“Yet it did not,” Charles’s commanding voice cut in. “Now the Lady is wed. As to the disposition of the property, I will have to think on’t.” He nodded and turned to Katherine. “You are a woman of brave mettle, and uncommon pretty as well. I have always found it most difficult to disappoint an attractive woman, and in your case, since I see your heart is firmly affixed elsewhere, I believe I have a fancy to play cupid. In your heart, do you still wish your husband’s love? Would you like to find out if ’tis there?”
Katherine nodded, unable to break his gaze.
Charles raised an eyebrow. “Are you also willing to find out if ’tis not?”
Katherine took a deep breath, and then nodded. Yes, she had the courage.
The King tilted his head back in a flourish of feathers, as his broad-brimmed hat made an elegant sweep. He tapped his walking stick on the wood floor. The room quieted. “Come back on the morrow, and we will discover Lord Ashton’s true regard.”
Katherine’s heart caught, and she curtseyed.
* * *
That night Nicholas was transported by barge from the Tower to the Gatehouse at Whitehall. Instead of the trial he had expected, soon he would face his King. Would Charles find it in his heart to pardon Nicholas’s indiscretions, or would the King see that justice was sure and swift? As an Earl, would he be given the honor of a quick beheading with a sword, or would he hang from a gibbet as a common highwayman?
And what of Katherine? Would Nicholas ever have a chance to tell her he loved her?
He had met with his man of business. The papers that would protect her and the babe and assure their future were drawn up.
If he had it all to do again, he would do it different.
At least, he hoped so.
* * *
A resplendent royal messenger arrived at the Pemberton household next morning bearing a message for Katherine and causing quite a stir. The butler even straightened his periwig before answering the door. Robbie and Hal spent the next two hours marching around the house with scraps of paper, handing them to the housemaid, the cook, and Alicia, until she told them “enough” in that tone that sent them scurrying outdoors.
The note contained two words:
Three O’clock.
Katherine could not eat or concentrate. In fact, she excused herself from overseeing even the simplest household chores. Dressing took much longer than usual. Alicia styled her hair, adding again the pin curls at the side of Katherine’s face and applying a bit of color to her lips.
Katherine’s stomach made a painful lurch every time she thought of Nicholas, and though she tried, she could not stop thoughts of him from appearing every few minutes.
The cousins embraced, and then Katherine was off.
Jeremy accompanied her in the Pemberton coach. He had said little to her since she had announced the truth of his parentage.
“Do you mind that I did say you are my brother?”
“I know not what to think,” he said. “I am proud that you would wish it known. Yet, I cannot think our father will be pleased. And our neighbor was truly displeased. ’Tis kind of you to think of Ashfield for me, Katherine, but I do not think ‘twould be right for me to inherit the property.”
“’Twere it entailed, I would not be in line to inherit.” Katherine sighed. “Truly, I do not wish to see the place again.”
Jeremy made a tense smile.
They spoke no more on the long trip to Whitehall. The clickety-clack of the wheels, and the pounding of Katherine’s heart combined to heighten her alarm. By the time they arrived, she was in a state of near panic. Taking a steadying breath, she allowed Jeremy to help her out of the vehicle.
An unsmiling footman bade Jeremy stay behind. After an appraising look at Katherine, the servant led her through a labyrinth of back corridors and staircases to a small room. With a knowing smile, he closed the door, leaving her to wait.
Did he think her one of the Kings sweethearts? Katherine repressed a snort at the outrageous thought.
What would the King tell her? Would he really appear, or would he send Nicholas alone?
It did no good to wonder. He would come or he would not. The King said he would help her discover the truth, and perhaps that truth would help her heart to mend.
Katherine lifted her chin and looked around the room. Scientific books stood on the shelves, many in Latin. Several tables were scattered about, containing all sorts of devices and models. Katherine had no idea of their use. Some looked fanciful, others complicated. One, made of metal and glass, looked so delicate she could not imagine what it could be used for. A pile of charts and drawings topped another table.
“Do you know what that is?”
