by Jo Goodman
"Oh, God." Ashley's sigh hinted at her despair. "I believe you. God help me, but I believe you." Her eyes sought out Salem, and his tender strength helped her listen as Robert continued.
"I was well qualified for my father's post, but when I approached the estate manager I received a complete set down. It seemed I was not to be trusted with the animals since I had displayed an uncertain temperament around the children. Nigel's doing again. I never asked for the opportunity to defend myself. I simply left for the Colonies. For years I gave the Lynnes little thought. I had no desire to burden myself with revenge and I had no proof against Nigel. It seemed best just to go on.
"I met Anne Lynne again twelve years later on one of my trips to London. I might never have recognized her if she hadn't remembered me." His eyes softened, recalling Anne's striking loveliness. "She was in her carriage on Fleet Street when she spied me and my cargo-master on our way to Lloyd's coffeehouse. She had her driver pull over and give us a lift. I don't remember much of what we talked about, but I do remember how Anne looked at Ashe and Ashe looked at Anne and feeling very much out of place."
"Don't sound so put out, dear," Charity told him. "You used to look at me that way."
"He still does," Salem confided to Ashley, bringing a faint smile to her lips.
"Please go on," she said. "What else do you remember about my mother and father together?"
Robert's smile was regretful. "Together? Nothing else. I never saw them together again. We were in London several months that trip and Ashe never let on he was seeing Anne. He knew a little of my experience with the Lynnes, my grudges against the quality, and I think that kept him quiet. How I wish it hadn't," he said forcefully. "He never spoke of Anne to me until he lay dying of a fever on board the Caroline. That's when he told me he had married Anne and that she had the license. From what I could understand from Ashe's ramblings they had married in secret to protect Anne from an arranged marriage to the Earl of Edenton. God! He was an old man when I lived there! It was obvious someone had an eye on the land."
There was no doubt as to whom Robert thought that someone was. How odd, Ashley thought with a sense of detachment, that Nigel would perpetrate on her what had been done to her mother. "I was only worth a horse, you see," she said out loud, her voice breaking suddenly.
Uncaring what his parents might think, Salem shifted so he could hold Ashley. In truth Robert and Charity watched their son's gentleness with knowing eyes.
"Anne wanted a last chance to make peace with her father who was very ill during this time. She knew better than to return to Linfield from London, so Ashe rented a small cottage for her on the coast and hired a young girl to keep her company. Anne promised that when Ashe returned she would be prepared to go with him no matter how things went with her father and Nigel."
"But he never had the chance to go back for her," Ashley said, understanding.
"No, he didn't. He died shortly before we reached Norfolk, at peace, because I promised that I would bring Anne to Virginia. It was several more months before I could return, but Anne was still living in the same cottage. It had become a hideaway of sorts because she had learned that Nigel was searching for her, hell-bent on bringing her back to Linfield. Nothing, not even Ashe's death, could induce her to cross that particular log she told me. She smiled when she said it, but her eyes were so sad with the memory. She was going to have Ashe's child in a matter of weeks, she said. And she would do everything to keep her kitten out of Nigel's hands."
But Ashley knew very well that she hadn't been able to. "What happened?"
"Nigel located Anne," Robert said bitterly. "He found the cottage while the maid and I were in town searching for fresh fruit for Anne. It was dark when we returned, and I didn't notice the horse tethered in the back. Anne's moans were the first indication I had that something was wrong. She was far into labor by then, and Nigel was standing beside the bed, taunting her, doing nothing to ease her pain. He was seventeen now, but the look in his eyes, that cold, dispassionate rage, was exactly as I remembered it from twelve years earlier.
"I shoved Nigel to one side to get to Anne. She begged me not to let him have the baby. I think then she knew she was not going to live. She said your name would be Ashley Caroline, after your father and my mother. She never doubted that you were going to be a girl. Everything that happened next is a blur of disjointed memories.
"The maid screamed something at me and then there was a terrible burning in my leg. I don't remember hearing the shot at all. Anne's pain blended with my own, and I think I probably fell and hit my head. I know I was unconscious for some time. The room's heat eventually woke me.
