The Highwayman (19 page)

“Does that sound satisfactory, my dear?” Selby said, interrupting her reverie.

“Yes indeed.”

“My children from my first wife, Margaret and John, are both married and long gone from this house. Margaret is living in Italy with her husband. John is called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn and seldom comes out this way, but if either of them require the hospitality of this house in my absence, I expect that you will offer it to them.”

“Of course.”

“I have agreed with your uncle to make provision for you in my will, and a copy of that document is in his hands right now.”

Alex nodded. She had not expected Cummings to waste any time.

“My children’s share has already been distributed to them, inter vivos, and the bulk of the estate is entailed for my son. So it is all settled, and you will have no cares on that score.”

“I’m sure everything is in order,” she murmured. She didn’t care what arrangements had been made, but she was sure that Philip Cummings had driven a good bargain.

Selby stood up. “It occurs to me that you might be troubled on another matter.”

Alex waited.

“I do not expect you to fulfill your obligations on the physical side of marriage.”

Alex looked at him blankly.

“Neither one of us has entered into this arrangement for that reason,” he continued. “As you are already with child, I think it will ease your mind to know my mind on the subject. I have had a room prepared for you next to mine, where you will have privacy and comfort and can live unmolested. There is a connecting door between the two rooms for form’s sake, but I shall not be using it.”

Alex tried not to show the relief she was feeling. Thank you, merciful God, she thought. She had been prepared to go through with all of it, but the thought of sleeping with this man after her passionate lovemaking with Burke had given her some awful moments.

She found her voice. “I’m very grateful,” she said. “You’ve rescued me from a questionable fate and seem to be asking for nothing in return.”

Selby held up his hand. “I do ask that you serve as lady-in-waiting to Her Majesty when she is in residence at Nonsuch, Oatlands, and perhaps Richmond.”

“Oh?” Alex had not known she would be shouldering this duty, and it was typical of her uncle to have omitted the information.

“The queen is not often at Oatlands, except in hunting season. She prefers Nonsuch, or Richmond, which is warm in winter, closer to London, and big enough to cater to her entire court. But it has always been the custom of the women of this house to attend her whenever she is close at hand. I doubt it will be in summer, as she progresses through the south from Greenwich then, but if she wishes you to follow her to Richmond, or indeed anywhere else, you must do so, and leave Mrs. Curry in charge here. As you may know, the queen is abrupt and changeable, and if she takes a fancy to you will expect you to wait upon her at her behest. Beyond that, it is true that little will be demanded of you, and that your uncle has made this marriage very much worth my while.”

“How?” Alex couldn’t resist asking.

“He has been assigned partial revenues from the import of sweet wines, in perpetuity, and has agreed to a limited partnership in the enterprise with me.”

“That franchise belonged to Lord Essex,” Alex said in surprise.

“He has transferred a fifth portion of it to your uncle.”

Alex smiled thinly. “And your taking on the charge of me was part of the deal,” she said.

“Your kinsman hopes that marriage and the responsibility for a child will settle you.”

“I could hardly do worse than previously, in his opinion,” Alex said, sighing. “I fear my uncle is severely disappointed in me.”

“High-spirited young girls are often settled by a stable marriage. You will be well treated here and can recover from an experience that I’m sure was something of an ordeal.”

Alex looked at him with alarm. What on earth had Cummings told the man about her time in Ireland?

“I loved the father of my baby, Lord Selby,” Alex said. “I still do. If it were at all possible, I would be with him now.”

“Oh, I’m sure, I’m sure that is very true,” Selby said. “Now, in view of our contract lately made, don’t you think you should call me James?”

* * * *

Throughout the summer, the rebels continued to fight the English to a standstill. The armistice was declared in September. Essex met with Hugh O’Neill, earl of Tyrone, at the River Langan—Essex on the shore and Tyrone astride a horse in the water. The two men agreed to an immediate cessation of hostilities and a future devise of home rule for Ireland. Then Essex returned to England and an irate queen, who put him under house arrest for ignoring her orders. The world waited to see what his eventual fate would be. He had calmed her and won her to his side often before, and bets were heavy that his charm would claim the day again and he would once more dominate the court.

Burke left Tyrone in the north and rode for Inverary the same day peace was declared. Aidan and Rory insisted on going with him. The truce should protect them, but it was new and fragile, and no one could predict what Carberry’s reaction to their arrival would be.

When the trio rode up to the gates of the castle, the guards presented arms.

“Kevin Burke seeking admission for an audience with Master Carberry,” Burke called out in English.

Carberry’s men stared at him, lately a prisoner in their dungeon, now demanding to see the lord of the castle.

“Did you not know that the peace has been made, and that you must honor it?” he asked them, smiling slightly.

They glanced at each other nervously, and finally the captain of the guard broke from his position and called for the drawbridge to be lowered. It creaked down and shuddered slowly into place, and then the captain strode across it and disappeared into the cavernous entrance of the castle.

They all waited in silence for his return, the Englishmen lined up with their lances at the ready, the mounted Irish gazing straight ahead and controlling their restive horses.

The captain returned minutes later, stopped at the nether end of the drawbridge, and called loudly through his cupped hands, “Admit the visitors!”

The English parted ranks, and the Irish rode between them across the bridge, their horses’ hooves clomping loudly. When they dismounted in the courtyard, pages came forward to take the horses and Burke strode purposefully through the entrance, his brother and his cousin slightly behind him.

Carberry and Cummings were waiting in the great central hall, and Burke noticed with a distinct feeling of unease the expression on Cummings’ face. He didn’t look like a man whose cause had recently been defeated.

