Coughing because of the smoke which now filled the room, he called to Bella and Toby.
'Come, we must hasten.'
Bella, who had been watching apprehensively as the fire spread from the stairs and up into the rafters, went through thankfully, choking at the thickness of the smoke in the end room.
'I will lower you as far as I can, then you must drop,' Adam explained. 'I'll lower Toby to you afterwards.'
'And you?'
'I will manage. There's nothing to use as a rope, and no time, but the drop is not far. Can you climb through? I'm holding you, you will not fall.'
She scrambled through the aperture and then, twisting about so that she could clasp Adam's hands, slid off the window sill and felt herself dropping until she was fully stretched.
'Are you ready?' Adam asked above her, and she let go her hold on his hands to fall a short distance to the ground, stumble, and roll over.
'Bella, are you all right?' Adam called.
'Yes, and I'm ready to catch Toby,' she called up to him, then stood braced beneath the window as Adam lifted a suddenly terrified little boy and pushed him through the window.
'No, no!' Toby screamed, struggling to hold on to Adam.
'Toby, be brave, I'm already down here and I will catch you,' Bella called up. As Toby looked down at her, Adam managed to turn him so that he could not hang on, and leant as far as possible out of the window before releasing him.
'There, that was not difficult, was it?' Bella asked as Toby, arms and legs flailing wildly, dropped into her arms and she staggered a few steps backwards under his weight.
'Keep clear,' Adam called, and a moment later Bella saw him swing out of the window, turn round to lower himself, hang by the hands and drop lightly down the last few feet to the ground.
Then she spared a moment to look at the building. The whole of one end was now a raging inferno, and the flames could be seen through the ground floor windows beneath the room they had escaped from. A little while longer and they would not have been able to get down.
Putting his arms about her, Adam led her further away and when they were a safe distance from any flying sparks stopped and looked back.
'Edward – is – still inside?' Bella asked quietly.
'There was no hope for him, he must have died very quickly,' Adam said gently.
'Henry too. His body was still there, I suppose.'
Adam nodded. 'We might all have perished. I was careless, I should have realized the rushes might have caught fire.'
'No! You must not blame yourself!' Bella exclaimed, and at that moment a terrified whinny came from one of the horses as it scented the fire.
'I'll go and get them out of the outhouses. Edward had a horse there too.'
*
She moved towards the track away from the house, lit up eerily by the glow of the fire. Adam went to calm the horses and bring them to where Bella waited, less nervous as they saw they were being taken further from the fire. Bella hitched her skirts so that she could ride astride, and Adam lifted her onto the back of one of the horses.
'Would you prefer to take Toby in front of you, or lead the spare horse?' he asked.
'Toby rode with me in this fashion when he was little more than a year old. Do you remember?'
The child nodded and stretched up his arms to her. His fright had gone and he chattered excitedly as they carefully picked their way along the dark track. Adam laughingly said he was more accustomed to steering by the stars at sea than on land, and turned northwards.
Fortunately it was a warm September night and dawn was not far distant. As the sky brightened they came into a small village and outside the inn a sleepy looking man was standing yawning. As they approached he stared in surprise andAdam laughed ruefully as he dismounted from his horse.
'We're confoundedly dishevelled,' he said. 'We've escaped from a fire. Can you provide a room for the lady and some meat and ale?'
The man called loudly to another who came and took the horses. Soon Bella was installed in a small, pleasant room overlooking the garden, and a lavish breakfast was being set before them.
'Afterwards I must go and inform the nearest Justice,' Adam said as they began to eat. 'Then what? Do you wish to return to London or go to Clifford Manor? There will be formalities, no doubt, but Toby's claim should soon be established. And then, my love, we can arrange for a steward to look after the estate until he is old enough to take charge for himself. Will you come back with me to Virginia, or would you prefer to forget that and make a home with me somewhere new?'
Bella took a deep breath.
'Adam, do you know about your brother?' she asked abruptly.
'Roderick? What about him?'
As gently as she could Bella told him what she had heard.
'So you are Lord Cawston now. I am sorry, Adam, that I had to tell you in this way.'
He was silent for a moment.
'Poor Roderick,' he said at last. 'But that makes no difference to us, Bella.'
'Oh but it does. They are saying, Lady Rowe's friends in London, that now King James would pardon you if you married Lady Jane. You would be able to live in England again and you must, you have responsibilities to your name. They said she was lovely too. I expect you know her? You must have done so when she was betrothed to your brother.'
A slight reminiscent smile curved Adam's lips and Bella's last hope that he would reject this heiress disappeared.
