The Heiress (23 page)

But this time Jamie didn't allow her to press herself against him as she reached for the dress. Instead, he lifted it from the hook himself and sat with his arms folded across his chest as she struggled to get it on over her head.

“Axia, you are telling too many lies,” Tode said.

Quickly, Axia glanced at Jamie to see if he'd heard this, and of course, he had. He lifted one eyebrow at her in question.

“I think we should talk of this later,” Axia said loudly. “I will explain everything to you when we are in private.”

“And we are not now private?” Tode asked quietly. “Axia, what is wrong with you? You have done something with Frances, have you not?”

“No, of course not,” she said honestly, her head buried inside the dress. Usually, she didn't have trouble dressing herself, but then she didn't usually perform for some man, so now her arms and fingers seemed to catch in every seam and fold.

Then, as her head poked through the dress, she suddenly remembered everything she and Frances had talked about before she went to sleep. With the way Jamie had wakened her, no wonder she had forgotten the stupid thing Frances had done. She had told Frances to wait for her in the unpainted wagon and she would arrange for Tode to meet her there. But there had been no time to arrange anything. And from the look of the sun peeping down low in the shutters, she must have slept for hours.

In spite of everything, Axia smiled. “I know where Frances is,” she said and almost laughed. For all Frances's insolence,
she could be quite obedient. Once when they were children, Axia had told Frances to hide, saying she'd search for her. Something had happened on the estate that made Axia forget all about games, and so it was many hours before Tode noticed that Frances was gone. One of the gardeners had found her asleep inside a shed at the bottom of the garden.

So now Axia knew that Frances was waiting for her inside the wagon in the stables, waiting for Axia to tell Tode and for Tode to take her away—and get her out of the mess she was now in. Thinking of Frances waiting for hours inside a hot wagon, nervous and not knowing what was going on, made a little giggle escape Axia.

“Axia! What have you done?” Tode demanded.

Axia had to think quickly. She couldn't tell Tode the truth, not with Jamie listening to every word. What would he do if she told him that she feared that her father was going to send an army of men after them?

Instantly, Axia's mood went from laughter to fear. How many hours had she slept? “Did you look inside the wagons?” she asked as innocently as her nervousness would allow.

“Of course I did. The painted wagon is gone, and she's not in the other one. Did Montgomery take the wagon?”

After a glance at Jamie to see him shake his head, she said, “No. I mean, I doubt that he did. Maybe it needed repair. Maybe someone liked my painting.” What in the world had Frances done now? Fallen asleep in a wagon that was to be taken to the blacksmith's?

Turning her back on Jamie, Axia stood still while he drew the laces together and fastened her dress. She could tell that
he was extremely interested in what was being said.

The second the laces were tied at the bottom, she fairly leaped around the screen to see Tode standing by the window, his hood pushed back, and when he saw her, he opened the shutters, filling the room with the dying light of the day.

“I have slept most of the day,” she gasped, and a faint feeling of alarm crept into her body.

“Axia,” Tode said softly. “I think Frances has been abducted.”

“No, of course she hasn't. How could she have been? I have not told you—” With a glance at the screen she stopped.

“Not told me what?”

“No one here knows that she is the Maidenhall heiress,” Axia said loudly. “So why would she be taken? I am sure she is around somewhere. Did you look in both wagons?”

Tode narrowed his eyes at her. He was not going to answer the same questions twice, and he was growing more suspicious by the minute of Axia's behavior. “Why would Frances want to be in the wagons when there is a house? You know she hates the wagons.”

“Frances hates so many things I cannot keep up with them. Let us go outside and—and look for her. Yes, I will help you search.” Axia's mind was racing. Frances couldn't have arranged her own abduction, could she? She did not like Tode, so maybe she had decided to get away without him. But the idea was to make Jamie leave as soon as possible in pursuit of her so he would not be here when Axia's father sent an angry army. So a silent departure was defeating the purpose. Even Frances would understand that, wouldn't she?