"Nigel had a fire blazing in the hearth that was nearly out of control. He was holding something over the flames at the end of a poker. I couldn't quite make it out, but it looked to be some sort of key. When it was glowing he took it from the fire, cooled it just enough so he could hold it in his gloved hand. Then he walked over to the bed and before I even understood you existed, Ashley, or that your mother was dead, he placed the hot end of the key on your chest. You let up such a scream then that he dropped it on the floor near my head, and that's when I saw the scrolled L on its tip. Nigel saw I was awake when he bent to get it, so he kicked me hard, directly on my wounded leg. I blacked out and when I came round this time the cottage was ablaze. The bed you were born on was a pyre, and I stupidly thought you were still on it. Your mother's young companion was also dead, strangled. I was most fortunate to have been left for dead, for it allowed me to escape."
"Thank God you did," Ashley said on a thread of sound.
"We all echo that sentiment," Charity said softly. "But his fight was only beginning. Robert almost didn't recover from the pistol ball in his leg."
"Now don't make too much of it," Robert protested. "I regret that it kept me from thinking clearly about that night for so long, Ashley, else I would have realized that Nigel had not left you to burn in the cottage. You see, when he pressed the key to you, he called you by the name Anne had chosen for you and murmured something about you belonging to him now that Anne was dead.
"Those are hardly the words of a man who planned to murder you. I believe Nigel had another reason for wishing you with him. When I was able to, I made discreet inquiries from this side of the ocean. I discovered the old duke died some days before Anne. From what my sources were able to tell me, the estate was not entailed." He looked at Ashley expectantly. She did not disappoint him.
"Then Linfield didn't necessarily have to pass to Nigel. My grandfather could have intended my mother to inherit."
"Exactly," Salem broke in, his eyes flinty. "And with Anne's death you would have been Linfield's rightful owner. Nigel would have been named your guardian but eventually the estate would have been passed to you. Can you imagine Nigel being satisfied with that? Because Anne never returned to Linfield after her trip to London and because she had virtually disappeared after her marriage, Nigel was able to concoct the story of her drowning. For all that anyone knew you were a foundling, and Nigel won approval by taking you in. And all the while he kept you under his thumb, he knew you were Linfield's rightful owner."
"But my parents' marriage lines. Wouldn't the date discredit Nigel?"
Robert shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck. "I saw the license, which perished in the fire, at any rate."
"But surely the church kept a record."
"They thought they had reason at the time to wed under false names."
"I see. Then there was nothing you could do."
"Nothing that would not endanger you. Nigel covered himself well. I wanted to get you away from him, but I feared what a confrontation would do to you. In the end Charity and I believed you were safer with your uncle. His obsessive love for Anne kept him from leaving you to die the night of the fire. You belonged to Anne first, but that only made you a more desirable acquisition in Nigel's eyes."
Ashley lifted puzzled eyes to Salem. "Did you know any of this when you cam
e to Linfield?"
"No," he replied tersely.
"I'm afraid we did Salem a grave injustice by not telling the whole of it," Charity said and sighed. "We sought to protect him from asking too many telling questions and only succeeded in endangering him. Once the duke realized Robert was still alive, Salem's own life was threatened. Nigel feared Salem could do him some harm."
"I really thought I was at Linfield's to purchase a particular animal for my father," Salem told her. "My parents hoped for only the most casual information about you. They had no way of knowing if you were still at Linfield."
"It all seems rather incredible. Nigel was so pleased to announce you were my brother, so certain that he had gotten his peculiar sense of revenge. How did he come by the letter he showed me? I was sure it was authentic."
"It was," Robert explained. "I was with Anne when she wrote and posted it. That letter was her poor attempt at ruffling her brother. Although she addressed it to her father, she was fairly certain by then that he was receiving none of her missives. Everything in that letter was meant for Nigel's eyes alone. She knew he had never forgotten the name of the only person to ever strike him. So she named me the father of her child, certain it would drive her twin wild with anger."
