Neil remained silent, no sign of the emotions warring within showing on his face. Love never seemed to be given without some sacrifice having been made, he thought broodingly. First it had been his mother, followed by She-With-Eyes-Of-The-Captured-Sky. Then Serena. And, finally, Leigh. No love had ever been given freely to him. That was how he wanted Leigh—not as a sacrifice.
And what of his own sacrifice? Would he sacrifice his men, Nathan’s family, and his own chance for a brief happiness because of his pride? Because that was all it was that was keeping him from agreeing to Adam’s offer. Why shouldn’t he take what he had wanted for so long? He might not even live to see the end of the war, to worry about why she’d married him. But at least he’d be able to call her his now. And if he survived, then she would be his when he returned to Riovado. She would never escape him there.
Yes, it was his chance. Leigh Travers would finally be his, but not because she loved him, but because she would do anything, even marry him, to save her family.
Adam stared at his cousin, searching his face for some sign of capitulation, but Neil’s face was as expressionless as a bronzed mask. Adam held out his hands in supplication. “There are no two people alive I trust more than you and Leigh. If Leigh were to marry someone other than you, I would never know what manner of man she had wed. But I do know you, Neil. And I know you’d never betray my trust. My daughter, my little Lucinda, all that I have left of Blythe, and the love we shared, would always be safe. She is my most precious possession. My God, Neil, let me die believing she will have a life of happiness ahead of her. Don’t make me beg. Remember our blood oath? We pledged to one another as brothers. Did it mean nothing, Sun Dagger?”
Neil’s gray-green eyes rested on Adam’s tortured face, then he placed his hand on Adam’s shoulder and nodded.
“I’ll marry Leigh Travers.”
* * *
“Marry?”
Leigh stared at Adam as if he’d lost his mind.
“Marry Neil Braedon? I do not think that is very amusing, Adam,” she said, her heart beating so wildly that she felt almost faint as the blood roared in her ears.
“Nor do I, although it has the makings of one of my finer jests,” he said, a strange smile flickering across his face for an instant, then it was gone. “I am serious, Leigh.”
“Adam?” Leigh said worriedly. “Adam, sit down, please. I think Stephen still has a jug of corn whiskey hidden away somewhere. You’re not well,” she entreated him, although she had to admit he looked better than he had yesterday. There was a briskness about him now, a lightness to his step, as if he were full of energetic purpose, and his eyes were bright, as if lit from some inner fire.
“I feel better than I have in months. We have spoken of this before, yesterday, in fact, and I told you then that this matter was not settled between us.”
“And I thought it was,” Leigh responded coldly, trying to calm herself.
“No, you correctly assumed you’d called my bluff. And until this morning, it was settled. I had no alternative. You knew I’d never take Lucinda from you. You knew, perhaps better than I, that I couldn’t take her from the only family she had, and from you. Give her to a stranger? No, you were right, and I would never have done that. And even had you agreed to leave Virginia, along with Althea and the children, to have lived in Europe as expatriated Americans would never have been acceptable. You would have run out of funds eventually, and I don’t intend to have my daughter raised in a foreign country,” Adam vowed, then smiled triumphantly. “But you see, my dearest Leigh, our situation has changed since yesterday. I now have an alternative.”
“Neil Braedon.” Leigh said the name softly.
“Yes, Neil. I met with him at dawn.”
Leigh stared at him almost resentfully. “I didn’t even know you’d left the house. I thought you were still upstairs asleep. I didn’t want to disturb you. I was just about to bring you a cup of tea and a couple of these biscuits Jolie made yesterday,” she told him, glancing down at the tray she’d prepared.
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t tell you where I was going. I wasn’t certain I would even find Neil, or what I was going to say to him if I did, but I did know where to look and I took a chance he’d be there. We made a deal, Leigh. Because he is a Braedon, and we are his family, he will help us. And in return for seeing that you arrive safely in the New Mexico Territory, I’ll help him and his men escape from behind Confederate lines.”
Leigh returned his smile, but humorlessly. “And what exactly can you do to help Neil Braedon and his men?”