Katherine jumped. She had not heard the King enter. Now he stood just behind her.
She shook her head.
“Hazard a guess, Lady Ashton.”
It seemed to contain an eyepiece, and looked vaguely similar to the strange object she and Jeremy had found in Nicholas’s cloak. “Maybe it is for looking at things,” she said.
“Indeed, you are right.” Charles clapped a hand on her shoulder. “It is for looking at things that are very small, and making them bigger. Oft times, when we are able to see the finer parts of an object, we can understand it better.”
Katherine nodded.
“Science is very good for that,” the King continued, “for showing us how a thing truly works, helping us become acquainted with the fine details. But though it can show us how a heart beats, it cannot show us why a heart beats, nor for whom the heart beats.”
He walked her across the room. “Shall we find out about Lord Ashton, the knave who called himself my friend, and who called himself the Raven to you?”
“Yes, sire. I am well ready to know his heart.”
A footman, who must have been standing just outside, entered, and Charles bid him get Nicholas. The King showed her where to stand in a concealed spot behind a curtain, masking an open door at the top of a staircase. There would be plenty of room for her. Now, Katherine could see how the King had been able to enter the room without her knowing.
* * *
“My liege,” Nicholas said, making a deep courtly bow.
“You may rise,” Charles said. “I bid you be seated.”
Nicholas sat in a chair. This was a good sign. It appeared they would talk, rather than the King talk and Nicholas listen.
“How long have we known each other?” asked the King.
Nicholas knew Charles remembered as well as he when they first met, but supposed the King wished to make a point.
“Was it not twelve or thirteen years past we met in Paris?”
“Yes, I believe that is so. You provided aid to me freely when others would do so only if I made them promises. For that, Nicky, I have always had a particular fondness for you. Yet, certain recent events try my patience.” Charles gave him a stern look. “You have taken a wife under most peculiar circumstances, without obtaining consent of her father, or, more importantly, consent of your King. Furthermore, your wife did not know who you were when you married her. Can this be true? And you perpetrated this deception to gain control of her lands, which I do recall belonged to your family before they were forfeit by that villain, Cromwell. Was there not an interview some two months past, when you petitioned me for return of those lands? And then…” Charles tapped his lip with a bejeweled finger. “I believe I have not seen your face again until this very moment.”
Nicholas squirmed.
“And now I assume you seek my pardon, which I am wont to give you, Nicky, as you did stand by me when others did not.” The King rose and walked to the window. “I ask you this, my old friend, were it in my power to grant you either the woman you took as wife, or Ashfield, but not both, which would you have?”
Nicholas thoughts went back to that day long ago, to the young boy listening through silent tears as his father, infirm and old before his time, beseeched him to right the wrongs done to the family. At his father’s bidding, he’d placed his hand on the family bible and vowed to get back what was rightfully theirs. Just a lad of sixteen, he’d thought himself to be a man. But now, Nicholas knew he’d just been a boy who had carried a man’s responsibilities, and thought himself to be making a man’s pledge.
He had never wanted Ashfield for himself. He’d made his own life out of the ashes of his father’s life. He would not know what to do with Ashfield if he had it.
Nicholas had wanted revenge. And he had got it. But the revenge had been on him. He now knew his heart’s desire, and he’d lost it due to his own foolishness.
He had made a man’s pledge to Katherine in the church. Although he had done it for the wrong reasons, he now knew the right one: he loved her.
Nicholas silently begged his father’s forgiveness before speaking. “I would choose Katherine over all things. She is my destiny and my desire. I find that now I have lost her, she is all I ever truly wanted. I should have known when she discovered me ill and nursed me to health that I needed her with a fierceness I have never felt for anyone or anything before.”
Charles eyes softened. He rose and walked across the room.
Nicholas continued. “By my rash actions, I know I have lost her. I know you cannot give her back to me. Katherine is a woman who knows her own heart. ’Tis quite clear to me that if I did once have it, ’tis gone now.”
“Are you certain of that, Nicky?” Charles pulled back a curtain to reveal a woman.