"It did," Ashley said quietly, closing her eyes and leaning her head back into the crook of Salem's shoulder. She hesitated, then voiced the thought that had been plaguing her. "I wonder how he will come for me."
"You're not to worry about it," Salem said. "Nigel Lynne is not going to hurt you here." If Ashley had seen the look that passed between Salem and his parents, she would have known they all had that same thought at least once.
Ashley opened her eyes and smiled faintly at all of them. "I can almost believe it when you say it so certainly." She saw concern shadowing Charity's face, and she was appalled that she had made everyone uncomfortable with her thoughts. "Don't pay me any mind. I'm sure Nigel has quite forgotten me by now. He's probably discovered that he's better off without me."
"Now that's painting it a bit too rosy," Salem said, a teasing light entering his eyes. "We are none of us that naive. Still, I believe you'll be safe at the landing."
"Your place is here now, with all the McClellans," Charity said earnestly. "I don't know if any of the family have expressed their gratitude for what you did for Jerusalem, but we all thank you. What you managed you did at great risk to yourself. There is no way we can properly show our appreciation."
Ashley was at a loss as to know how to respond. "It wasn't so terribly difficult," she said at last. "I think your son has probably embroidered the tale."
"Not my son," Charity answered, twinkling. "He doesn't know which end of a needle to thread. Now we'll take our leave and let you sleep."
"Is it so late then?" Ashley asked.
"It's well after ten," Salem told her. "And Mother insists you need your strength."
Ashley regarded Charity warily. "I suppose that's true of anyone," she said slowly.
"Of course it is, dear," Charity replied in a soothing tone.
Salem agreed. "And you'll want to be prepared for the surprise I have for you tomorrow."
"Salem," Charity said, "I'm not so sure that she should go—"
"Nonsense."
"But I don't think you understand—"
Salem got up from the bed and tucked Ashley in. "Not another word, Mother. You'll ruin the surprise."
"But—"
Robert grinned at Ashley's bewilderment while gently pushing his wife toward the door. "Both of you can discuss this some other place. I think we agreed to allow Ashley to rest."
When his parents were out of the room, Salem dropped a quick kiss on Ashley's brow. "Sleep well, Miss Lynne. Life starts very early here in the tidewater."
Ashley stared at the door long after Salem had pulled it quietly shut. He was too handsome by half, she thought, her delicate brows wrinkling. And more troubling, why did he choose to give her such a brotherly kiss when she didn't feel in the least like his sister?
* * *
"There, now, don't you look a sight," Meg proclaimed, bobbing around Ashley to admire her work. She pulled a loose thread from the hem of Ashley's black velvet riding skirt and smoothed a crease on the shoulders of the matching jacket. "You're lovely. Here, have a peek in the glass. I'll not be accused of kissing the Blarney stone."
Ashley allowed herself to be pulled to the full-length mirror mounted on swivels in an oaken frame. In the cheval glass she looked at herself critically, wondering what Meg saw that she did not. In acknowledging her special loveliness, Ashley was an innocent. It never occurred to her that someone might find the combination of her fair complexion, ebony hair, and startling emerald eyes to be beautiful. Although she was no more than average height, barely over five feet, her slenderness and the delicacy of her bone structure gave her the illusion of height and an aura of fragility.
She could not really bemoan her size, for Leah's habit fit her to near perfection. If only the material at her breasts didn't strain so, she thought, pulling at it. Her brows flew up in surprise when Meg lightly slapped her hands away.
"Now don't be fiddling with it. The shirt is a little snug, I admit, but Leah doesn't have her bubbies yet, and her heart would be fair broken if you weren't to wear all of it."
Ashley blinked at Meg's frankness. "Are you certain Leah said I should have this?"
"Oh yes. It's only in the way of loan, you understand."
"Oh."