“That is between Neil and me. But what I do will allow him and his men, many of whom are wounded, as you well know, the opportunity to escape.”
“Some would brand you a traitor, Adam, for helping a Yankee raider.”
“Yes, I know, but a man, or a woman,” he said, reminding Leigh that she had helped that same Yankee raider, “must answer to his own conscience. And if I don’t help him, then the rest of my plan is worth nothing.”
“I see, then am I to understand that I and my family are to ride with the Bloodriders? I can imagine the ease of it now for three young children, a sick woman, and a blind man—of course, Jolie, Stephen, and I are well enough to travel. And what will we ride? Travers Hill’s finest? A broken down mare, an old pony, and a cow,” Leigh said, trying to ridicule Adam into common sense again. “You must indeed be feverish, Adam.”
“You are an unrelenting adversary, Leigh, but I have made my decision. As I told you before, I have a pass to see you safely to Richmond. There you will board my ship, and from there we will sail to New York. Neil will assume the responsibility of your journey after that. As his wife, wife of a Union officer, you will be able to travel through the North. If you did not wed Neil, then, if something happened to him, if he couldn’t get out of Virginia, then you would not have the protection of his name and position. This way, whatever happens, you will be Mrs. Neil Braedon, not Leigh Travers, daughter of the Confederacy,” he explained, thinking that alone was reason enough for her marriage to Neil. And there was no cause to tell her the real necessity for the marriage. She need not know he was dying—he knew Leigh too well, and she would never agree to his plan if she discovered the truth. “Neil will have wired the news of your coming to his father, who will meet you in Missouri and see you the rest of the way into the territories. Once in New Mexico, at Royal Rivers, you will be safe. You will be living with my family, with your family, Leigh, because you will be a Braedon. And you and Lucinda, as Neil’s family, will never have to worry about being homeless.”
Leigh stared at Adam in amazement. He had everything worked out to the minutest detail. “What about you? You are Lucinda’s father. What happens when you come to claim her?”
“The war isn’t over for me. Nor do I have a home to take my daughter to. Neil does. He can offer her, and you, more than I can at this time. What you and Neil decide to do after that, is between the two of you. You could always get the marriage annulled, or you might even have fallen in love, and would wish to remain together,” Adam said casually, but his eyes never left her face.
“And if I don’t agree to your plan?” Leigh finally found the courage to ask, thinking to call his bluff yet again.
“That would be very foolish, my dear, but it would be your privilege. I have no authority over you. Naturally, I would wish for your cooperation in this, for you to accompany Lucinda, and Althea and the children, but your decision would change nothing. I am taking Lucinda when I leave Travers Hill. I am going to see that she reaches Royal Rivers safely. I am making Neil her legal guardian. Althea will also be leaving with us. She has seen the wisdom of my decision. And if you come with us, then Guy is in agreement too,” he added, laying all of his cards on the table, certain to win the hand because he’d stacked the deck in his favor, determined not to lose the game to Leigh.
Adam glanced away from the stricken look on Leigh’s face. “What? You’ve already spoken to them? How could you h
ave? How dare you go behind my back.”
“Damn it, Leigh, I dare! I knew you’d be stubborn. I knew you’d fight me. But I don’t give a damn about fairness. Yes, I’m cheating, Leigh, but the stakes are too high, and I’m going to win,” Adam warned her. “I returned to the house over an hour ago. I have explained everything to Althea and Guy.”
“Without me? You spoke to them without me?”
“Yes. And I convinced both of them that this was the only solution to our predicament. They are both in full agreement with me.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re lying! What lies did you tell them? They’d never agree to leave Virginia, to leave Travers Hill. They know how I feel,” Leigh demanded, coming to stand before Adam accusingly.