Axia was saved from answering by a loud, urgent knock on her bedchamber door. When the door was flung open, she saw Thomas standing there, his face showing that something was wrong.

“Is he here?” Thomas asked.

Axia did not like the assumption that she would know who “he” was. “To whom do you refer?”

Thomas didn't waste time telling her. “The Maidenhall wagons have come, and they bring with them the body of Rhys.”

Jamie did not waste time as he knocked the screen to the floor and strode across it. Without one look at Axia or Tode, he followed his man from the room.

Axia started to run after them, but Tode caught her arm. “What is going on?” he demanded. “And I want no lies from you.”

Axia took a breath. She didn't know why, but she was beginning to be sure that everything had gone wrong. “Jamie sent a letter to my father asking for permission to marry his daughter. Frances.”

It took Tode a moment to comprehend what this meant. They had never before been so stupid as to incur the displeasure of Perkin Maidenhall, but they had heard of it. If Maidenhall knew of the switch, what would he do to Frances and Tode? Would he lock Axia away for the rest of her life?

Axia clasped Tode's arm with both her hands. “I was going to get you to fake a kidnapping and take Frances away. Jamie would follow you and so none of you would be here when my father and his—Oh, heavens, but I do not know what he will
do to us when he finds out.”

Tode pulled himself up to his full height. Had his legs not been as they were, he would have been a tall man. “This is all my fault. I take full responsibility. I should never have allowed you to do this, but—”

“But you loved me,” she said with resignation. “That is the problem. You wanted me to have some happiness, some freedom for however long I could.” Her head came up. “Rhys! I must go to him. Oh, Tode, what have we done?”

A
ll right,” Jamie said as he glared down at Tode and Axia, “I want to know what is going on.”

It was two hours after he'd hidden behind the screen in Axia's room, and during that time he'd been through hell. Rhys had been shot through the leg with an arrow while attempting to follow the painted wagon out of Lachlan's land. It was only by chance that he'd seen the wagon when he was returning from a day's hawking with Lachlan. His first thought was that the wagon was being sent for repairs, but he decided to make sure.

He was still a hundred yards from the wagon when he was brought down by an arrow, an arrow with a crudely written message attached to it.

“You took my woman so I will take yours,” the message read.

Jamie quickly ascertained that his man was not in life-threatening danger, but he still didn't know who had taken Frances. How could a man walk into the gates and in the midst of a few hundred people take her without anyone noticing? Surely the man had to make a threat or cause some commotion to get Frances to go with him? Surely Frances would have raised an alarm. Her sense of self-preservation would undoubtedly cause her to do something to let people know she was in danger.

Jamie reread the message and knew it made no sense to him. Who had done this thing? Was it something personal to him, or did it have to do with the Maidenhall heiress?

All Jamie knew for sure was that Tode and Axia knew a great deal more than they were telling. Now, standing while they sat, he paced in front of them. “You have two seconds to tell me everything.”

“Or you will do what?” Axia taunted, her arms folded. “I would rather eat live frogs than tell you anything at all. Not that I know anything, but I am sick of being blamed for everything. I had nothing to do with Rhys being shot. If you'll remember, Rhys asked me to marry him, and I think I might. I think I will nurse him back to health and marry him. Then—”

“Axia and Frances planned to fake a kidnapping,” Tode said tiredly.

“Tode!!” Axia gasped, looking at him with hurt eyes for his betrayal.

He didn't turn to her, but she could see that his eyes were furious. “Do you not yet realize that Frances has actually
been kidnapped? We do not know where she is, and if the villain knows that she is the Maidenhall heiress, he could ransom her piece by piece.”

As though a mountain had dropped on her head, Axia suddenly realized that Frances could very well be in danger. And if anything did happen to Frances, it would be her fault. Frances had said that if she posed as the heiress, she would be the one in danger.

“Why?” Jamie said, looking at Tode, trying to keep his anger under control.

