The Intended (7 page)

“That’s enough breathing for today,” Jaime
said, interrupting her cousin’s study. “What of Edward?”

Jaime knew that although
Mary had lived on this estate for most of her life, the past few
moments constituted the longest period of time she ever spent in
the stables. When they hunted, the grooms brought the horses to the
house. Jaime cleared her throat to get the other woman’s
attention.

Sheepishly, Mary turned back to her cousin.
“Oh,” she exclaimed. “I have news. Lord Surrey has returned from
court this afternoon.”

“I wondered. There was a great commotion a
little while ago when the horses were brought down.

“Aye, well there’s more. Something has
happened. Effie, my wardrobe maid, who has a...well, who is
friendly with Surrey’s second groom...a coarse young man whom I can
never see amounting to...”

“Please, Mary!” Jaime cut in, her impatience
bubbling to the surface. “What has happened?”

Mary scowled at her cousin. “Well, the duke
and Edward have been summoned to Nonsuch Palace. That’s what has
happened!”

Jaime’s heart leapt with excitement. With
Edward waiting on the king, she would be able to spend the time
needed to nurse Malcolm back to health—without involving Edward at
all. Jaime’s hand squeezed Mary’s arm. “And have they gone?”

“Nay, how could they,” Mary responded, “when
Edward is searching high and low for you?”

“What? You mean he’s looking for me now?”

“Aye,” Mary said, prying her cousin’s fingers
from her arm. “And if I have bruises from your rough handling of
me, Jaime Macpherson...”

Jaime looked about her nervously. “Do you
know where he is now, Mary?”

“Probably coming this way, I’d wager—were
wagering a ladylike pursuit. I heard him questioning your maid, but
Caddy feigned total ignorance—a marvelous performance—and vaguely
mumbled something about flowers and trees. And then I saw him going
off toward the orchards...”

“Come with me, Mary,” Jaime said, pulling her
cousin by the hand.

“What on earth...?”

Jaime had been very careful about coming to
Malcolm this morning. Other than Mary, and Caddy, her maid, no one
in the house knew of her whereabouts. She trusted Master Graves,
the physician, but something inside her head told her that letting
Edward know she was here would be a terrible mistake.

“Hurry, Mary! We must meet him somewhere
else...away from here!”

Mary glanced back, and then nodded slowly as
her cousin’s concern dawned on her.

“Ah! The Scot,” she said. They hadn’t gone
three steps, though, before Mary yanked Jaime to a halt. “But you
can’t go to Edward like that.”

Quickly, she unfastened Jaime’s bloody cloak
and removed it, carefully rolling it up and even more carefully
holding it away from her own skirts. Placing it on a nearby cart,
she turned and tried to smooth her cousin’s hair. Disappointed with
the effort, Mary turned Jaime around, pulled the long black hair
over her shoulder, and began to braid it rapidly.

“You’ve spent the entire day down here, coz.
Your cloak is stained with his blood. Your eyes are puffed up from
crying. Why are you so worried about this man?”

Jaime felt her face redden as she lifted her
hands to her eyes. She was glad Mary was behind her. “I was the
cause of the beating he received at Norwich Castle,” she replied,
hedging her answer. She hoped desperately Edward would not notice
her condition.

“There! Now you look at least somewhat
presentable.” Mary cast a critical eye over her cousin. “Smooth
your skirts. And...”

Jaime grabbed the other woman by the hand.
“Come on, Mary. We must be away from here.” Jaime led her cousin
out of the stable enclosure and onto the tree lined drive that led
back toward the huge, rambling manor house. The gardens lay behind
the high hedges to the left, the orchards to the right of the
ornately designed flower beds. Acting on impulse, she pulled her
cousin down the lane to the left. The lane leading to the mews.
Jaime loved to hunt, and she spent a great deal of time with the
falcons that the duke kept. His two peregrines, gifts of the king
himself, were among the finest in England. In a moment the wall
enclosing the mews came into view.

Evan, the duke’s falconer, was watching his
eldest son chop three freshly killed rabbits for the hawks when the
two women passed through the gate into the small yard in front of
the mews. He glanced up, smiling his crooked smile as he recognized
Jaime. The two hooded peregrines, black and strong, sat perched on
crossed stakes driven into the ground beside the falconer.

