I will send a messenger to the Montgomerys, and they will come to us,” Joby began. “And we will—”

Axia was silent as she thought about what had just happened, that Berengaria could feel a piece of paper and know what the writer was feeling when he wrote it. She was nearly faint with the implications of such a talent. “You can tell if someone is lying or not?” she whispered in awe. “Do you
know how much
money
you could make with such a knowledge?”

Joby turned on her. “Berengaria is not to exploited! It is disgusting to think of Berengaria sitting in a booth and telling fortunes by holding someone's hand.”

“You can do that
too?”
Axia asked, wide-eyed.

For several moments, Berengaria sat silently blinking as Joby, with great disdain, explained that she and Berengaria were not of the merchant class, to earn their living by pedaling themselves.

When she could stand it no more, Berengaria said, “But, Joby, we need money. And we tried to peddle our brother's beauty, so what is the difference?”

Joby turned on her sister in horror, feeling greatly betrayed. “It is not the same at all.”

With a deep sigh, Berengaria dropped the issue. She was not going to be caught between Joby and her new sister-in-law, but she had to admit that Axia's words appealed to her. How very much she would like to be useful, to not be the Family Burden.

A
xia was looking from one of her sisters-in-law to the other. In the time she had been there, the youngest, a twelve-year-old daughter of Satan, had done all she could to make Axia's life hell. No matter what Axia did, according to the appropriately named Joby, she did it wrong. Even cleaning up that pigsty they called a kitchen was an act of aggression, according to Joby.

All Axia had been able to think of was Jamie's return. He could straighten his sisters out. But now it looked as though she would be here longer, for they were discussing sending for their illustrious relatives to help Jamie out of whatever problem he had. Meanwhile, Axia thought, Jamie might be in danger. This time he might have been attacked by twenty men, and even he couldn't fight off that many. They could lock him in a dungeon, starve him, beat him. She had to shake her head to clear it of these horrible thoughts.

And immediately, she thought,
What about Frances?! Who is taking care of Frances? What if she is held captive near daisies?

Suddenly, Axia's head lifted at the same time as Berengaria's. Someone else was coming, only this time Axia knew that step well. Without a glance to her new family, she picked up her skirts and began to run.

Tode barely reached the gate of the old castle before Axia saw him, and without a care for what the people around them thought, she ran to him, arms open wide. Catching her to him, he hugged her so hard, her feet came off the ground, and she buried her face inside his hood, tears of joy pouring down her face.

“I have missed you. I thought of you every minute,” she said.

He was laughing. “Even when you were with your handsome Jamie?”

“Yes, of course,” she said, laughing. “For what is a
husband
compared to a friend?”

For just a moment, Tode leaned back and looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and in that moment, she knew that something was different about him. Had her marriage affected him so that he would change toward her? Why was he not laughing at her joke?

“You must be tired,” she said. “Come inside, and let me take care of you.”

“All right,” he answered, taking her arm and leading her,
and again she thought that something was different about him. The minute they were inside, she meant to find out everything.

Stopping only long enough to order food and drink for her friend, Axia led him up the steep spiral stairs to the best room of the house, the solar. She could tell by the way he walked that his legs were hurting him very much, and when asked, he told her that today he had walked or been jostled in the back of a wagon for many miles.

When Axia entered the solar, her happiness faded as she saw her two sisters-in-law waiting for her, for now she'd have to share Tode with them. But then she thought how much Tode would like Berengaria, because she could not see what he looked like.

“I want you to meet my sister-in-law. She is blind!” Axia said, and there was much pride in her voice.

Both the beautiful Berengaria and the boy-dressed Joby were staring at Tode with blank stares. Because he was wary of beautiful women, Tode assumed it was Joby who was blind. Throwing back his hood, he smiled at her, then when he saw the look of revulsion cross her face, he instantly pulled the hood back up and looked away.

Axia gave Joby a look of anger, then pulled him toward Berengaria. “No, that is Joby. I want you to meet this one. This is Berengaria,” she said, then introduced him.

“Ah,” Tode said smoothly, again pushing his hood back, seeming to disregard Joby's stares as he gazed at Berengaria's perfection. “I could not guess that eyes so beautiful could be without sight. But then those of us who can see are allowed to
endlessly bathe in your beauty without appearing rude.” Reaching forward, he picked up her hand, and for a moment he caressed it. “May I?” he asked softly, then when Berengaria nodded, he kissed the back of her hand almost lovingly.

It would have been difficult to guess who was more astonished: Axia or Joby. Never in her life had Axia seen Tode act so with another human being. She'd seen him with women, with blind women even, but he had always stayed in the background, never pushing himself forward as he was now. And he knew how to position his body and to turn his head just so, so the scarred side of his face would not show. But now he was standing with his hood back, the mutilated side of his face fully exposed to Joby and herself.