“Where is she?” Burke demanded.

Cummings smiled unpleasantly.

“Have you still got her locked up in that tower room?”

“I assume you are referring to my niece,” Cummings said.

“I am, and well you know it. Where is she?”

“She is not here.”

“What have you done with her?”

“She’s gone.”

Burke stared at him, his fists balled at his sides. “What do you mean, gone? Gone where?”

Aidan and Rory exchanged glances.

“Gone back home to England, where she’ll be safe from you and all of your kind. She was very glad to go and to put all of this, and her captivity with you, well behind her,” Cummings said.

“I don’t believe a word,” Burke said as he took a step forward.

Two guards closed in, and Rory grabbed Burke’s arm.

“Mind yourself, man, you could forfeit the peace over this,” Rory said to him in Gaelic.

“And so could they!” Burke fired back.

“He may be telling you the truth,” Aidan said to his brother.

Burke eyed Cummings. “I want to see the room where she was kept,” he said. He made for the stairs in long strides before anyone could stop him.

The guards started after him, but Carberry waved his hand dismissively. “Let him go. He’ll find nothing.”

Burke stormed up the stairs two at a time and burst into the tower chamber where Alex had been confined. The room had obviously been abandoned for months; it smelled musty, the cupboard was empty, and the window was barred with dusty shutters.

Burke ran back down the stairs and confronted Cummings. “What have you done with her?” he cried again, this time in anguish, the cords standing out in his neck.

“Did you think to find her here, knitting a kirtle and waiting for you like patient Griselda while you fought your nasty little war?” Cummings said.

“If you’ve harmed her, I’ll kill you,” Burke said flatly.

“Harmed her? I think not. She has made a splendid marriage and is most content and settled in her homeland, quite undisturbed by thoughts of you, I feel certain.”

“Marriage?” Burke said incredulously.

“Kevin, leave this and let’s away,” Rory said quietly in Gaelic. “You heard the man, she’s married.”

“You expect me to take this blackguard’s word for that?” Burke demanded in English.

“It’s quite true, Burke, I assure you,” Carberry interjected, speaking for the first time. “She left here in June and married upon her return to England. She’s been a wife for months.”

“To whom?” Burke whispered, his expression terrible. “To whom is she a wife?”

“I’ll tell you nothing more,” Cummings said, his lip curled and his tone supercilious. “Now be gone from this place before I lose patience and treat you as you deserve.”

Burke, stunned by the information he had just received, allowed his kinsmen to lead him out of the hall and to the castle entrance. Then he suddenly thrust off Aidan’s restraining hands and rushed back to Cummings. He was stopped by a trio of guards, who took hold of him as he wrestled to get free.

“Tell me where she is!” he shouted at Cummings.

“I know where she is,” one of the guards said in Burke’s ear as Rory once more joined the fray, trying to restrain his cousin.

Burke stared at the guard.

“Stop bucking like a horse, go quietly outside, and I’ll tell you,” the man added.

Burke paused, astonished, and then recovered enough to look away. He straightened as the men holding him back gradually let go of him. He faced Carberry and Cummings, similarly dressed and standing side by side, like a child’s wooden soldiers.

“You’ve lost your dominion here, and you think to take your petty revenge on me by keeping me from Alexandra,” Burke said. “I would advise you to think again.”

“Your words are as worthless as your loathsome country,” Cummings said. “I make haste to put the memory of it, and you, long behind me.” He turned and left the room, Carberry following closely after him.

“Come along, Kevin, there’s nothing more for you here,” said Aidan.

The men filed out, and when they went for the horses the guard who had spoken to Burke earlier held out his reins.

“I know you,” Burke said in a low voice, searching the other man’s face for confirmation.

“I sometimes had the charge of the dungeon whilst you were imprisoned there. You may have seen me with the turnkey at searching time.”

“What have you to say to me?”

“She is married to Selby, Lord James Selby of Hampden Manor in Surrey,” the guard said quickly. “I took the letters down to the boat and saw the address.”

Burke repeated the information to himself and then said, “Why do you tell me this?”

“My name is Harker,” the guard said, looking over his shoulder as another guard approached them. “Commend me to your lady with all good wishes.”

“I will, surely,” Burke murmured as the other man thrust the reins into his hand and moved quickly away.

The Irishmen mounted and rode across the drawbridge, which began to ascend the moment they left it. Burke called a halt as soon as they entered the trees and were out of sight of the castle.

“I know her husband’s name,” he said to Aidan and Rory. “The guard told me as I left.”

Rory snorted. “Why would one of them tell us anything? He made up a tale to throw you wide of the mark.”

“I think not. I ken he was well intentioned and meant to help.”

“Help us?” Aidan said. “You’re dreaming, man! You want to believe, so you do. Give it up.” His voice changed, took on a kinder timbre. “She thought you had abandoned her and so she went home and married her uncle’s choice for her. It follows. Girls like that are raised to do as they’re told, to obey their elders.”

“Not Alex,” Burke said softly.

“It’s no slight to you, her feeling for you was true, I saw that,” Rory added in his cousin’s support. “Her kinsman must have left her little choice.”

All three looked up at a noise in the underbrush. A woman, red-faced and disheveled, burst into the clearing.

“Maura!” Burke said, handing his reins to Rory and dismounting. “I have been searching everywhere for you.”

The washerwoman indicated she was too out of breath to talk as he took both of her hands in his.

“Easy now,” Burke said soothingly. “Take a moment to get your wind, I’ll wait.”