“I told them the truth,” he said, grasping her arms when she would have turned away, forcing her to listen. “I told Althea that Nathan made me guardian of his children. He left me, not you, Leigh, responsible for his family’s safety. I promised him, the same way you promised Blythe, to care for his wife and children. And I intend to keep that promise. I told her Nathan would want her to do what I decided. I also told her that if she didn’t, if she decided to remain here in Virginia, then you would all face an uncertain future, a future full of suffering and further unhappiness even after the war is over. I asked her if that was what she wanted for her children, for you, Leigh. Althea knows that if she leaves Virginia, then you will come too.”
“And Guy?”
“Guy isn’t a fool, Leigh. He may be blind, but I suspect he can see things far more clearly than you right now. I didn’t need to convince him. He knows he is helpless. He depends on you for everything, as Althea has. He knows you would all be safer elsewhere. And he knows the only place where you would be welcomed as family, would be at Royal Rivers,” Adam said, not telling her more of the private conversation he’d had with Guy and Althea. They both knew the truth. He’d taken a chance, telling them that he was dying, but he needed their support if he was to win over Leigh’s objections. They knew now exactly how serious their situation was. Adam frowned as he remembered Guy sitting there so silently, staring blindly at him. Guy Travers, once so proud and arrogant, now humbled. And yet, Adam found he respected and liked Guy more today than he had when they’d ridden to hounds together or gambled late into the night.
Adam had watched as Guy’s trembling hand had gently rubbed his hound’s ears, as if drawing some comfort from that familiar feel. But he had not been completely certain that Guy, because of his old antagonism toward Neil, would agree to traveling to Royal Rivers, or having his sister wed to the man he’d once dueled with, his Travers pride still guiding his actions, so he played on that pride, on Guy’s love for Travers Hill, his birthright—he told him about the tax assessment Leigh had received, and that it had not been the first, nor would it be the last.
That threatened Travers Hill as much as the armies crossing its land, fighting in its fields. But he could pay the taxes on Travers Hill, as he intended to on Royal Bay, Adam had told Guy. With the sale of his ship, he’d have enough money. He had originally intended the money to provide for them in Europe, but now he could use it to save their land—to keep it out of Yankee hands. And, someday, he’d told him, sounding convincing even in his own ears, they might be able to return to Travers Hill.
“And what of you, Leigh? Do you really care about your family?” Adam now heard himself demanding of an ashen-faced Leigh. “If you did, then you would do anything to make certain they survive. What happens to them if you become ill? Aren’t you being selfish, thinking only of your pride? Who will take care of them? Answer me that. No, you can’t. Prove to me how much you care. Marry Neil.”
Leigh pulled free from him, turning away. When she turned back to face him, her lips were trembling.
“Marry Neil Braedon. It was your idea, wasn’t it?” Leigh asked.
“Yes,” Adam answered reluctantly, sensing what her next question would be.
But Leigh knew, without having to ask, what Neil Braedon’s initial response had been to Adam’s request.
“He wasn’t pleased, was he,” Leigh stated, then, when Adam remained silent, she held out her hands to him pleadingly. “Please, don’t lie to me now, Adam. Do me the courtesy of telling me exactly how reluctant Neil Braedon was. I have a right to know.”
“He refused, at first,” Adam admitted uncomfortably, his cheeks flushed with growing embarrassment.
“He was just as unwilling to agree to this mockery of a marriage as I was?”
“Yes,” Adam confirmed, unhappily.
“He is still in love with his wife. Her memory is still too dear to him for him to want—” Leigh began to say, but Adam interrupted.
“No, that’s not it at all. Neil and his wife, Serena, were never in love; in fact, from what he told me, I do not believe they were even lovers. She was in love with another man when she was forced into marrying him and she was a wife to him in name only,” Adam confided, believing it would help Leigh to know the truth about Neil’s first marriage.
“Neil never loved her,” Leigh murmured softly, then her gaze hardened as she met Adam’s curious glance. “Then how he must hate being forced to wed me.”
“Well, no man wants to be blackmailed into marriage. Forgive me, Leigh, that’s not what I meant to say,” he added quickly, seeing the shocked expression on her face.
“No, I think you said it very well, Adam. That is the truth. And you cannot deny it. You have also blackmailed me. I do not wish this marriage, and neither does Neil Braedon.”
