wcEND.rtf (44 page)

"Leave us," he shouted to Maude.

"My
f
ord, please."

"Leave us now."

"You may go, Maude," Détra said, her arms falling alongside her body. "I shall be fine."

The woman did not even fear him!

Pain, dishonor, shame filled Hunter. He had to move away from her, get her out of his sight, or he would not be responsible for his actions. He marched to the door and slammed it shut behind Maude's back. The door hung askew on its one remaining hinge. He pivoted and faced her, a safe distance away.

"Of a
l
l the deceits I have encountered in my life," he spat. "This is the most unforgivable."

"Hunter, I can explai
n
—"

"Do not speak," he interrupted through gritted teeth.
"The mere sound of your lying voice wounds me deeply. I want to hear no more lies, Détra. No more false profession of love, no more deceitful avowals of forgiveness, of acceptance, no faithless assertion of changes."

"They were not
l
ies, Hunter." She took a step toward him. He froze her in place with his glare. "They could never be lies, not my acceptance, not my forgiveness, and most of all not my love for you."

"Do you deny what I have just heard? That you have been preventing my child from growing in your womb?"

She hesitated, then whispered, "No."

His heart shattered into a thousand pieces. 'Then you must take me for a fool if you think I will believe your protestations of love."

"Oh, Hunter, you are no fool. I am, for thinking I could have a man who belongs to another woman."

Her words stunned Hunter. "Who do you want, Détra? Confess your sins once and for all."

"You, Hunter. I want you with every fiber of
my be
i
ng, but you belong to another woman. You belong to Détra of Windermere. And I am not she. My name is Isabel Herbert and I have taken your wife's place."

HUNTER
knew
not whether to throttle Détra or laugh at her. He was more inclined to throttle her. Laughter would be no simple task, considering the betrayal she had just delivered him.

"So now you are an impostor," he said, relying on a seriously depleted forbearance not to explode in anger.

"In a manner of speaking," she answered.

Hunter approached Détra, and taking her face into his hands, inspected the beauteous lines of her countenance. The thrill of touching her was
l
ost
i
n the throes of his aching heart.

"Years passed between last time I saw you and the day we were wedded," he said. "But you have changed little. Think you I would not have noticed had another woman taken my wife's place?" He let go of her. "You think me a bigger fool than I am,
Détra
."

"I did not exactly switch places with your wife."

He frowned. "I thought that was exactly what you said."

She shook her head. "It is more complicated than that. Détra and I have exchanged bodies."

Had his lady wife gone insane? Or was this a last desperate attempt to pull the woo
l
over his eyes to explain her reprehensible behavior?

About to lose his patience, Hunter ran his hands through his hair. Tiredness weighted his shoulders down. He had thought they were past secrets, past hurts. He had rushed home hoping to begin his life anew with his wife, with a woman he believed loved him. And now this .. .

"I would think you able to spin a more believable tale, Détra. You wound my pride for thinking me such a simpleton." He turned to leave, but she held on to his arm.

"Please, Hunter, hear me out."

"Why should I?" he shouted. "When all you have told me thus far are lies? When you think me such a fool to believe in your outlandish tale?"

"I know it is difficult to believe, but I am telling you the truth. Yes, I have lied to you before, but so have you lied to me. I gave you a chance to explain your actions. I think you owe me the same courtesy."

"I owe you naught." He jerked his arm from her hold. "The fact you prevent my child from growing in your womb is proof that your deceit cannot be explained or forgiven."

"Oh, Hunter," she said, shaking her head. "If you only knew how difficult this has been for me, how much I want to have your child. ..."

"Oh," he said caustically. "And that is the reason you take a potion to prevent its conception."

"I only did so because I am not sure what is going to happen to us, and I do not want to make that decision for Détra."

He grabbed her by the shoulders. "You are Détra."

"No, I am not. I wished to be Détra, but I am not. And that is how this bizarre situation started, Hunter, with our wishes. Do you remember yours?"

Hunter let go of her. "What is your meaning?"

"Your heart wish, the vision the chalice revealed, Détra'
s
rejection of it that fateful morning? Well, somewhere far away I was also seeing that same vision and wishing to be in Détra's place."

She massaged her temple with the heel of her hand.
"
There is no easy way to tell you this, so I might as wel
l
just tell you a
l
l."

"
That would be helpful," he said. "And I am certain, amusing."

She ignored his sarcasm. "Maybe you should sit down."

"By a
l
l means." He sat on the chair by the f
i
replace and stared at her. She looked so beautiful his insides ached with the need to touch her, to bring her into his arms. He reminded himself that Détra had betrayed him in the most horrible way.

