The Forest Lord (44 page)

"I must talk to him, Donal.
Just… your father and I."

He nodded and kissed her hand. "Don't be afraid, Mother," he said. He turned and marched into the house.

Eden
felt as if she had lost her only ally. She looked down at her soiled dress and knew there was no point in changing. Not for Hartley. The stains and tears would only match his odd clothing that much better.

All the tension inside her released on a laugh.
She had the wild urge to unpin her hair and shake it about her shoulders, like a wood nymph of myth. Would that, too, not be appropriate to the occasion?

"
Eden? Good lord, are you all right?"

Claudia swept into the garden, her expression sharp with alarm. "We have been searching everywhere for you," she said. "Lord Rushborough said you were not where he had left you. He told us about Donal and the hounds… My dear, what has happened?"

Eden
had no time for her aunt now, for the inevitable recriminations and explanations. Her mind must be clear and focused on one goal.
One man.

"I cannot speak of it now, Aunt," she said, already starting for the gate. "Donal is safe and in his room. I may be gone for a while—"

"Was it
him
?"

Claudia's tone was so heavy with dread that
Eden's muscles locked into place. "What?"

"The man who is a beast.
The one you know as Hartley Shaw."

Three things warned Claudia that she could wait no
longer. One had been Lord Rushborough's account of the stag and Donal's incredible ride. The second had been overhearing Donal's excited speech to
Nancy in the hall, about meeting his father on the fell.

The third was the look of grave distress on
Eden's face.

"I… do not understand you, Aunt,"
Eden said. She appeared very close to collapse, driven to distraction by the shock she must have suffered. But she had enough presence of mind to lie.

"I am sorry that I did not tell you sooner," Claudia said. "I know what you saw on the fell. I know who it was that carried Donal on his back."

Claudia felt behind herself for the bench and sank down. "A stag… it was a stag—"

"A stag who became something very much like a man, but not a man. A creature
who
has deceived you from the first."

Eden
's eyes told her that her guess was correct. He had revealed himself, either by accident or design.

Even his kind could make dire mistakes.

"Oh, my dear," Claudia said. She sat beside
Eden, pitying her, yet knowing she must be ruthless. "I swore to your father than I would never reveal what I am about to tell you. My brother did a terrible thing when he promised you to that creature, and perhaps it is not too late to undo the damage he caused."

"Papa,"
Eden whispered. "What are you saying?"

Claudia sighed. "It will not be easy for you to hear. You must be very strong, dearest Niece." She glanced up the fell. "The man you knew as Hartley Shaw has worn many faces. Six years ago, he was Cornelius Fleming. But I did not recognize what he was. It was only much later, when your father told me all, that I understood. And it has taken me years to discover the handful of facts and legends that have enabled me to uncover his nature and his purpose here."

Eden
put on a brave face. "He told me he was… Cornelius. He admitted—"

"That he had lied to you, again and again?" She took
Eden's cold hand between her own. "Did he also tell you that he is the last of what were once called the Fair Folk, Faeries, Fee, Fane—immortal, soulless creatures incapable of love or human virtue? That he left his forest only to obtain a son from a mortal woman, by any means necessary—and that he intends to take Donal from you?"

Eden
's eyes stared at nothing, as if the pictures within her own mind blotted out reality.
"Faeries?"

"They are not like the fairies in the childish stories you have heard. Not mischievous and tiny and easily frightened away. They were a powerful, sorcerous race mat once inhabited the earth, but fled when men came. Only a few remained. The one who now calls himself Hartley had many names over many centuries. He has been called Kernunnos, and Cocidius, and Hern—pagan words from savage times, when men were little more than beasts themselves." She stroked
Eden's lifeless hand. "Did you not wonder why your father, so avid a sportsman, never hunted at Hartsmere until just before Cornelius appeared? This Hern protected the forest at Hartsmere. He hated men, Eden—he still does. He is like the beasts he guards." She closed her eyes. "God help the man who enters that forest uninvited."

Eden
tried to stand, but Claudia was afraid she would fall. She kept a hard grip on
Eden's arm.

"You must listen,
Eden. These Fair Folk have been known since time began for stealing human children. They have few weaknesses, but one is an attraction to mortal emotion. They long to experience what they do not possess, but they discard that which they desired when it is no longer new and fascinating."

"He… wants to take my son?"

"The Faerie
race have
very few offspring of their own, and so they seek mortal men and women as mates to produce half-breed children. For centuries this Hern avoided men and remained in his forest. But something happened that caused him to seek a mate so that he could sire a child. His motives I do not pretend to understand. But I do know how he found you,
Eden."

"Papa."

"Yes. Your father was a weak man, Eden. One day, he made the foolish mistake of hunting near the wood at Hartsmere, even though the Flemings had not done so in memory. He had been told, like all the heirs of Hartsmere, that hunting in the dale was forbidden, and that the prosperity of the family and the dale depended upon keeping this pact."

"The legends,"
Eden said dully. "The ones the dalesmen spoke of."

"Indeed." Claudia shuddered with her own dark memories. "But your father scoffed at the stories. I had not heard them myself, since the secret was kept strictly among the lords and their heirs, but I had… other reasons for avoiding Hartsmere. I remained with you there after Cornelius arrived because I sensed that something was wrong and desired to protect you. In that I failed."

