By Love Unveiled (21 page)

If he’d hoped to frighten her by that veiled threat, he didn’t succeed, for the one thing she’d learned from the council meeting was that no one in Lydgate would betray her. She moved mechanically toward the door.

Then he stepped forward to stop her. “I warn you now. I’ll learn the truth if I have to question every man and woman in Lydgate. So it does you no good to fight me. It just prolongs your torment.”

“I’m afraid I have no choice. I can’t say more than I’ve said. Thus I’ll learn to endure the torment and to hope that in time you come to your senses.”

Firmly she removed his hand from her arm. Then, without a backward glance, she accompanied William from the room.

*  *  *

Will stole a glance at the little gypsy. She sat her horse like a fine queen, but the sorrow in her face told him that
her meeting with his master and the council hadn’t gone well at all.

What a shame that he couldn’t do more to help her. But what? Mina was as closemouthed as her fetching aunt. Without knowing their secrets, he couldn’t advise them of how best to deal with his master.

The secrets didn’t bother Will as they did the earl. Will wasn’t bedeviled by the past like his master. He didn’t care what life Tamara had led before. All he knew was he wanted to swing her up in his arms and kiss her every time he saw her. What was it the bloody woman did to him, anyway? After all, she was older than he. A man of his youth could have a number of women. Why go to a hostile wench with a good five years on him?

But her lips were no less pleasurable for it . . . when he could get her to still her barbed tongue. Even her bold manner didn’t bother him. He’d die before telling her, but he enjoyed their squabbles. He liked finding ways to stun her into silence so he could snatch a moment’s sweetness from her.

He sighed. This time he’d have to work hard to get back in her good graces. When she saw how unhappy the earl had made her niece—

Will glanced again at Mina. Poor girl. The master had been a mite harsh on her, and all because he wouldn’t be practical like Will and admit he just wanted the lass in his bed. The earl ought to have bedded her the moment he’d laid eyes on her and put to rest all his doubts. Why, anybody could see she wasn’t a criminal.

As Will watched her, tears escaped from beneath her
lashes, and he felt it like a punch in the gut. “Don’t cry now, miss. ’Twill be all right in time.”

“He’ll never let me go,” she said mournfully.

About that she was probably right. The master’s heart was entwined with hers, though he wouldn’t admit it.

“What shall I do, Will? I can’t bear this much longer without going mad.”

“Don’t say that. What would your aunt say if she heard you talking such foolery?”

Mina stared down at the reins. “What will she say when she hears about today?”

Will started to retort, but something in the faraway gaze of her eyes arrested him. She appeared to ponder some idea. Suddenly, she straightened in the saddle and her face brightened. “Will, would you do me a great favor?”

“If I can,” he replied, watching the play of emotions on her face with keen interest.

“Would you let me visit Aunt Tamara before we go on to Falkham House?”

He should have known she’d want something like that. He couldn’t blame her, for she deserved some matronly comforting right now.

Still . . . “Come now, miss, you shouldn’t ask it of me. I doubt the master would want it.”

“But he needn’t know,” she persisted. “We could just stay a little while. Please, Will. I need to . . . to talk to her.”

The break in her voice made him feel awful. He shifted nervously in the saddle and looked ahead to
Falkham House, a short distance away. He well understood her unhappiness. And the earl had already been allowing her to visit Tamara as long as Will or the guard accompanied her. How was this any different?

He stole a glance at her, and pity welled up within him. The girl was so small and weary. Her cheeks were streaked with tears. What would Tamara say if she found out he’d denied her beloved niece such a simple request?

And why deny her? What could it hurt?

“All right,” he muttered, “but let’s be quick about it. I don’t want the master coming back to find us gone.”

She glanced away. “That would be wretched, wouldn’t it?” She spurred her horse down the road and into the forest, and he followed her. In a short time they pulled up outside the gypsy wagon.

“Come in with me,” she told him brightly as she strode up the steps. “I know you want to see her, too.”

He shrugged, but his steps quickened as he followed her into the wagon. Once inside, they found Tamara sitting on her pallet, working with her needle. She looked up as they entered, and her face lit with pleasure as she saw her niece. Then she caught sight of Will, and her eyes gleamed with a different emotion.