"As I told you, my name is Isabel Herbert." She sighed. "And I come from many centuries in the future."

Hunter jerked to his feet. "I shall listen no more."

Again she held him in place. "I beg you to listen to me, Hunter. Do you think me a fool to concoct such an extraordinary story to dupe you?"

"Is that not your intent?"

"No," she vehemently denied. "As fantastic as it sounds, I am telling you the truth. And if you just give me a chance to explain, you might understand. If you believe the chalice has magical powers, if you believe it has changed me, then you cannot discard the possibility that Détra and I have exchanged bodies, or that I come
from a distant future. With magic there are no impossibilities, right?"

Hunter's mind rebelled against the absurd explanation, though his heart skipped a beat at the thought it could be true. The thought that his lady wife was indeed a different woman altogether, a woman who loved and accepted him as he was. A woman with whom he could truly begin anew.

He recognized the chalice was magical and it had changed Détra in ways he could not even begin to comprehend, but body switching? Journey through time? How powerful would the magic in his chalice need to be for such unbelievable tasks?

Nay, he told himself, stunned that he would even consider the possibility. Détra was just trying to blind him to her betrayal and the truth of the situation: that she truly did not love him.

And yet, involuntarily, Hunter sat back down in the chair instead of taking his leave of her.

"I found your chalice by the lake centuries in the future," Détra said. "I was in this very room, or what would be left of this room in the future, when the chalice revealed to me the vision of your heart wish. I saw you and Détra together, so happy, so in love, and I unthinkingly wished to be in her place. The next thing I knew I was waking up centuries in the past, in this castle, in a stranger's body, married to you. At first I thought I had gone insane, that it was a nightmare, that I was delirious, anything but the truth. You remember how I reacted that morning, do you not?"

Hunter did remember. "You told me you had lost your memories," he said.

"What else could I say? I did not know you or what would happen to me. I did not have Détra
's
memories, so I did not know how to act. What would you have done if
I had told you that I had switched bodies with your wife then?"

"And what do you think I shall do now?"

"I trust you know me well enough now, Hunter, to give me the benefit of the doubt. Open your mind, please. At least admit the possibility that I am telling the truth."

"
Thus I am supposed to believe you have journeyed through time to steal my lady wife's body and be with me?" He rose again, marched to the table, and poured a goblet of wine. He emptied the goblet in one gulp, then refilled it. He gripped the edges of the table, his mind in utter turmoil.

"Not intentionally, but that was what happened," she said to his back, having followed him to the table. "Think, Hunter," she urged him. "Think about all the changes in Détra after that morning with the chalice, and then you te
l
l me you still believe I am she."

Hunter turned slowly to face his wife. Unbidden, snippets of memories flashed in his mind. Memories of the many changes in
Détra
he had not understood but had intentionally overlooked as they had come with her acceptance of him.

The way she wore her hair loose, despite being obviously annoyed with its unruly curls, when she had before kept it tightly hidden under veils and braids. The way she swayed when she walked, when she had always marched with serious determination. The way she slept, free
,
unbound, unafraid of his touch. The rhythm of her speech, her choice of words, the way she had run words together for a time, though she had ceased doing that in a while now. Her smiles ...

Hunter remembered her inability to accomplish tasks she had been proficient at before. Her disinterest in the running of the castle, delegating tasks, when before she had relished her duties with stubborn determination. Her
newfound talent and interest in matters she should know naught about. Her painting, the odd song she sang to him weeks ago. Her sudden
l
ike of apples.

And the most important changes of al
l
—
her forgiveness of his deceits, her accepta
n
ce of his bastardy birth, her professed love for him.

Even if she had lied about her love for him with words, she could not have pretended her passion while in bed with him. She had desired him
l
ike no woman had before.

A tremor skittered down Hunter's spine.
Deus!
Could it be possible? He did believe the chalice's powers had transformed his lady wife into his heart wish. He had no way of knowing how it had accomplished that.

Hunter shook his head. Confusion, indecision, and a wanting to believe in her meshed inside his mind. Was he mad to consider the possibility? And yet, how could he not?

Hunter lifted his gaze to Détra and sought the truth beyond the surface of her beauty and what he knew of her, deeper in her eyes and in her sou
l
.

And it was
l
ike seeing her for the f
i
rst time.

Suddenly Hunter knew this woman standing before him, looking at him with such love in her gaze, could not be the Détra of Windermere he once knew.

"How could this be?" He choked on the emotion filling him.