“Prince Edward departed London immediately following Terese’s story, and was with my men as they scoured the coastline in small boats, looking for me. Prince Edward himself found me, swimming toward the shore.”
“The Plantagenets are very involved in our lives, aren’t they?” she inquired.
He started to answer her, then decided that trying to tell her just how involved the Plantagenets were should wait. “Aye, lady,” was all he said.
She mused regretfully, “I can’t understand what happened to Simon. I swear, he was not such a monster when I knew him before. Men become obsessed with who and what they are. I think he believed that as a Valois he was owed greater riches than he had accrued, and perhaps that worked on his mind. I tell you, Adrien, he became so evil, but he is not like most of the people. My people are good talented, hard-working, charming—”
“Danielle, my love, this thing between King Edward and King Jean will not end, for Edward can be obsessed as well! I have many fine French allies. Your mother was one of the most beautiful, intelligent, and kind people anyone could know, and as you are French, my love, the likes of Simon could never convince me that the French are not among the world’s finest people.”
She smiled, dazzled by his words.
“I was so afraid that Simon—” he began.
“He never touched me!” she said quickly. “And I never betrayed you.”
He shook his head. “I was never afraid that you had, and if he had touched you, I’d have only prayed that you survived his cruelty. Nothing would change my love. But did you really scald him?”
“Yes.”
“Having fought you many times myself, I should have known just how good you were. You were clever—but foolish. He might have hurt you terribly in retribution, and I was powerless at the time.”
“I wasn’t incredibly clever—the water happened to be in my hand. And he was convinced that you were dead and that he would marry me—and find his retribution then. He didn’t want his wife to be an ugly, scarred creature.”
“It is over now. And you mustn’t feel sorrow. Danielle, believe me, Simon was plotting against Edward with Armagnac. He didn’t care what he did to his own people. You didn’t see his total disregard for life …”
“You have to understand, Adrien. I made a vow to my mother once, and it was sacred. But I believe that I fulfilled it, warning Jean when men meant to kill them.”
“Edward never gave anyone an order to attempt to kill King Jean.”
She nodded. “I was afraid that even if you could, you would never come for me!”
“I will always come for you. I hadn’t even thought of the prospect of tunneling. If you hadn’t said what you did about Aville, I might never have known about the structure. I was half mad, trying to reach you.”
“I knew there was something below because Simon kept telling me how I could be tortured in the tunnels, and how bodies had been dumped in the sea. Imagine! I hated you for so many years for what happened at Aville before I was born. And if it hadn’t been for Aville, my mother never would have met Robert, my father.”
It was the perfect time to tell her, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not yet. It was too dazzling just to be together, to know a love so deep and secure and unchanging. He couldn’t bring himself to spoil the tenderness between them at the moment.
He held her against him instead, thinking that the right time would come. They’d be home in Scotland, or even Gariston, perhaps, on a cold winter’s night before a roaring fire, and then …
Then he would tell her the truth. Not now. Now, he just meant to cherish her.
“It’s over, Danielle. Langlois will lose his head, I’m afraid, but Prince Edward has offered mercy to those who only followed the orders of the nobles. And Simon is dead.”
She shivered. “I don’t want to talk about him any more. I just want you to hold me.”
So he held her, and they made love, and it was more intimate than any time between them before, because they whispered words of their feelings along with their hunger.
They didn’t pause for the night when they reached the English shore, but rode hard for the tower where the queen was residing. When they burst into Adrien’s apartments, they found Queen Philippa there alone, rocking the baby.
She pressed a finger to her lips and lifted a hand, halting the two of them at the door when they would have walked forward.
“The news of another great victory through your sense of strategy has arrived before you, Laird MacLachlan. We’re grateful, of course, to know that you serve us.”
“I’d not have managed it without my wife,” Adrien said.
The queen looked up and arched a brow, then looked down at Robin. He wasn’t actually sleeping, but his eyes were very heavy. She was talking to the baby as she rocked him.
“So your father thinks that light thatch on your head is his!” the queen exclaimed, smiling down at the boy, who cooed in response. “He’s apparently not seen that little mark on your bum, then, eh? Of course, then again, neither of your parents has probably had much occasion to stare upon the king’s bum, and therefore wouldn’t know that such a mark is hereditary. Now mind you, it’s not that your mother bears much resemblance to the Plantagenets in the least—thank God for the small mercies that have upon occasion saved my pride!”
