The Heiress (35 page)

But now she could see that the guard was asleep, his head hanging down on his chest—and the keys were hanging on the wall near his head. If Tode could just get them down soundlessly, without waking the guard, she knew they would have passed the first step.

“What is it?” Berengaria whispered anxiously.

Axia shushed her, fearing that her voice would wake the guard, then she gripped Berengaria's hand hard while she
watched Tode creep forward and remove the keys from the wall. When they jangled, Axia drew in her breath sharply.

“What is it?” Berengaria asked again, making Tode turn and frown.

Annoyed, Axia jerked on Berengaria's hand to let her know she should say nothing, but when she saw her open her mouth to speak again, Axia whispered, “The guard is asleep.”

In a normal voice that in the entrance to the black tunnels was as loud as cannon fire, Berengaria said, “There is no one here but ourselves.”

Axia thought the fear that ran through her might cause her to die on the spot. Anxiously, she looked at the guard, but he remained asleep.

With some annoyance, Berengaria said again, “There is no one here, I tell you.”

At that, Tode stopped, keys in his hand, and looked at the guard. As far as he could see the man was not moving, not even his chest was lifting as he breathed. Slowly, tentatively, he reached out his hand and touched the man's shoulder. His body was warm, but when the man did not flinch at Tode's touch, he put his fingertips to the man's neck.

But when Tode touched him again, the guard fell face forward, the sound of his forehead hitting the table making Axia jump.

Only when Tode pushed the man's body back against the wall could he see the small knife wound in his chest. It wasn't very large, but it was exactly in the correct place; the man must have died instantly.

“Jamie!” Axia said, dropping her flowers, then running into the darkness of the tunnels without giving heed to where she
was going.

Taking the torch off the walls, Tode grabbed Berengaria's hand and followed Axia as fast as he dared, for the floor was so slippery it was dangerous.

The horrid little cell where Jamie had been kept was empty, only a pile of bloody clothes to show that he had been there.

“Where is he?” Axia demanded, as though Tode and Berengaria would have the answer. But even if they had, she did not wait for their reply because she plunged into the darkness of the tunnels outside the cell. She was sure that Jamie could not have gone upstairs; there were too many people who would see and recognize him. The only way he could have escaped was into the tunnels.

As fast as he could, Berengaria's hand firmly in his, Tode held the torch aloft and ran after Axia, catching her as she was about to run down a black corridor. “We must not separate,” he said, looking into Axia's frightened face. “We must stay together. Do you—?” He broke off at a sound coming from the entrance to the tunnels.

“He's dead! Get torches. I want him found!” they heard a voice shouting. “Look! There's a light.”

Without thought, Tode threw the torch into a puddle of heaven only knew what liquid that ran the length of the floor, and they were plunged into darkness. Absolute, total blackness.

When Tode and Axia hesitated, Berengaria took the lead. “Follow me,” she said, and never in her life had she ever loved saying words more. She was the leader now, and
they
were helpless.

The tunnels were dirty and long unused—and as she soon
found, they were full of hazards. In places the floor had caved in or the ceiling had collapsed.

“Be careful here,” she whispered. “There is a hole here. Do not step amiss.”

“How can you tell?” Tode asked, holding her hand, Axia behind him.

“This place is less hazardous than my home, what with the fallen daggers and swords of my brothers. And Joby finds that moving a piece of furniture is easier than walking around it.” For all that there was danger, she could not help feeling a sense of purpose and strength at this new responsibility. For these minutes she was no longer the Family Burden, but someone who was needed.

Now she concentrated on getting them out of there. Pausing, she sniffed the air.

“What are you doing?” Axia asked, impatient. Where was Jamie?

“I am trying to smell the sun,” she replied cryptically. “This way.”

Tode had to pull Axia along behind him, for he was afraid she'd start asking Berengaria questions about how and why, her curiosity overriding her fear.