Nicholas stood up in protest. Had one of the King’s mistresses listened to his heartfelt avowal? Then she moved, and a jolt of recognition hit him.
Katherine.
Yet, this was not a Katherine he had ever seen before. This Katherine wore a fancy gown, with lace and frills, and her hair had been dressed in the current fashion.
“Katherine?”
She nodded, and the curls on the side of her face bobbled back and forth.
“I did not recognize you. The clothes…the hair…” He went to her and took a curl into his hand, letting it wrap around his finger.
She looked up at him. “Clothes do not the person make. Perhaps ’tis time for you to see me for who I truly am.”
He knew that to be true. He had forever been misjudging this woman. In her, he had found strength of purpose and love he had never known.
“My liege,” he looked over Katherine’s shoulder. “Do I have your permission?”
Charles nodded.
Nicholas took Katherine into his arms and gave her stiff form a powerful hug. “I have long known that I need you,” he said. “But it is just recently that I have come to understand that I love you.”
He looked down into her beautiful brown eyes, full of wariness, but not love. Clearly, he had not done enough to win her back.
But he was on the right road.
“The two of you must regale me with your adventures,” the King interrupted. “But now that you have reunited, ’tis time for us to resolve other matters that are before us.”
Nicholas loosened his hold on his wife.
“It is now established to my mind, and the courts will easily be persuaded, that an abduction did not occur. Yet, I am afraid there are still some very serious charges against the man who called himself the Raven.”
* * *
A different footman led Nicholas and Katherine down the stairs, through the warren of stairways and corridors. They passed through hallway after hallway until they came to the Gatehouse.
Katherine felt no sense of triumph. No sense of elation or completeness coursed through her veins. While Nicholas might think all was fixed, she was sorely vexed.
Once alone, they faced each other. Nicholas smiled and held out his arms to her.
Katherine crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you think that by telling the King you love me everything is fine?” She tapped her foot. “Methinks you should have more to say.”
Nicholas put up a hand. “Whoa, dear wife. ’Tis plain any thoughts I had on that matter were mistaken.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I know I have much to atone for. And although I have spent these days in jail, have confessed my heart before my liege, have lost any claim to the lands of my family, I must still make amends with the woman who has discovered my heart.”
He came to her and put his hands on her shoulders, despite her uninviting stance. “I have not had much love in my life. It is not a feeling I understand. So it has taken me some time to realize that these feelings I have for you—of happiness when I am with you, of emptiness when you are gone, of my need to protect you, and the desire I have for you, not just for the pleasure I find in your body, but for your gentle yet firm presence and good sense—I now know these feelings are love.” His voice broke as his eyes reached into hers, touching her in that place he had hurt so badly.
Katherine softened.
“I would wish you love me too. I know you said so before. But I could understand, after my actions, that any good feelings you once had for me are now gone. I have played you false, my dearest Katherine, and I can only hope that you have it in your power to forgive, and that there is room in your tender heart for me.”
His eyes pled for her love and understanding.
Katherine looked away. “’Twould be more convincing had you given up something that belonged to you, Nicholas. Ashfield was never yours. ’Twas your father’s, then my father’s.”
“I gave up the dream of Ashfield, Katherine. ’Twas bigger than the real Ashfield. And a bigger loss as well.”
“You confessed your love to the King, yet you have not said it to me,” she said.
“He was the first to ask,” said Nicholas.
A glance showed Katherine the twinkle she so loved to see in his eyes.
“I’truth,” he said, “I did not know my own heart until the door shut behind you at the Tower, and I heard your footsteps echo down the hall as you walked away. But I feared it was too late. I had not thought to see you again. I thought it best to leave things as they were, with you hating me for what I had done. Especially since I had no reason to hope I would be forgiven for my crimes. My future is still cloudy. I can only think because you are here you must harbor some good feelings for me.”
He went down on one knee before her. “I do hereby vow, my dearest Lady Ashton, that I love you with my whole heart and body, and I shall never lie to you again. Never.”