Adrien looked worriedly at Danielle, damning himself a thousand times over for not having told her the truth, but the last thing he would have imagined was the queen talking so matter-of-factly about the situation when they returned for their son! Danielle had adored her mother, and the legend of the English knight, Robert, she had believed to be her father.
Danielle was staring at the queen, her eyes wide, her face pale.
Philippa looked at Danielle and winked, rose quickly with the baby in her arms, and walked over to the two of them. She handed Danielle the baby. “The two of you must learn to be more careful with such precious belongings!” she admonished. She kissed Danielle’s cheek. “Poor dear, you looked so shocked! I’d have thought the world had figured out the truth of your birth long ago. The king is a good husband to me—he does love me, I know. He has had his weaknesses. I didn’t know your mother, and when you came into our household, she was already dead, and therefore, hard for me to hate. You grew up in my household and are like a daughter to me. Now Adrien, help your wife. Her jaw has fallen—tap it back into place, then take the babe. Don’t let her drop him.”
Adrien took Robin. The queen brushed his cheek and sailed on out of the room.
Danielle stared at Adrien. She was shaking, and she walked away from him. He quickly placed Robin in his cradle and followed her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
“You knew!” she charged him.
“Only since Prince Edward told me on the way across the English Channel. He does love you. He was coming to tear the castle apart for you, whether I survived or not. Danielle!” He spun her around so he could see her eyes and speak directly to her. “Danielle, I know how hurt you are! I know how you have fought Edward all these years, hated him for forcing you to England, giving you to me … all these things. You loved the memory of a man you thought to be your father, you were loyal to the king you thought to be your own. Please, you mustn’t be so dismayed that Edward is your father. He is a great king, a wise man, a brave man—and he is capable of mercy—”
“I don’t hate Edward!” she managed to say.
“Then what is it?” he demanded.
She started laughing, and he was worried. He held her against himself, trying to soothe her. “Danielle, Danielle—”
“Oh, Adrien! I’m all right, honestly, I’m all right! It’s just that … my mother, the wretched vow I took to be loyal to the king! Adrien, she must have meant Edward all along. I think she was trying to tell me when she died that I must give my loyalty to Edward, the king, my father! Adrien, I’m just so, so sorry! All these years, all the things I believed, the things I did … the warfare I caused betwe
en us! And Edward is my father! Adrien, all the plotting and planning I did for King Jean! So much heartache between us in the past …”
“You have been worth it all,” he told her softly. “And there are many ways to look at the picture. Edward should be content to rule England, but lands in France have been the domain of the English kings for centuries. And after these many years, the royalty are so mixed with one another, it’s hard to say who had hereditary right to what!”
“You don’t believe that!” she said, smiling and shaking her head. “You will fight for Edward always.”
“I will fight for you always,” he told her.
And she smiled, her eyes brilliant with tears. “We can call a truce now, I believe.”
“Aye, that we can. But you’ll have to know, now more than ever, I’m grateful for Aville. Grateful that the walls fell, and grateful, with all my heart, that you exist!”
The baby began to cry, and Danielle laughed and said, “I can even say I’m completely grateful! Without your military mind working so diligently at Aville, Robin would not exist!”
She left him for their son, taking Robin into the bed; Adrien lay with her, the baby between them, until Robin had glutted and fallen into a deep, deep sleep. As Adrien moved him, he said, “I think it might be Plantagenet hair.”
“Plantagenet eyes, I’m afraid,” she apologized.
“I think there’s a hint of vivid French green in them,” Adrien said, carefully moving his sleeping child into the cradle.
Then he lay down again with his wife and held her in his arms, and she said, “Oh, Adrien! I still think of all the time when I did love you and wanted to be loyal and felt that I owed my fealty to King Jean. I didn’t want to betray Edward, but I felt that I had to be true to my heritage. Can you imagine! When all the while …” she sighed softly. “I couldn’t take a chance that the king’s men would kill Jean.”