His heart caught in his throat.

“I talked him into bringing me for a visit.” Mina took a seat on a nearby stool, then gestured companionably to the other, so Will sat down as well.

Tamara’s gaze shifted to Mina, and her face darkened. “Has anything happened, poppet?”

“A great deal. But before I tell you, I’d like some tea.” She smiled at Will. “I’m sure our guest would like some, too.”

Will returned the smile. “Actually I wouldn’t mind a bit of something to warm me.” He flashed Tamara a wicked grin.

Tamara scowled at him, then stood and planted her hands on her hips. “The tea can come later. What happened?”

Will watched as Mina stared steadily at her aunt. “Please, Aunt Tamara,” she said in an oddly strained voice. “I can’t talk when I’m parched. Make us some of your cinnamon tea. I do so love it. It’s been a long while since I had any.”

“My cinnamon tea?” Tamara said, a perplexed expression on her face. Suddenly, her face cleared. She flashed Will a searching look. “Ah, yes, my tea. All right then, if you insist on having tea first, that’s what we’ll do.”

Her abrupt acquiescence surprised, then peeved, Will. Why was it she never hopped to do what
he
asked?

She rummaged in a corner of the wagon, then returned with a pot and some packets of leaves and sticks, along with a jar of honey. Dazzling Will with a brilliant smile, she prepared the pot, carefully measuring out various leaves. For a moment, he wondered what all the fuss about the tea was.

Then Tamara passed him on her way out of the wagon to the fire. The sway of her hips absorbed his thoughts, and he didn’t think about the cinnamon tea anymore.

Though those that are betrayed

Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor

Stands in worse case of woe.

—Shakespeare
, Cymbeline

I
s he still asleep?” Marianne pulled on the reins as Aunt Tamara pushed through the wagon’s curtains and climbed up onto the seat beside her.

“He’s coming around, I’m afraid. I wasn’t sure how much opium he could tolerate without tasting it in the tea.”

“I suppose we should have left him there.”

“Then when he awakened, he would have sought out his lordship. The man would have been on our trail immediately. With us in a mule-drawn wagon, Falkham and his great horse would have found us in a few hours’ time. This way we at least have Will under our control.”

Marianne was skeptical about that, as skeptical as she was about Aunt Tamara’s reasons for bringing William with them. “Now we have a man to protect us,” she quipped as she adjusted the mask she’d returned to wearing.

Aunt Tamara merely grunted.

Marianne trained her eyes on the road ahead and wondered how many miles were between them and Garett now. “A pity William couldn’t have slept longer. He won’t be happy when he finds out—”

“Tamara, you damned witch!” came a bellow from inside the wagon.

Aunt Tamara grinned. “I think he’s found out.”

“Untie me this minute!” William shouted. “Or I swear when you do, I’ll beat that sweet bottom of yours ’til you wish you’d never laid eyes on me!”

As Marianne bit back a smile, Aunt Tamara cried into the wagon, “You’re staying put ’til we’re safe away, damn you! So hush your shouting before I stuff your mouth with a handkerchief.”

A tense silence reigned for a long while after that. It made Marianne uneasy, especially since she felt guilty over how she’d tricked William. But she’d had no choice. Garett would have kept pressing the matter until they’d all ended up in the gaol. She couldn’t just let him lead her like a lamb to the slaughter, could she?

Aunt Tamara had been right—trying to find out who’d framed Father had been fruitless. Marianne had simply risked the lives and futures of several people. Well, no more. If they could keep William tied up another day or two, he’d have to go so far to fetch Garett that the two men would never catch up to them before they reached the Channel, and once in France, she and Aunt Tamara would be free of Garett forever.

She sighed. That’s what she wanted. Truly.

Yet the memory of his mouth on hers, his hands caressing her, threatened to swamp her with regret. Fiercely, she reminded herself of how he’d looked in the upper room of the inn, his face clouded over with anger and determination, and his eyes the color of gray ice.
That
Garett was the man she was fleeing, not the Garett who’d showered her with sweet kisses.

Suddenly a crash behind her rocked the wagon.

“Fie on him,” Aunt Tamara snapped as Marianne tried to control the startled mules.