“How is your wife, Evan?” Jaime asked
pleasantly.

Evan bowed slightly and doffed his cap to
Mary. “A mite uncomfortable, mistress, as ye might expect, but due
any day, she tells me. Oh, she asked me to thank ye for sending in
the meals from the kitchens this past week. ‘Tis heavy work, her
moving about, and your kindness has been a godsend, to be
sure.”

“No thanks are needed,” Jaime whispered as
she stepped over to one of the birds and began petting her
magnificent feathers.

“Well, we thank ye all the same.” The
falconer nodded toward the peregrines. “Ye missed a fine day of
hunting today. His Grace stayed in, but some of the young gentles
made a jolly time of it.”

“I’m sure Lord Edward must have enjoyed the
hunt!”

“Nay, mistress,” Evan said, shaking his head.
“His Lordship has not been down all day.”

Jaime hid her relief, gesturing toward the
rabbit. “The fruit of your labors, Evan?”

“Aye, mistress,” Evan said gravely. “Just a
few of the little beasties that we knocked down today. The birds we
took went direct to the kitchens. We’ve still a couple of hours of
sunlight. Would ye care to take one of these ladies out,
mistress?”

Jaime shook her head, whereupon the falconer
picked up several pieces of the meat to feed to the falcons. “Nay,
Evan. Not today, but I thank you. Working about in the garden has
wearied me dreadfully. Perhaps tomorrow,” she said with a smile,
taking the wide-eyed Mary by the elbow and steering her back out
the gate.

“What are you up to, Jaime Macpherson?” Mary
breathed, trying to keep up with her cousin’s quick pace. The gate
to the garden lay directly before them. A pair of grooms sprinted
down the lane in the direction of the stables, crossing the women’s
path. The young men were clearly in a hurry.

“Mary, don’t leave my side.” Jaime stopped
with her hand on the gate and looked into her cousin’s face. “No
matter what Edward says, you mustn’t leave me alone with him.
Promise me.”

“What’s wrong? You’ve never been afraid of
being left alone with him before!” Seeing the quick turning away of
Jaime’s eyes and the hands that hurriedly yanked open the gate,
Mary reached out and caught her cousin’s arm. “Jaime?”

Coloring, Jaime turned slightly and shook her
head. Then, looking directly into her cousin’s eyes, she asked,
“Please, Mary. Don’t leave my side.”

The blonde-haired beauty paused, and then
nodded hesitantly. Jaime turned and moved through the gate, but
Mary held back a moment, staring after her cousin’s retreating
figure, before following her into the gardens.

Once safely within the carefully manicured
space, Jaime slowed down, leading Mary into the center of a
close-cropped, knot-like design of herbs. Shielding her eyes with
her hand against the rays of the descending sun, she scanned the
far side of the enclosure for any sign of Edward. By a path leading
to the orchards, where a half-dozen gardeners were working, she saw
one of them straighten up as a giant of a man came into view. The
others stood quickly, bowing deferentially, and Jaime’s gaze
focused on the figure. She watched as Edward said something to the
gardener.

Taking Mary by the arm, Jaime moved quickly
to a circular, grass-covered bench and sat her cousin on it,
putting them in the full view of the gardener. In less than a
moment, the man’s eyes turned in their direction, and Jaime saw the
gardener’s finger point toward them. Whirling around, Jaime
pretended to be unaware of Edward’s presence, staring instead at
the carefully clipped design that surrounded them. So far so good,
she thought with relief.

“Don’t look at him, Mary,” she commanded. A
pair of swallows flitted across the garden in front of them, and
Jaime forced herself to watch them for a moment until they
disappeared up and over the ivy-covered way at the far end of the
enclosure.

Mary’s voice, like that of a stern tutor,
broke into the silence. “Jaime, don’t ask me to lie to him about
your whereabouts this afternoon! I don’t like to lie. I can’t lie.
By Saint Agnes, he is coming this way!” Her voice registered her
alarm. “Perhaps it would be better if I should go...”

Jaime plunked herself down beside her cousin
and took hold of Mary’s hand with a forceful grip. Edward must be
getting fairly close to them. “Just sit here beside me,” she said
quietly but firmly. “You won’t have to say anything, at all.”

“But, Jaime, what happens if he asks me
something?” the younger woman asked under her breath. “What should
I say?”