Now and then Axia would look behind her to see if she could see the torches of Oliver's men, but she could see nothing. In the thirty minutes or so that they had been walking, she was aware that they had passed large obstructions and tiptoed around holes in the floor. She thought that if she could see, she would believe the tunnel to be impassable.

“Wait!” Berengaria said when they came to a wider place in the tunnel, a place so wide that Axia could open her arms and
hit nothing. “Someone has been here.”

“Jamie?” Axia asked, breathless.

“I cannot tell, but I feel that someone has been here.”

“Can you
smell
them?” Axia asked in wonder, and the way she said it made the others laugh.

And it was while they were laughing that the man jumped from the shadows and held a knife to Tode's throat. “One word and you are dead,” came a harsh voice in Tode's ear.

“Jamie!” Berengaria and Axia said in unison, then Axia made a leap in his direction, her hands outstretched, reaching for any part of him that she could find.

“Hell and damnation!” Jamie gasped in shock and some annoyance, but the next second he was pulling Axia to him and kissing her, holding her to him as closely as possible.

“Jamie, my love,” Axia whispered, “I thought I would die without you. Are you well? Did they hurt you?”

“Not at all. They—Ow! Well, perhaps a bit.” He nuzzled her neck. “Will you nurse me back to health?”

“I will do things that will make you want to live,” she said throatily, then there was silence as they continued kissing, their privacy ensured by the blackness of the tunnels.

Standing just a few feet away, two people listened to them with mixed emotions. For many years, Tode and Axia had been everything to each other, but now he could tell that their friendship had changed forever. And Berengaria could feel how much her brother loved this woman who had come so suddenly into their lives and turned it upside down. Now she knew that Axia had done nothing to entice her brother, nothing except love him, love him completely and totally, without thought for herself. Berengaria had not paid much attention
when Axia had said she would give up her own life to save Jamie's, but now she could feel Axia's fear for Jamie's safety as well as her need of him.

Berengaria was glad that someone loved her dear brother the way she thought he should be loved, but at the same time, a great wave of loneliness washed over her. Jamie was her best friend, and he was the only male she had ever known who did not care that she was blind.

As Berengaria was feeling the loss of her brother, Tode slipped his hand in hers, then leaning toward her, he kissed her on the side of the mouth. “You will not be alone,” he said, seeming to read her mind. “Not while I have breath in me.”

“Come, imp, release me and tell me what you are doing here. As if I did not know. Tode! How could you bring her into this mess? Oliver's men are serious in their pursuit of the Maidenhall money. But you allowed Axia—”

“And me,” Berengaria said softly.

While Jamie was speaking, Axia was running her hands all over him to find out what damage had been done to him. She felt him jump at his sister's voice; then she felt the anger rise in him.

“We needed her,” Axia said, trying to head Jamie off. “She can see where we cannot.”

“It is bad enough that you endanger my wife, but to take my bl—my sister,” he corrected himself. “Tode, I hold you accountable for this. You should not have brought women into this. Especially not—”

“Go ahead and say it!” Berengaria spat out. “He should not have brought your useless blind sister into this. That's what you want to say, isn't it?”

“I did not say that nor did I mean that.
None
of you should be here.”

“We came to save you, you ingrate!” Axia said. “And for your information, Berengaria is
not
blind down here.
She
can smell the sun.”

For a moment, Jamie hesitated, then he laughed. “All right, I cannot fight that. Come, let us go.” But to his consternation, neither of the three followed him. Turning back, he said, “They will be searching for us soon. We must find the exit and quickly.”

Axia put her hands on her hips, knowing that he could not see her gesture. “Berengaria can see better than you, so we will follow her.”

It was in that moment that Berengaria decided that she truly loved her new sister-in-law. No one had ever said that Berengaria could do anything better than anyone else. For all that she was blind, she was still a Montgomery, and her pride swelled. “Come. This way!” she commanded and began walking in the opposite direction that Jamie had started to lead.

Jamie was wise enough to concede leadership when he was not the best man for the job, so now he turned and followed the others.

