Macbeth's Niece (22 page)

The man’s face tightened. Mairie’s jaw
clenched and she nodded involuntarily, as if to say she’d known
there was something between Jeffrey and Tessa. After a moment,
Hawick regained control and let out an ironic laugh. “Well, my
dear, it seems we both made a bad bargain. I am to have used goods,
and you may well have a very short future.” Tessa felt the blood
drain from her face, but she forced her expression to remain
unchanged as Hawick continued, wagging a finger under her nose,
“Unless you behave very, very well.”

He laughed at his heartless jest and pushed
his bulk back from the table. “So, now we will forget the past and
make our way to the bridal chamber.” Mairie smiled slyly again, and
Tessa felt a wave of fear. “But I thank you, lass, for the
information. There is yet time to be rid of Brixton if he gets in
my way, but for now I shall let him live. Perhaps I shall take him
with me to Inverness, for he is an amusing fellow, and I like a man
who might be worth a bit o’ gold.” He raised his voice and
announced he and his new wife would retire to their chamber.

With much merriment and many ribald
comments, Tessa and Hawick were escorted to a room on the second
floor. Hawick made a great joke of carrying Tessa across the
threshold, to the delight of his men. Tessa did not resist, knowing
that was futile, but held rigidly still as she was set back on her
feet inside the room. Hawick dismissed the crowd of raucous
attendants with a mock-gallant bow and a lewd wink. Because of his
status, the chamber had a real door, which he shut and locked,
pocketing the key. Sounds of laughter died away in the passage. A
few last comments floated back as the party retreated. The outlaw
turned to face Tessa, who stood where he had set her, frozen with
dread.

“Now, lass, let’s see what I’ve got in this
bargain,” he growled. His eyes went to the front of the gown, and
Tessa put a hand to her chest involuntarily. Then anger replaced
fear and her old fire returned. For once Kenna might have approved
of her daughter’s indomitable spirit.

“I cannot stop you, outlaw, and you will do
what you will do. But understand that you will never be able to
turn your back on me, nor will you ever have a kind word from me,
even on your deathbed.” Tessa hissed.

“Words, my dear, were not what I had in mind
from you. I care not for your heart or your mind, but I will have
your body, and as you say, you can do nothing to stop me.” Hawick
chuckled deep in his throat, advancing upon Tessa and pulling her
to him. Frantic now, she tried to push herself away with both hands
against the man’s huge chest, but he was strong and soon held both
her arms tightly at her side, his face close to hers. She made an
involuntary sound of distress that amused Hawick.

“Never be shy about making noise, lass. The
household will enjoy hearing your screams, for they are a rowdy
lot.”

Tessa knew there was no hope. Hawick’s hands
tightened on her arms, and he pulled her even closer, his lips
nearing her own. His eyes, staring into hers, gleamed with
amusement. Then they crossed, uncrossed, rolled up into his head,
and closed. After teetering for a moment, his grip on her arms
loosened and his oversized body dropped to the floor in an
undignified heap.

“She can’t stop you, but I can,” said
Jeffrey Brixton, and Tessa almost fainted with relief.

Chapter Nineteen

Amazed, Tessa stood looking down at Hawick’s
prone figure for a moment. Finally she raised her eyes to see
Jeffrey, wrapped in a black cloak that had served to hide his
presence in a shadowed corner of the room. He clutched what looked
like the leg of a stool in one hand. Directing his now-familiar
look of amusement at Tessa, he asked, “Have I done the right thing,
or were you expecting a night of bliss with this fellow?”

His cool manner irritated Tessa after the
tense events of the evening. “Of course not,” she snapped. “They
forced me to marry the man.”

“Well, then, we must do what we can to get
you away from here before they discover your objections to being an
outlaw’s wife.”

Tessa said no more, though she understood
nothing. Jeffrey seemed to change from one moment to the next, but
if he was willing to help her escape, she was certainly no worse
off to go with him than she had been moments ago. She moved to
assist him as he gagged Hawick’s mouth with his own belt. Together
they tied the limp hands tightly with strips of cloth torn from the
bed linen, then lifted him onto the bed, tying him to the slats so
he would not be able to move when he woke.