As for Joby, she was more interested in Berengaria's reaction to this deformed man than to his reaction. Berengaria was very shy with strangers; she never liked to be alone with anyone she had not known for years. But here she was, allowing this awful man to kiss her hand! In fact, he was still holding her hand.

It was Joby who recovered from her shock first, going to Tode and Berengaria and physically separating their hands. And Axia was right beside her. In one instant the two of them had gone from being enemies to allies, united in astonishment.

Turning, Tode gave Axia a fond look, an almost fatherly look, as he bent and kissed her cheek, then said, “Ah, the food has arrived. Come, ladies, and sit with me. I will enjoy your company.”

Saying that, he easily and naturally slipped his arm around Berengaria's and led her to the table, where the meal was being
spread out.

Behind them, in stunned silence, stood Joby and Axia. Axia was in shock because Tode's behavior was so out of character, and Joby could not believe that a man who looked as though he were part of a traveling show was taking over
their
household. Who was this man anyway?

Tode had seated himself at the small table with Berengaria next to him, leaving the bench on the other side of the table for Joby and Axia. “Come, girls, do you not want to hear my news?”

Girls?
Axia thought as she went toward the bench, Joby right beside her.

As soon as they were seated, Tode began to tell his story, but it took Axia a while to hear what he was saying. There was no mistaking that he still looked like her Tode, but his body now seemed to be occupied by the spirit of another. For one thing, he seemed to have taken possession of Berengaria. Only one plate had been set on the table, but Tode, in a natural gesture, had moved it to halfway between himself and Berengaria. As he ate, he placed small bits of food into her hand: succulent pieces of fruit, buttered bread, a morsel of beef on the end of a little silver knife.

It took Joby's explosion to make Axia hear what Tode was saying.

“Jamie!” Joby shouted. “Henry Oliver has put our brother in a dungeon?” At that she drew a dagger from its sheath at her side and stood. But Tode caught her arm.

“Sit!” he commanded, and she did so.

“There is nothing we can do now, at least not in full daylight,”
Tode said. “I would like a few hours rest, then I will return.”

Joby, not liking the way this scarred man had come into their lives as though he owned them, said, “What can
you
do?” with a sneer.

“Joby!” Berengaria said sharply.

From the moment Tode had said that Jamie was in danger, Axia had not been able to breathe, but now she was recovering herself enough that she could whisper. “Tell me everything. I must know it all,” she said softly.

“This Henry Oliver is not as stupid as people think. He has a bit of cunning, and he has set his heart on—” Stopping, he looked into Berengaria's lovely face. “On you,” he said softly, making Berengaria turn pink with a blush. “I can understand that now.”

“What of my brother?” Joby shouted at him.

Unperturbed, Tode started eating again. “Oliver is determined to have her, and he says he will hold Jamie until he agrees to allow him to marry his sister. And he will hold Frances until her father pays a ransom.”

At this Tode looked hard at Axia, letting her know that her father had now been notified of the exchange. Joby looked at the dagger still in her hands, because she knew that she was the cause of two people being held prisoner.

Tode continued. “There are underground tunnels leading from Oliver's house to the sea. They are dark and damp, and cells have been carved out of them. Jamie has been held in one of these for days. I tried to get to him, but the guards saw my torch, and I was”— he smiled—“detained.”

At this Joby and Axia nodded, but Berengaria drew in her
breath. “How did you escape them?”

“I played the fool,” he said simply. “I merely had to act idiotically, and they were laughing.”

For the other two women this was easy to understand, but Berengaria was puzzled. “How could
you
play the fool?”

As Joby and Axia watched in stunned disbelief, Tode picked up her hands and put them on his face, guiding her fingers to feel the scars of his face, then downward onto his neck.

“My legs are also scarred,” he said, looking into her eyes, their noses but inches apart.

“And if you think my sister is going to be allowed to feel
those,
you'd better think again,” Joby half snarled.

Blushing again, Berengaria took her hands from Tode's face.

With a smile that Axia had never seen before, Tode turned back to the table and the food.

“We will get the Montgomery cousins here,” Joby said. “They will raze that place of Oliver's and hang his fat body from the nearest gibbet. They will—”

“There is no time. I must return tonight and see what I can do.”

“Yes, I'm sure
you'll
be a great deal of help,” Joby said contemptuously.

Tode did not bother to speak, but the look he gave Joby made her shut up. He let her know that she was a child, and as such, if she wanted to stay with the grown-ups, she had better mind her manners. Neither Axia nor Tode knew it, but it was the same look that Jamie often sent his little sister's way.