The wagon swayed dangerously, and Aunt Tamara shifted her position. Abruptly an arm snaked through the curtains to snatch her off the seat and into the wagon’s dim confines. Marianne halted the mules, then thrust her head through the curtains.

William sat cross-legged on the wagon floor with Aunt Tamara’s bottom settled in his lap. The rest of her flailed around the two wiry arms gripping her waist. Although she kicked and struggled furiously, William had the upper hand.

How had he escaped his bonds? And what was she to do about it? As strong as she and Aunt Tamara were, they could never subdue William long enough to tie him up again.

“Let me go, you brute!” Aunt Tamara beat on his arms with her fists, but it did her no good.

William merely glared at Marianne. “What did you two sly wenches do to make me sleep?”

Marianne swallowed. She had to convince him not
to take her back to Lydgate. “It was harmless, William, really. Aunt Tamara put opium in your tea, that’s all.”

“You should have slept longer,” Aunt Tamara bit out, giving up the fight. “But fractious man that you are, you couldn’t be reasonable. How did you get loose?”

William shifted Aunt Tamara on his lap as if she were a sack of meal. “I was a soldier once, remember?” He thrust one leg out, and for the first time Marianne noticed the knife handle that peeked above the edge of his boot.

Aunt Tamara saw it, too, and reached for it, but he jerked her back against him. “Not so fast, my bloodthirsty wench. I can well imagine what you’d do to me with
that
. I don’t like being trussed up, so I’ll just hold on to it for a bit. And you.”

That sent Aunt Tamara into a frenzy of struggle.

He swore under his breath. “Be still. You ain’t going nowhere yet.”

“Please let her go,” Marianne said. “She can’t harm you now.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. So tell me—where do you suppose you’re off to?”

“France,” Aunt Tamara answered. “Mina and I shall put as many miles between us and that demon master of yours as possible.”

“Was I going with you?”

“Aye,” Marianne answered. “At least as far as the Channel. Then it’s your choice—return to Garett or stay with us.”

Aunt Tamara snorted. “There’s no choice for him—he’s not staying with us after we reach the Channel.”

William dropped his head to plant a quick kiss on Aunt Tamara’s head, and she turned a brilliant shade of red. “You wouldn’t want to lose me now, would you, love?” he murmured with a grin. “I could be useful to you both. You’ve need of a man to take care of things.”

“Then you’ll go with us?” Marianne asked.

William’s grin faded. “Nay. I must return to my master. And you at least must return with me.”

Since William had slackened his hold on Aunt Tamara, she chose that moment to jab her elbow into his stomach.

Though he grunted, he tightened his arms around her waist. “By my troth! Don’t you ever sit docile like a woman ought?”

“I’ll not be docile if you carry my niece off.”

“Besides,” Marianne put in, thinking quickly, “you can’t make us go back. There’s two of us to your one. You could return alone, but by the time you arrive, Garett will have decided you willingly helped us escape. He won’t be likely to take you back in his employ.”

William scowled. “You’ve thought this all out, haven’t you? Trying to ruin my life after all I’ve done for you.”

“Done for her?” Aunt Tamara fairly screeched. “You helped him keep her captive, or have you forgotten?”

William eyed them both keenly. “Well, ’tis really of no consequence. Garett will find us before we even reach the Channel.”

Marianne ignored a quick spurt of apprehension. “He’s hours behind us. And he stayed in town to
question people. He may not even have returned to Falkham House yet.”

Oh, Lord, she dearly hoped that was the case. William’s loud guffaw told her that he didn’t think it was.

“The master could no more stay away from you than a wolf can stay away from a doe,” William said dryly. “He’ll be on our trail already, I warrant you. And I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when he catches up to us.”

Aunt Tamara twisted to gaze up at him. “And how will he know which way we’ve gone, Sir Know-It-All? We could have taken a hundred different roads.”

William shrugged. “ ’Twasn’t but three months past that the master tracked a man through Spain and caught up with him a week after the villain fled to Portugal. His lordship did that on a mission for the king. And he won’t give this any less attention. He’ll find us, and there’s naught you can do about it.”

Much as she wanted to scoff at William’s words, dread stole over Marianne. Then something else he’d said caught her attention. Three months past. Three months past her father hadn’t yet been accused of trying to kill the king.