“The letter,” Tode answered, not looking at Axia. “You said you were going to write and ask permission of Perkin Maidenhall to marry his daughter. Frances thought she could prevent you from sending such a letter because she knew that her father would
never
agree to her marrying anyone other than the man he's chosen for her. She desperately wants to get out of her marriage to Gregory Bolingbrooke any way she can, and she thought that if she could trick you into a secret marriage …”

Trailing off, he looked at Jamie, his eyes dark as he stared at Tode. Until now Jamie had been gentle and kind, but now Tode could see how he'd become a renowned soldier. Tode ran his hand about his neck as the room seemed to have become suddenly very hot. “When Frances found out that you'd sent the letter, she was afraid her father would send men. So we decided that I was to take Frances away, and we thought that you would follow so neither of you would be here when Maidenhall's men arrived.”

“So you planned a fake kidnapping,” Jamie said flatly.

“No,” Axia said heavily, “
I
planned everything. Tode had nothing to do with it. I was going to put the plan into execution, but I fell asleep.”

For the first time since he'd entered the room, Tode looked at Axia. If nothing else, she was brave. But now all he seemed to remember was James Montgomery pushing down that screen in her room and walking across it. Axia had been behind that screen dressing. What had they been doing in the room before he entered?

“What other secrets do you have?” Jamie asked calmly.

“None that have any bearing on the matter at hand,” she said honestly for Frances's safety was all that mattered now.

“It is not her fault,” Tode said quickly before Jamie could ask another question of Axia. “She was trying to save Frances. Can you not think what Maidenhall will do to Axia? He thinks that the cousins should look out for each other.” Tode swallowed as he thought of Maidenhall's wrath when he found out about the switch. “It was Frances who was trying to trick you into a marriage that her father would no doubt have annulled even if he had to buy half of London to achieve it.”

“I see,” Jamie said after a moment. “Every one has secrets, but now Frances really is kidnapped and we don't know by whom.”

“And it is all my fault,” Axia said, her heart in her eyes. “If Frances is killed, it will be my fault.”

As Tode watched, Jamie went to her and knelt before her. “Come on now, imp, don't lose courage on me now. Whoever has her will probably fall in love with her at first sight.” He put his fingertips under her chin. “And, besides, if this is anyone's
fault, it is mine. The note said, ‘You took my woman so I will take yours.' But the truth is, he should have given his name and his full address so I could distinguish him from all the other cuckolded men from my past.”

When anger at those words replaced the misery in Axia's eyes, Jamie smiled at her, then stood, and he was serious once again. “You may sit, Tode,” he said graciously. “I am sure your legs could use the rest. It looks to me as though I must find a solution to this,” he said, but in the next moment the door burst open, and Thomas shoved two people into the room. One was a pretty little maid, the other, a stable lad by the smell of him, and from the color of their faces, it was easy to guess what they had been doing when Thomas found them.

“Tell him,” Thomas said quietly but in a voice of command.

The girl sat on the floor, threw her apron over her face, and began to cry loudly. The boy looked as though he wanted to go to her, but he was shaking too badly.

After a confirming glance at Thomas, Jamie went to the girl and held out his hand to her. That was all that was needed to calm her. Between Jamie's looks, his beautiful clothes, and the very elegance of him, her tears dried instantly.

And when he spoke, his voice was as soft as honey, and Axia had heard that tone only once before: on the night she had been Diana. “No one is going to hurt you, and there will be no punishments. I just want you to tell me what you know.”

The boy, still sitting on the floor, looked up at Jamie with jealousy. Standing, he moved toward Axia. “You mean about the lady? The beautiful lady? The most beautiful lady in the world?
That
lady?”

Turning his back to the girl, Jamie gave the boy a look that quelled him, then he returned to the girl. “Tell me what you know.”

After a smug look at the boy, she looked up into Jamie's eyes. “She came to the stables by the wagons, the wagons you brung.”

“Frances?” Jamie asked.

“Yes, that one. I was there to escape the heat of the kitchens if you know what I mean.”