“Now, how are we to get out?” Jeffrey mused
as he checked the tension of the knots. “The gates will be shut by
now, and I may be missed at any moment.”

“Where were you?” Tessa asked.

“While you were being prepared for a fate
worse than death, the lovely Mairie suggested we go for a stroll in
the autumn evening, actually more a command than a request. She was
very cool about it, I must say, but I had my suspicions. Still, she
got me out of the hall with no one to wonder where I might be, so I
went along. She locked me in the stables, having some suspicion I
might interrupt your nuptials, which it turns out she was quite
correct to conclude.” Jeffrey grinned in the torchlight.

“It serves you right for chasing after that
painted wench,” Tessa began, but a thought cut short her tirade.
“Oh, Jeffrey, I can’t be married to this man!”

Brixton misunderstood her meaning. “Well,
they did get a priest, but I believe your uncle will see to an
annulment when he understands you were coerced into marriage.” It
was a hopeful thought, although Jeffrey didn’t know everything.
Tessa could not bring herself to mention her first marriage at the
moment. It was too complicated, but the thought Macbeth could
arrange an annulment might work as well for Cedric as for
Hawick.

“I hope my uncle does not tire of my
explanations. I have been nothing but a problem to him. First he
must take me in, then I reappear from the dead, and now I’ll be
needing a marriage dissolved.”

“He has problems to deal with much larger
than you,” Jeffrey grimaced. “Still, we must get you away from here
and back to him, which won’t be easy.”

As he spoke, Jeffrey searched Hawick’s
pockets and recovered the key. Unlocking the door, he peered into
the passageway then signaled Tessa to follow. He locked the door
behind them and set the key high on a rafter, out of sight. They
crept down the narrow stone passageway toward the stairs leading to
the great hall, where they could hear the revelers still drinking
and talking, their drunkenness obvious from the volume and tone of
the proceedings. A smaller, darker passage led off on the other
side of the stairs, and with great care not to be seen, they
crossed the open space and entered it.

“The servants’ quarters,” Jeffrey whispered.
“If we’re lucky, they’re still at work downstairs.”

They were not that lucky, for a moment later
Brenda came out of a room, her brown eyes widening at the sight of
the two of them. Jeffrey motioned for her to be quiet, and Tessa
felt his body tense to grab the girl if she disobeyed. Quickly
Brenda made up her mind. Pointing over her shoulder, she bade them
follow.

A few steps down the corridor was a small
room mostly taken up by a spiral staircase. Brenda whispered
quickly, “This stair goes down the back o’ the house. If ye are
careful, ye can go through the scullery t’ the bin where th’ peat
is stored. Above it is a chute that leads outside. Once there, ye
must be watchful, for folk are about and the gate is already shut
for the night. I dinna know how ye macht ge’ oot o’ the place.”

“I have some ideas on that,” Jeffrey told
her. “But I thank you for your help.”

“We are very grateful, Brenda,” Tessa
whispered.

“Master Brixton has a’ been kind t’ me,” the
girl said simply, “and it hurt me t’ see ye forced to marry Hawick,
even if ye be not really married to ‘im. Tha’s an evil man.”
Jeffrey gave Tessa an odd look but asked no questions, his mind
focused on their escape.

With a quick hug for Brenda, Tessa followed
Jeffrey down the back stair. They found the scullery easily enough,
and the chute, though a tight fit for Jeffrey’s shoulders, was big
enough to allow passage. Once outside, Jeffrey wrapped Tessa in his
black cape to hide the white of the gown, not so white as it had
been a few minutes before. They slipped through the shadows toward
the stables, staying close to walls and objects in the courtyard to
hide themselves from sentries on the parapet.

Since the guards’ attention was focused on
what went on outside the bailey, not inside, no one noticed them as
they approached the stable end where a small shed housed grain for
the animals. Jeffrey indicated where he had escaped by loosening a
board on the side wall. They entered the same way and were soon out
of sight.

“We are safe for a few hours,” Jeffrey
announced softly. “Mairie promised she’d let me out in the morning.
I suppose she believed I would lose interest in interceding once
the wedding had been consummated.”

“And why did you intercede?” Tessa asked
him. “You say you don’t remember me yet release me from a man who
will kill you if he finds out. At times it seems you care nothing
about me, then you risk your life to help. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Jeffrey spoke honestly. “I
know I care what happens to you, no matter what we have been to
each other in the past.”

