Linda Barlow (54 page)

"Alix, I have to ask: are you all right?"

She smiled and nodded. "Don't I look it?"

She did, he admitted grudgingly. She looked relaxed and free of the cares that had weighed her down at court. "Your father sent me after you. But I would have come anyway, to see, that is, to make certain..." His voice trailed off.

"I'm fine. Tell me all the news."

Alan supplied her with the details of all that had happened since she and Roger left the country. He explained that Roger had been formally accused of treason and heresy. "There's a price on his head. He can't go back to England, ever."

"But you weren’t arrested and charged? We’ve been so worried that they might try to lay the blame on you."

"I pretended ignorance of all but the barest details, and your father knew, of course, that I’d been up at Oxford until recently. I don’t think he seriously considered me as one of the conspirators. He was far more interested in finding out if I knew where Roger had taken you. He’s very worried about you, Alix."

"Is there a price on my head too?"

"No. Your father made certain of that. He tried to put it about that you were ill, that you had retired to Westmor, but the tale quickly got about, as such tales will, that Roger had abducted you. That much Sir Charles finally admitted. You are seen as the victim, the innocent martyr to a ruthless man's machinations. No real blame has been attached to you. But of course there's a scandal all the same."

"The queen? What does she say about all this?"

There was no reason not to be honest. Alexandra would have guessed the truth anyway, knowing her mistress as she did. "In public she mourns your loss and reviles your kidnapper. In private, according to your father, she questions what you did to 'attract the blackguard's lust.'"

Alexandra frowned, then made a rueful face. "So much for my reputation. Never mind," she added, reaching out to pat Alan's hand. "After all, 'tis true. I did do everything I could to attract him. He may have seized me by force, but I've remained with him willingly."

Alan didn't want to hear it. The topic made him very uncomfortable. "Where is he?"

"Ashore, haggling one final time with his agent, I believe. Something about a shipment of Flemish lace that hasn't yet been deposited in the Argo's holds. He has an order direct from Suleyman's wife Hurrem Sultan for Flemish lace, and he insists that he will not sail without it."

"When will he return?"

Alexandra regarded him steadily with her clear green eyes, and then slowly said, "Alan, he knows what happened in Geoffrey's cellar. Please have no fears about that."

Alan could feel the color rise in his neck and cheeks. "You told him I was the one who betrayed his plans?"

"Not until he guessed the truth. I also told him how bravely you defended me and what an intolerable situation we were both in. When he understood the details, he realized that Geoffrey had outwitted all of us. He forgave us both."

"And before he understood the details?"

Alexandra shrugged and looked away. "That phase didn't last too long, thank God."

Alan swallowed hard, wondering if he dared ask the question that was burning in his heart. Had his brother raped her? Despite what the sailor reported about their cordial relations, such a crime would be difficult to forgive. Was she truly content? Might she not welcome an excuse to leave?

Alexandra continued to regard him with wide, owlish eyes. She seemed to be considering something, weighing her words. At last she said, "Alan, I love him. I've loved him for a long time, and it's finally penetrated his thick skull that he loves me too. We intend to wed."

"You cannot marry him. He's a criminal, an outlaw."

She took his fingers in hers and pressed them hard. "I'm sorry."

She knew that he wanted her for his own, Alan realized. He expected pity but found only compassion, affection, and that other familiar, sisterly sort of love. Silently he cursed her, cursed Roger. He wanted her as a woman, not a sister. Wanted her body writhing beneath him in bed, the way his brother had her. He hated Roger for taking her away from him.

Tearing his hands from hers, Alan rose and paced the room. It would pass, he told himself. It must. His passion for the widow in Oxford had passed, hadn’t it? He could still love Alix as he always had–as the friend of his youth and childhood. That, at least, could never be taken from him. It wasn’t enough, but it was something.

"So, what now? Does he intend to take you with him on this voyage to the Middle Sea?"

"Yes. We’ll go together."

"And is that not a dangerous, indeed, a foolhardy thing to do? Suppose you were captured by corsairs? D'you wish to end your life as a slave in some Eastern infidel's harem?"

Alexandra shrugged. She and Roger had had this identical argument several times. He did not want to take her on his voyage—there was danger, a good deal of danger. But neither did he want to be separated from her, and the truth was, she had nowhere else to go.

Seeing her hesitate, Alan quickly pressed his advantage. "Come back to England with me, Alix. Your place is there, with your home, your family. Do not give yourself over to a life of shame."

"There is no shame in our love." She spoke softly but with great conviction. "My place is here, with him."

"Your father thinks differently. He wants you back, and he's determined to have you back."

"My father succeeded in keeping us apart for months. There's no longer anything he can do."

"That's where you're wrong. There is something he can do; indeed, he's doing it. He has sent me here to tell you and your lover all about it."

Frightened by his tone, Alexandra jumped to her feet. "What do you mean? Explain."

Alan tried to control his anger and his jealousy. "I'll wait until Roger returns."

Alexandra grabbed him by the forearms, her green eyes spitting determination. "You won't. Roger has had enough to fret about lately. You'll tell me now, whatever it is."

Silently Alan reached into his doublet and withdrew a scroll of paper. He handed it to her. "This is a copy. The original is in your father's hands. If you do not return to England within the next month, he's going to turn it over to the ecclesiastical authorities."