'I met her,' he answered slowly, 'but it was before she was betrothed to my brother. It was when I last came to England to see my mother. It was mainly my mother's wish that Roderick married. I do not think either of them were in love.'
'Then that makes it easier, does it not?' Bella managed to say lightly. 'She will not object to you.' Not that any girl would, she added to herself.
'Do you prefer to go to London?' he asked again, and Bella quickly shook her head.
'Pray give my most grateful thanks to Sir Francis and Lady Rowe. I hope to see them again soon but now I would prefer to go home. Can you arrange to send Alice to me, if you please?'
'Of course. She will no doubt be frantic with anxiety by now. Do you wish to sleep here for a few hours or shall we ride straight for Clifford Manor?'
'Let us go,' Bella said, realizing the futility of lingering, and after she had washed and tidied herself they set off.
*
Bella received a rapturous welcome from the servants at Clifford Manor, for most of them had served her parents and knew her well. They did not seem unduly perturbed by Henry's death, and a bevy of maids swarmed about Toby exclaiming at how much he had grown. They took him away to renew his acquaintance with Cook and her gingerbread men. Bella was left alone with Adam in the comfortable parlour overlooking the front garden.
'Thank you for all you have done for me. Toby and I owe our lives to you more than once. I do not know how to thank you enough.'
'Come with me,' he said, trying to take her in his arms, but she evaded him and shook her head vehemently.
'Adam, I cannot. You are important and must marry well. You must obtain the King's pardon. I cannot prevent you from doing that.'
'Bella, you have never said it. I know now you have never loved Sutton but do you not love me just a little? Last night I thought you did, although before I have always wondered. Do you, Bella?'
Bella ached to tell him she loved him, that all her former doubts and suspicions about men had evaporated in his arms. She knew now that their physical love, while it might have begun as something else, was as different from the casual lust of temporary liaisons as land from water. The one was solid, fruitful, dependable, the other insubstantial, treacherous and barren. But if she did she would bind him to her, and he would lose the opportunity now granted to him of taking his rightful place in England. If she asked him to forgo that he would resent it in the end. They would have to return to Virginia, to the heartbreaking task of rebuilding what the Indians had destroyed, to the dangers and problems that bese
t the planters, when Adam could remain in peace and safety, luxury and influence here in England.
It took but a few minutes for these thoughts to flash through her mind. Taking a deep breath she turned away so that he would not see the truth in her eyes, and spoke lightly.
'Adam, do not disappoint me after all by being intense. I have never loved, nor could love, any man,' – apart from you, her heart cried out. She contrived a slight laugh. 'I thought you understood that? After what Henry and Edward did to me, how could you expect it? Oh, I know you have been gentle and kind and risked much for me, and I am truly grateful, but I think I have – paid my debts.'
'Then you wish me to go?' he asked quietly. 'After all we have been to one another, Bella?'
'I hope I will see you again some day, perhaps at Court when Toby is grown,' she added, 'and you have heirs of your own.'
'Goodbye, Bella,' he said, and raised her hand to his lips.
Kiss me properly, once more, her heart pleaded, but he merely brushed the back of her hand with his lips, cool and unemotional, and with a slight smile bowed and left her.
She longed to run after him, to cling to the stirrups and beg him not to go, to retract all she had said, but somehow she refrained. For his sake she must not. It was for the best. She stayed at the door where she had walked with him until he had ridden out of sight. Then, thankfully aware that no further dangers threatened Toby, she shut herself in her old room, telling the maid who was busy sorting out the clothes she had left behind when she had been unceremoniously packed off to Virginia, that she was too tired to eat and did not wish to be disturbed.
*
She remained in her room, pleading exhaustion, for the next two days, sending even Alice away when her faithful maid arrived, escorted from London by one of Sir Francis's grooms.
When Bella finally emerged she was pale and listless, and permitted Alice to organize her days. She ate, played with Toby, inspected the linen room and the still room, brewery and buttery as Alice instructed, and sat in the parlour with a piece of tapestry on her hands. She set stitches only when Alice was by, however, and for the rest sat silently remembering.
One morning Alice remarked that she was too pale, and drove her to sit in the orchard behind the house. Unresisting Bella had permitted Alice to help her dress in a pale yellow taffeta gown, but as she sat on a rug and watched Toby playing with a puppy from the stables, she reflected it was not a gown suited for work, even for such tasks as needlework or supervision of the maids. Did Alice expect her to spend the rest of her days sitting in the orchard or the parlour, she wondered? And a faint stirring of self-disgust animated her. Adam was gone. She had herself driven him away, and brooding over him would not bring him back. She could not for ever remain in this dream-like state, holding at bay the pain of her loss. She was afraid that once she permitted herself to feel the agony would be unbearable, but trying not to feel was very little better. The sooner she busied herself with work the easier it might be to drive to the back of her thoughts the memory of Adam, his laughing eyes and tender smile, his gentle tutelage in the delights of love, and his passion and bravery.