A rather nervous cough sounded just then
from a haystack in one corner of the room. “Who’s there?” Jeffrey
called out. He still clutched the stool leg, his only weapon. Tessa
smiled as the smell of cumin arose.

“Never fear, I am a friend,” said a voice,
and Banaugh’s face appeared in the gloom.

“Banaugh! Oh, Banaugh, I thought you were
dead!” Tessa ran to the old man and embraced him, delighted to find
that he lived. “I thought they had—How—?” She stopped in
confusion.

Banaugh chuckled in the darkness. “Thank yer
young man there, Master Brixton. After Hawick told his tame wolf t’
kill me, he rode off. Jeffrey stayed behind, and ye should ha’ seen
the show he put on. I was convinced m’sel he were a monster. ‘Let
me kill the auld man,’ he says, cool as you please. ‘I have a score
to settle with him and with the girl.’” Banaugh caught Jeffrey’s
clipped accent with the skill of a practiced storyteller. “He even
slipped th’ man a gold coin as a bribe!”

“I steal them from Hawick’s coffer. How else
can I make friends among these mercenary types?”

Banaugh chuckled. “He was a’ so convincin’.
The man agreed t’ it, can ye imagine? I though’ I was done then!
Jeffrey guides me off into the brush and then tells me t’ let out
m’ death yell. I was willin’ enough, and he throws a rock into the
river, like it were m’ corpse, y’ ken.” Though she could not see
the old man’s face in the darkness, Tessa could picture the grin
that spread across it as he described Jeffrey’s cleverness. “So he
saved m’ life, and I ha’ been hidin’ here until I could think of
how t’ rescue ye. Now that he’s got ye away from Hawick, we shall
a’ get out o’ this den o’ thieves somehow.”

Tessa turned back to Jeffrey, whose face was
becoming slightly visible as her eyes got used to the darkness. “So
you haven’t fallen in with these people?”

Jeffrey let out a sound of mixed laughter
and disgust. “If you knew how I’ve lied, flattered, and smiled to
stay alive all these months! When the men who took me from the sea
brought me here I was quite helpless with what was probably a
broken skull. Hawick almost killed me then rather than go to any
bother, but little Brenda nursed me back to health, at least in
body. Once I recovered, Mairie decided she found me interesting, so
I was allowed to live. They had my papers and sent a ransom letter
to my family—to my brother?” He stopped, a question in his
voice.

“Your brother William holds the Brixton
title.”

“And he hates me?”

Tessa tried to be tactful. “Not hates, I
daresay. I believe William loves only money. You and he did not see
eye to eye, and you left home to be a soldier. He probably feels he
owes you nothing.”

“Not very brotherly, to leave one at the
mercy of this lot.” Jeffrey’s tone was angry, and Tessa could not
blame him. William, in his safe dwelling in London, could not
imagine what it had been like for Jeffrey to live in constant
danger of having his throat cut the moment Hawick ordered it. But
then, according to what she knew of William, the affairs of anyone
other than himself seemed to be of little concern to the man. Had
he not ordered her out of his house knowing full well she had
nowhere to go? Cedric had saved her then, but it was only Cedric’s
lust for power—and for her—that had made him take her part. Were
all men concerned only for their own desires?

Still, Tessa had done the same thing: used
what was available to her to survive. Could she blame Jeffrey for
dallying with Mairie when it had kept him alive? If she did, then
Aidan was correct to condemn her marriage to Cedric. Both were
choices made for survival, not for love.

“He’s not an overly kind man, your brother,”
was all she said. “I believe I saw the one they call Dougal at
Brixton shortly before I left, looking angry. I suppose William had
dismissed him, thinking him a liar.”

“And why did you leave Brixton?”

“After Eleanor died, William discovered I
was not Eleanor’s sister, as she and I had led him to believe. He
requested I leave.”

Jeffrey’s face told her he understood
immediately the predicament she had been in, the unwelcome guest of
a man such as William. She wondered how much of his memory had
returned, but he made no reference to his role in her abduction.
“As you say, my brother is not overly kind,” he said with great
irony. “What did he expect you to do, on your own in a strange
country?”