Alexandra began unrolling the paper. "Whatever this is, it will not work. I love Roger. We will be wed."

"Read it."

Grimacing, she did. The document was a warrant for the arrest of Richard Trevor, Baron of Whitcombe, on charges of heresy. "Oh sweet Jesu," Alexandra whispered, looking up. She managed to focus on Alan, who was hovering over her.

"The reasoning behind it is simple. You are Roger's hostage. My father is Sir Charles' hostage. He offers a trade. If Roger refuses, Sir Charles will see to it that my father—and Roger's—is tried for heresy and burned at the stake."

Chapter 30

"He can’t
be serious."

"I'm afraid he is."

"Oh God..." She remembered her father's face that awful dawn on the riverbank. Never, never had she seen him look like that. "You say the baron is his hostage; do you mean he has already arrested him?"

"No. My father knows nothing of this as yet. He is old and sick. Before I left England I heard from Dorcas that he had suffered another heart seizure. He could not endure the hardship of imprisonment, the anxiety of a trial. Not to mention the dishonor. He has suffered enough already at Roger's hands."

"Damn my father! How can he do this? He's bluffing. Your father is his neighbor and our families have a long association with one another."

"I fear that will not stop him. Your father and mine were never particularly friendly, and now Roger has pushed Sir Charles too far. Besides, the entire debacle has done immeasurable damage to his credibility at court. Geoffrey de Montreau has been doing his best to make your father look incompetent. If Sir Charles wants to retain his position of power with the queen, he must do something to demonstrate his strength. That’s why I believe he is serious about this."

Alexandra couldn’t fault his analysis. From a political standpoint, it made sense. "Geoffrey is still in London?"

"Yes. He has turned coat on his employers and is now comfortably installed at Westminster, advising our English generals on French fortifications."

"Sweet Jesu! You mean he has thrown over his many years as a career diplomat? But why?"

"Your father's opinion is that Monsieur de Montreau is still obsessed with his lust for revenge."

"He must be mad."

Alan shrugged. "He is being well paid for his services. But forget about him. The question is, what are you going to do?" While Alexandra paced, her brow furrowed, her father's document clenched in her fist, he added, "I have a vessel ready in the harbor; we can set sail as early as dawn tomorrow. If you return with me, nothing will happen. As your father explained to me, he's not being unreasonable. He doesn't demand that Roger surrender. All he wants is you, safe at home again."

"It's not that simple, Alan. Don't you see? It's not as if I were really a hostage whom Roger would be glad to get rid of. My father is forcing him to choose between his father, whom he hates, and me, whom he loves and plans to marry. Whom do you imagine he will choose?"

"Are you suggesting he would allow my father go to trial for heresy just to keep you in his bed?"

"Have you forgotten the way they battled one another last summer? There's no love between them. Do you honestly think Roger would lift a finger to save him?"

"Yes, I think he would. I think something inside him would flinch at the thought of his own father burning at the stake on his account."

"You may be right; indeed, I hope you are, for I don't think he could face the rest of his life knowing he was the cause, however indirectly, of the baron's death. Certainly I couldn't face it." She shuddered. "'Tis a diabolical choice."

Alan said nothing. His brother was a man of honor, surely, whatever his feelings toward his father. However difficult it might be for him to renounce his liaison with Alix, he would do it, surely, to save their father's life.

* * *

It was late in the evening before Roger returned to the Argo. Alexandra had sent Alan, who was exhausted from his rushed journey, to bed; Francis also, still weak from his chest wound, had retired earlier. "I want to be alone when I tell him," she had explained to Alan.

Roger was in a jubilant mood when he strolled into his cabin at ten o'clock that night. He was also, for the first time in weeks, a little drunk. "We've finally secured that shipment of Flemish lace," he announced, coming over to the desk, where his lover was fretfully pretending to read Sophocles, and looping his arms around her shoulders. His lips nuzzled her ear. "Suleyman’s Haseki Sultan Hurrem will be pleased, and so will her daughter, Mihrimah Sultan. But best of all: look, poppy-top." He unfolded a legal document not unlike the one Alexandra had hidden under her book. "See what I've got for us? 'Tis a special license to wed. I saw the priest. He'll marry us as soon as all the arrangements can be made. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. Since we're not from his parish, I had to bribe him with a little wine, which quickly turned him into a most agreeable fellow."

"Evidently he shared his bribe with you." A couple of days! She and Roger were to be married in a couple of days.

He laughed softly. "Don't start, woman. Complain too much about my vile habits, and I might change my mind and decide not to have you after all."

She knew he was teasing her, but no laughter would come. She dreaded what she must tell him. Maybe she should have allowed Alan to do it.

"Why aren't you abed?" He caressed her throat with his clever fingers. "Beloved," he murmured. "I've been imagining you waiting for me beneath the blanket, your body bare and open, your blood feverish for me." The hand dipped to her breasts and stroked more insistently. Alexandra's eyes closed as a liquid knot of desire formed deep in her vitals, spreading its demanding heat all up and down and through. She couldn't bear the thought of a separation from him.

"Roger." With an effort she removed his hand and looked into his hot brown eyes. "Wait, we must talk. We have had a visitor aboard the Argo today."