"Now you're lookin' down in the mouth. I only meant that you're to have it until the missus can take you to the dressmakers." A hand flew to her mouth. "I hope I haven't spoiled anything by telling you. No matter, you just pretend you never heard me. While you're out riding I expect the missus and I will have several other dresses altered. Leah and Rae are tearin' up a storm in their closets right now." Meg finished securing a ribbon in Ashley's hair and brushed out the curls at her shoulders. "All finished," she pronounced grandly. "I'm to point you in the direction of the stables, and you're to remind Mr. Salem that breakfast is at eight sharp."
Ashley was taken through the house so quickly she only had a fleeting glimpse of the elegance and grandeur of the landing. The walls that were not richly paneled were hung with agreeably patterned wallpaper, warm in depth and color. Meg took her through the kitchen where polished copper kettles shone over the red brick hearth, and a spry, flour-dotted black woman named Tildy was scolding the kitchen boy for taking out the bread too early.
"Mornin', Miz Ashley," she drawled as they flitted through, then immediately returned her attention to the boy.
"Does everyone know me?" Ashley asked Meg, unused to the casual pleasantries.
"Sure, and why wouldn't they? You're the only new face around here, and we all know how you helped Mr. Salem. The missus says you're part of the family now." She swung open the kitchen door and pointed out the stables. She watched as Ashley began crossing the lawn then remembered Charity's last instructions and called out to her. "You ride carefully! No jumping!"
Ashley frowned at the order but there was no question as to who really gave it. Salem's mother was too sharp, she thought. What could the woman be thinking of her? She shrugged off the thought. What others thought had been of no consequence in the past, why should now be any different? Backbone stiff, she hurried toward the stables, eager to see Salem.
"You look ready to do battle, Ashley," Salem teased. He had been leaning at the stable entrance, watching Ashley's progress across the wide lawn with ill-disguised pleasure. His eyes slid over her flushed face, the proud thrust of her small chin, and the brace of her shoulders.
He pushed himself away from the wall. "And I surrender." He grinned cheekily, lifting his hands while his eyes drifted lazily and appreciatively below her shoulders. His eyebrows rose wickedly. "You have all the right weapons."
After his brotherly kiss the night before Salem's very intimate appraisal of Ashley shook her. Two can play, she decided. When he finally took his ey
es off her chest, she caught his attention with a tiny half smile and a beckoning tilt of her small oval face. That he was at ease and perfectly willing to accept her perusal of his face and form almost gave Ashley pause. The mocking look in his grey eyes spurred her on.
Her gaze fell slowly from his single-dimpled smile to the snowy white linen of his shirt. His russet jacket fit tightly to his broad shoulders and tapered slightly at his trim waist. Ashley's poise faltered as her eyes drifted to the snug fit of Salem's tight breeches. As was the fashion the material was molded to his legs, but it did her no good knowing it was the mode. Her eyes dropped abruptly to his polished top boots. She couldn't lift them even when she heard Salem's laughter.
He caught her chin with his hand and tipped back her head. "I admit you did that much more credibly than I thought you could. I shudder to think how you shall lead me around once you get the hang of it." Ashley's expression plainly said she doubted it. "C'mon. I know you're probably anxious to go riding." He put his arm at the small of her back and took her into the stable. "D'you see anyone you recognize?"
Ashley's eyes narrowed, adjusting to the light. She heard Kingdom's familiar whinny before she actually saw him. "King!" she cried out, running to him. She threw her arms around his neck, nuzzling his glossy black coat. "I've missed you so! I never thought I would see you again. Oh, Salem! Thank you! How did—"
"Nigel sold Kingdom to me, remember? He was comfortably stabled on the Caroline when she was impounded and still there when the crew took her back. This time King is yours. No one can sell him but you."
Ashley was too moved to express her thanks. Her face told all.
Salem cleared a curious tightness in his throat and gave her a quick smile. "Are you ready to try him out?" Salem gave her a leg up. He thought she looked very proper and restrained as she sat perched on the side saddle. Only the restless movement in her bright eyes told him how anxious she was to be off. He mounted his own animal, Folly, a sleek silver mare with more heart than sense, and led the way outdoors.