Berengaria led them through what seemed to be acres of tunnel, and after a while Axia thought that she too could “smell” the sun. Once they came upon a ceiling that had fallen, blocking the path. Tode and Jamie cleared the rubble, neither of them allowing the women to help.

“Jamie is hurt more than he lets us know,” Berengaria whispered, taking a sip from the water bottle they each carried. “He is bleeding. I can smell it.”

Axia took a breath. “Yes. I could feel it when I touched him.
Are you sure we are going toward the exit?”

“Oh yes. I can—”

“Berengaria!” Axia suddenly said. “Could you smell the sun if it were nighttime?”

She chuckled. “I cannot actually smell the sun but what the sun does to the land. It makes things grow, and I can smell the plants and the fresh air. It seems so obvious to me which way to go. Can you not tell?”

“Not in the least. Could you find our way back, the way we came?”

“Yes, of course.” With one ear turned toward Jamie as he struggled with the rocks, she said softly, “My brother Edward used to take me into the forest miles from our house and leave me to find my way back. He said that dogs could do it, so I should be able to also. The first time he did it I thought I would stay there and wait for someone to find me, and if they did not, I would die, but then I remembered we had strawberries for supper.”

“Do not tell me that you
smelled
them and followed your nose?”

Berengaria let out a laugh that made the men turn toward them, but neither woman would tell what had made her laugh.

“No,” Berengaria said. “I walked back, stumbling, but I trusted my instinct and found my way.”

Before Axia could ask another question, Jamie told them the obstruction was cleared and they could continue.

An hour later they came to a tangle of roots that blocked the tunnel. “Here,” Berengaria said. “Cut this away, and we will be there soon.”

And she was right when, a moment later, Jamie turned back
to them. “I can see daylight.”

The other three were jubilant, but Berengaria almost wished they could stay in the tunnels, for with light she knew she had to give up her leadership, her usefulness. Once in the light, she would again become the Family Burden.

Using his knife, which the guards had not found in his boot, and a great deal of muscle, Jamie reopened the long-covered opening and emerged into the forest not far from Henry Oliver's house. And the moment he stuck his head up, he saw movement. “Quiet!” he commanded the others still in the tunnel.

Crouching, he ran quickly across the forest floor, the thick layer of pine needles making his footsteps silent. The brilliance of the early morning sun nearly blinded him after so many hours in the complete darkness of the tunnels, and at times he had to shut them against the glare. But he knew he had seen someone move, and he was trying to pursue him.

With one leap, he pounced on him, realizing that the small body under his was that of a child. He was glad, for at the moment he did not feel up to wrestling a full-grown person.

“Hello, big brother,” Joby said cheerfully, looking up at him with laughter in her eyes. “Been playing in the pig pen again?”

With great relief, Jamie rolled off of her, then sat up and rubbed his eyes. He had not eaten in a few days, had had very little water, and there was, of course, his back and now this night spent in the tunnels. He was not at his best.

“Come,” he said. “We must get the others.” Painfully, he rolled to his feet, then looked at the bag Joby had slung across her shoulder. “That wouldn't be food, would it?”

“Two chickens, four cherry tarts, and a few early carrots.” Smiling, Joby gave the sack a pat, which made it squawk and
flop about.

“Raw is it?” Jamie asked, eyebrow raised.

“Fresh,” she corrected him, not allowing him to see how bad she felt at the sight of him. He was filthy, but under the filth was dried blood.

“And who taught you how to poach chickens and steal pies?” he asked with disgust, but he was too glad to see her to actually be angry. He glanced at the bag at her side. “I do hope you have not put the chickens and the pies together.”

“What's a pie without a little chicken …” One look at Jamie made her think again at finishing that sentence. “What have you done with Berengaria and the other two?”

Jamie didn't answer but turned, and Joby saw him wince with pain as he started back toward the exit to the tunnel where the others awaited. “Come,” was all he said to his little sister, and she followed him.