“Leigh, I—”
“No, it is best that neither of us be under any illusions about this marriage we are about to enter into. It is a marriage of convenience. Nothing more than that.”
Adam closed his eyes, feeling an awful dread creeping over him as he remembered his own words spoken so casually about giving Leigh to Neil, and Neil’s own words, spoken so arrogantly, about the pleasures he was to receive in payment for agreeing to marry Leigh. It was to be no marriage of convenience as far as Neil was concerned, and he was worried what Neil’s reaction would be if Leigh threw that idea in his face—as had his first wife.
Suddenly, Adam was startled from his thoughts by the soft sound of Leigh’s laughter.
“You lose, Adam,” she said.
“What do you mean? I don’t understand. I thought you’d just agreed to my plan,” he demanded.
“I did, but it really doesn’t matter whether I agreed to marry Neil Braedon or not. You see, you’ve forgotten one, very important person in these machinations of yours. Who is to marry us?” Leigh asked, believing even Adam incapable of pulling a preacher from his hat.
* * *
The Reverend Culpepper had never been so outraged in his life. Rudely awakened from peaceful slumber, pulled out of a warm bed, forced into his clothes by ungentlemanly hands, and soundly cursed when he hesitated to venture out into the cold darkness of night, he had been speechless with indignation, which had been a blessing had he realized it. And soon enough he had, when he’d felt a pistol barrel pointed at his head to persuade him to keep his silence as they’d descended the stairs of the house, the Draytons continuing to sleep undisturbed as he was manhandled through the hallway to the back door.
Stopping by the door, the scoundrel set down the oil lamp he’d carried to guide his thieving steps through the house. In the flickering light, the frightened cleric met the glittering eyes that stared at him from behind the mask that covered half the man’s face. Snuffing out the light, the man, with inelegant haste, pushed him through the door and out into the frigid night air of the gardens of Meadowbrook, where, to Reverend Culpepper’s amazement, his very own horse was saddled and waiting.
He thought the ride through the night would never end, and he almost wished it would not, for he knew not what awaited him at journey’s end. But he felt somewhat comforted by the knowledge that his Bible rode with him; although why the blackguard had insisted he bring his robe and surplice,
as well as the parish register, remained a puzzling mystery to him. One would have assumed he was about to perform church services, clad in his vestments, the parish register at hand and opened to record the joyful baptism of the newest member of the congregation, or the sacred joining of two of his flock in holy matrimony—or, he thought, on a far more blood-chilling thought, the death of a beloved member of the community—himself!
Dear God, this miscreant who had abducted him was obviously bedeviled and deranged—or he was one of the Devil’s own. A hell-rider, the panicked man of the cloth thought as he heard the frightening sound of baying hounds close by.
But the Reverend Culpepper felt his heart slow its irregular beat when he saw a golden light shining from a window somewhere in the darkness ahead. They rode up a curving lane, drawing ever closer to the light, until finally his kidnapper halted before the darker shape of a house that loomed up before them.
Dismounting, the reverend found the rascal’s hands upon him again, guiding him none-too-gently up the steps of the house. Illuminating light suddenly spread across the porch, as if some unseen visage stared out upon them, and had been lying in wait in the shadows. In the golden glow, Reverend Culpepper recognized the perpetrator of such a shocking attack as the thief pulled the green-checked gingham neckerchief from his face, and he nearly choked on the name that came sputtering off his tongue.
“Adam Braedon!” the good reverend croaked. “This is scandalous behavior indeed, even from you,” he said in his deepest stentorious, pulpit-voice, but the words of censure were hardly more than an indignant squeak as they stuck in his dry throat like dust as he tried to straighten his collar, but one of the ends kept popping up and poking him beneath the chin.
“Now, now, Reverend Culpepper, don’t be so persnickety, I’ll have you tucked back safe in your bed before dawn, with no one being any the wiser to your midnight ride,” Adam promised, grabbing the reverend’s hat as it slipped from his head, and placing it firmly back on, never realizing it was a tasseled nightcap.
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