"But Papa—"

"He pursued a hare to the edge of the forest, and then saw a great stag. He could not resist the chance to hunt such a rare creature. But when he followed it into the wood, he was met by a man—a man who commanded the beasts and bore a set of antlers upon his head. This creature, Hern, told him that he must sacrifice his own daughter to bear Hern a son, or suffer the loss of everything he owned, and worse. And he revealed his inhuman powers so that your father could not doubt him capable of carrying out his threats.

"Your father loved you, Eden, but he was afraid. He found enough courage to bargain with the Forest Lord—to ask that he court you as human, posing as a distant cousin just returned from
India. He demanded that you agree, willingly, to marry Hern in his human guise, and that the world should recognize the marriage as real and legal. But he knew that Hern did not intend to remain with you. He knew that Hern wanted a child and that he would take that child away soon after its birth. The only thing you would have left was your reputation, and a chance to marry again."

Eden
covered her mouth with one hand. Claudia embraced her gently.

"Your attraction to Cornelius Fleming was understandable. He appeared to be a respectable young man, the likely heir to the Bradwell estates if your Uncle Fleming died without sons. You were young and impressionable, and there is no telling what sort of evil spell he cast upon you. The fault was not yours."

Eden
shook her head with a sharp jerk. "I agreed to elope with him because I could not wait for a regular marriage. I was so in love." She laughed. "I heard him… the night at the inn near
Gretna… bargaining with father. About me, but I didn't completely understand. Then I saw him as he truly is.
As he was today.
And I ran."

"Into the storm."
Claudia stroked her hair. "You never spoke of what had happened. Your father and I thought it best to help you avoid the memories and all thought of the creature. He did come after you… but you were ill, and your father convinced him to come back only when the child was born."

"And he did come back, didn't he?"
Eden whispered. "He came back for my boy."

"To take it from you, as he had bargained." Claudia pressed
Eden's face against her shoulder. "But your father thwarted him. Bradwell could not surrender his own blood to such a monster. He told Cornelius that the child was dead. He swore me to secrecy and sent it away for its own protection, intending to tell you what he had done when you were well again."

"To
Ireland.
But how could Papa send him to poor folk, who could not care for him?
Why not to my Uncle Fleming?"

"I do not know,
Eden. Something did not proceed as planned, and he left
England soon after, broken in purse and spirit."

Eden
's eyes were haunted.
"Oh, Papa."

"He was bitter about what he had done to you, Eden. He hated himself for it. The creature went away and did not return. We believed we were safe." She allowed herself a bitter smile. "But the beast did not leave. He has waited for your return to Hartsmere."

"And he learned that Donal was alive… when I did,"
Eden whispered. "He believed I had betrayed him, as Papa had."

"Can one betray a minion of the devil?" Claudia asked. "No, Eden. Do not attribute human motives to him. All he wanted then—as now—was the unnatural son he had fathered. If Donal had not come to Hartsmere, if his guardians in
Ireland had not sent him back, he would have been safe. But now all that has changed."

"He was not safe in
Ireland,"
Eden said. "He has never been safe, except—" She broke off and subtly shifted out of Claudia's arms. "I will do anything, anything at all, to protect him."

Yes
, Claudia thought.
I know you will
. "And that is why I have revealed all this to you. So you will understand that this creature who calls himself Hartley Shaw has insinuated himself into your life, and Donal's, for the sole purpose of stealing your son away to his blighted realm."

"He could have taken Donal a thousand times. Why didn't he?"

"I assure you, that
has
been his aim from the first moment he courted you as Cornelius Fleming. Perhaps he preferred to win Donal's affection so the boy would go with him willingly. Or perhaps he hoped to get you with another half human child by seducing you once more—this time without a false promise of marriage."

Her crude words were effective.
Eden's fingers curled into fists. "If what you say is true," she said, "then everything I have come to believe during these past months is a lie.
Everything but Donal."

Claudia saw the lingering doubt in her eyes. A part of the girl was desperate to believe that love could exist between a mortal woman and a creature such as Hern.

"Do you remember when we first came to Hartsmere, Eden, and witnessed the sad state of the dale? When your father defied the Forest Lord, he ended many years of prosperity. But Bradwell also lost his fortune, all the luck that had sustained the Flemings for centuries. Hern ruined your father, Eden. He punished many innocents who had never offended him. He can destroy you just as surely. Once he has what he came for, he will take your son and abandon you."

Eden
stumbled to a trellis decked with an autumn rose and rested her forehead against it, heedless of the thorns. Perhaps she welcomed the pain.

"Should I believe you?" she whispered. "You say you tell me this for my sake, but your feelings… surely there is more to them than fear for me." She turned from the trellis, unaware of the trickle of blood on her brow. "There is something personal in your hatred, is there not?"

Claudia pressed her hand to her breast and let tears fill her eyes. "Have I failed you so badly that you question me thus? Is it not personal that this monster drove my foolish brother to near insanity and, for all we know, to his death in some foreign country? Is it not personal that he took your innocence and forced you into an odious marriage with Winstowe—you, whom I love above anyone on this earth?" She felt for her handkerchief. "I have seen what he can do,
Eden. I cannot let him make my nephew into the monster he is. I will not let him finish what he began."