“King Edward would never have condoned such a coldblooded murder. Surely you know that. And your King Jean is a good man as well, noble, wise, and proud in captivity. I admire him very much.”
“And still …” she said, turning into his arms, her beautiful eyes on his intently, “I hurt you so often in the past!”
“And I hurt you in the past. But I love you. With all my heart. It is nice, of course, to know now that you have made a vow to protect Edward the king. You should be much better behaved.”
“Better behaved!”
Her eyes flashed fire and he laughed, amazed to feel himself shaking, so gratified to have her, be with her, and know that she loved him as he loved her.
“Perhaps not. You’ll always fight passionately for what you believe!”
“And that is wrong?” she whispered intently.
“No, that is something I love about you. And I do love you, Danielle. I fell in love with you for so many things, not the least of which was your loyalty to what you believed in, and your honesty to me about that loyalty. The love I feel has grown out of time, out of knowing you, out of seeing all that is so right in your heart and soul.”
“Oh, Adrien! There was so much I admired and respected about you even when I was trying to hate you! I was jealous without knowing it so many times, I wanted you, but I didn’t know how to have you.”
“Oh, my love. You have me for life.”
She smiled at that, and then her smile became a little wicked, surely an invitation. He lowered his head to kiss her, and when their lips touched, the fires within them flamed to life …
“No more talk about kings!” he insisted. “Queens, knights, or countries!”
“The past was theirs …” she began.
“And the future is ours,” he promise.
“The king has had his pleasure—now we shall have ours.”
She nodded, and still her smile was so temptingly wicked. She wrapped her arms around him.
And the future began that night.
A Biography of Heather Graham
Heather Graham (b. 1953) is one of the country’s most prominent authors of romance, suspense, and historical fiction. She has been writing bestselling books for nearly three decades, publishing more than 150 novels and selling more than seventy-five million copies worldwide.
Born in Florida to an Irish mother and a Scottish father, Graham attended college at the University of South Florida, where she majored in theater arts. She spent a few years making a living onstage as a back-up vocalist and dinner theater actor, but after the birth of her third child decided to seek work that would allow her to spend more time with her family.
After early efforts writing romance and horror stories, Graham sold her first novel, When Next We Love (1982). She went on to write nearly two dozen contemporary romance novels.
In 1989 Graham published Sweet Savage Eden, which initiated the Cameron family saga, an epic six-book series that sets romantic drama amid turbulent periods of American history, such as the Civil War. She revisited the nineteenth century in Runaway (1994), a story of passion, deception, and murder in Florida, which spawned five sequels of its own.
In the past decade, Graham has written romantic suspense novels such as Tall, Dark, and Deadly (1999), Long, Lean, and Lethal (2000), and Dying to Have Her (2001), as well as supernatural fiction. In 2003’s Haunted she created the Harrison Investigation service, a paranormal detective organization that she spun off into four Krewe of Hunters novels in 2011.
Graham lives in Florida, where she writes, scuba dives, and spends time with her husband and five children.
Graham (left) with her sister.
Graham with her family in New Orleans. Pictured left to right: Dennis Pozzessere; Zhenia Yeretskaya Pozzessere; Derek, Shayne, and Chynna Pozzessere; Heather Graham; Jason and Bryee-Annon Pozzessere; and Jeremy Gonzalez.
Graham at a photo shoot in Key West for the promotion of the Flynn Brothers trilogy.
Graham at the haunted Myrtles plantation, Francisville, Louisiana.
Graham and the Slushpile Band playing the Memnoch the Devil Ball at the Undead Con in New Orleans, 2010.
Graham with dear friend, actor Doug Jones.
Graham (third from left) with F. Paul Wilson, R. L. Stine, Jon Land, and other friends at the seventh annual ThrillerFest, held in New York City, 2011. The authors participated in the “Be Book Smart” campaign organized by Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s oldest and largest children’s literacy organization.
Graham (seated center) with her local Romance Writers of America group in Broward County, Florida, 2011.
Graham (second from left) with fellow authors Stephen Jay Schwartz, F. Paul Wilson, and Barry Eisler participating in a panel at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, Los Angeles, 2011.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1998 by Shannon Drake
cover design by Kelly Parr
978-1-4532-5946-7
This edition published in 2012 by Open Road Integrated Media
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