“Just follow my lead. Think of this as a
game, for heaven’s sake.” Jaime paused and looked into Mary’s
troubled face. “Mary, I’m just not prepared to be alone with him
right now. But neither you nor I have done anything wrong. So
please get that guilty expression off your face.”

“I’ll try,” Mary responded, nodding
resignedly. “But I just don’t understand what’s come over you.”

Jaime looked away. How could Mary understand?
Jaime herself couldn’t understand, and frankly, that irked her
somewhat. True, she was not married to Edward. They were not even
betrothed...yet. But she was acting as if she’d been completely
disloyal in spending the day at the stables nursing Malcolm. After
all, she argued with herself, she was doing Edward a great service
in trying to keep his prisoner alive. That was certainly true. Then
why had she panicked at the thought of Edward finding her there.
Why was she planning to deceive Edward now?

The thought flashed through her mind that
Edward was changing. He was still—with the exception of his
passionate outburst last night—as courteous as ever toward her. But
his changing moods—mercurial enough to keep many servants in a
state of constant terror—were becoming more evident to Jaime, and
the side of him she saw at Norwich Castle frightened her a bit. As
much as she despised Malcolm MacLeod for what he had done, she
could not risk having Edward snuff out his life on a whim. And when
she considered Edward’s passionate feelings for her, she decided
that the risk was far too high.

Mary lifted a hand and waved to Edward. Jaime
turned to greet him as well, forcing her lips into a smile as he
approached them. His strides were long and impatient, but his face
was partly obscured by the lengthening shadows. She tried to keep
her hands still in her lap.

“By the devil, Jaime! I have been
looking...”

“So fierce, Edward,” she admonished him
cheerily, springing to her feet as he came up to them. His face was
flushed beneath his velvet tam with the plume of peregrine
feathers, and he was wearing a finely worked velvet doublet that
matched his russet-colored hose. Jaime noted the high riding boots.
Edward was clearly dressed for his journey to the king’s court at
Nonsuch Palace. “Well, you certainly missed the most glorious
afternoon of hunting. Oh, I wish so much that you had been there.
The falcons are magnificent and the catch...” As he took hold of
her hands, she paused and turned a blushing cheek to him when he
bent down to kiss her. “You see our cousin Mary here...”

“Hunting? I saw you at the house little more
than an hour ago, Mary,” Edward said, looking skeptically at the
younger woman.

When her cousin went brilliantly crimson to
the very roots of her hair, Jaime cut in immediately. “Mary didn’t
go hunting today. But we thought a quiet walk in the gardens would
help dispel her headache. And ‘tis working, is it not, my sweet?”
Jaime detached herself from Edward and glided to her cousin’s side,
squeezing her hand as Mary nodded and smiled weakly. “In fact,
we’ve just come up from the mews. ‘Tis such a fine day to be
outdoors, and I was certain the sight of His Grace’s beautiful
peregrines as well as the fresh air might do her some good.”

Edward’s face quickly changed as he dismissed
the subject from his mind, and Jaime noted the excitement that
flashed across his face. He peered into her upturned face for a
moment and then pulled his hat from his head, running his fingers
through his hair as he began to pace back and forth before
them.

“Mary, leave us,” he ordered, halting
abruptly and turning to them.

Jaime jumped as her cousin sprang up like a
startled pheasant. Tugging hard at Mary’s hand, she drew her
roughly back onto the bench.

“Edward, she’s not well enough to go up to
the house on her own,” Jaime scolded, looking defiantly into his
annoyed expression. He towered over her. “So please stop ordering
her around.”

His face cleared as he visibly struggled to
keep Jaime’s rebelliousness from spoiling his intentions.

“But...well, I have some news that I would
like to share with you,
alone
.”

“So you
have
been summoned to the
king,” Jaime said, springing to her feet excitedly, to the
amazement of both Edward and Mary.

“You already know?” He asked puzzled, a smile
beginning to work across his face.

“But how could we not know?” she said,
clapping her hands. “Everyone knew that, in no time at all, news of
your capture would be well received at court.” She touched him
affectionately on the arm. “Truly, I
am
happy for you,
Edward. You are so brave—such a hero. This was too long in coming.
But then, it had to happen sooner or later that the King would
recognize your successes.”