Determined to start at once she recalled that Alice had brought out a basket for blackberry picking, so she rose, took the basket and walked purposefully to the bramble hedge at the bottom of the orchard where she picked industriously for a few moments.
Then she paused and closed her eyes in brief annoyance. Such activity did not banish the recollection of Adam at all, it brought the memory of him even closer. She even imagined that she heard his voice. Angrily she shook her head and stretched to reach a succulent berry on a high branch, and then exclaimed in annoyance when her skirts caught on another branch. She dragged at the skirts, heard the material tear, and then froze in amazement.
*
'Keep still, I will untangle you.'
It could not be! For a moment Bella was incapable of moving, the basket slipped from her nerveless grasp, and then, as she felt a warm breath on her cheek and arms about her, she knew it was Adam himself and no dream. Slowly she turned to face him as he smiled down at her, his arms holding her tightly.
'You! How? Why? I do not understand! Why are you here?' she stammered.
'I've come to tell you I'm sailing for Virginia again next week.'
The momentary desolation in her eyes told him all he wished to know. She opened her mouth, tried to speak and achieved only a faint moan, and then shook her head as if to clear her thoughts.
'The – the King!' she managed at last.
'Yes, I've seen the King. He has forgiven me.'
'Then you – you will marry Lady Jane,' she whispered.
'No. She does not care for the notion of Virginia. To be perfectly truthful I did not ask her if she wanted to come with me. I was afraid, you see, after what you said about my irresistible charm that she might take up my offer. And that would not do, for I had other plans.'
'I do not understand!' Bella exclaimed, knowing only that if he took away his supporting arms she would sink to the ground.
'I saw King James when I went back to London. I explained everything to him and asked for his advice. The King, you must understand, likes to think he is the wisest man in his kingdom. He told me it was unthinkable Toby should be left alone in England. Yet I could not return to Virginia without my wife, and she needed to look after her young brother. In the end he suggested Sir Francis could oversee a steward for Clifford Manor until Toby was old enough to decide whether he wanted to return to England or remain in Virginia. I wonder which he will choose?'
'Your wife! You are returning to Virginia? Why do you not wish to remain here? What about your own estates?'
Adam shrugged slightly. 'I would feel stifled here after the life I have led. I could not mince about the Court, paying vapid compliments to the ladies, waiting for the King to notice me. We came to an arrangement satisfactory to us both. There are likely to be changes in Virginia and James needs men of substance, men he can rely on there. I convinced him it would be possible to establish a flourishing community, and since he deplores tobacco so much, he welcomed my insistence that other crops should be grown and industries established. He is to take charge of my brother's lands, and use the income to send out to me each year horses and cattle, tools and skilled artisans, plants and seeds. But I cannot do everything out there myself. Will you help me?'
'Adam, I can scarce believe it,' Bella whispered. 'I am surely dreaming.'
'Bella, my dearest love, I know that what you told me was untrue. You do care for me a little, do you not? Could you come to love me enough to marry me, to share my life and the dangers of it in an inhospitable land?'
'Are you doing this for me? There is no need, Adam, you could remain in England.'
'I could remain in England with you if I wished. The King would have agreed now that I am Lord Cawston. But he will be happy for me to use my new wealth in Virginia. We'll found a fortune and a new family there. Bella, my dearest one, we have a week. Will you wed me tomorrow or the day we sail? Can you leave Alice to pack for you and Toby here, and come with me now to London? I want to show my English friends I have been the most fortunate of men to capture you. Elizabeth begs me to take you back to her. I have booked the passage and there will be room for any more of the servants you wish to bring from here. Or any favourite furniture, or a horse, or what you will.'
'Adam, I cannot believe it. Oh, my beloved! I was only half alive when I thought I would never see you again!'
Their kiss was long and satisfying, and only broken when Toby, chasing his new puppy, suddenly saw Adam and rushed at him, demanding to be kissed too, and then that Adam should admire his puppy.
Later, when supper was over, Bella sat before the small fire Alice had lit in the parlour, holding Adam's hand.
'It is all so different,' she sighed contentedly. 'I was terrified before that other hateful wedding, even though I had not seen Edward. Then I tried so desperately not to love you, for I could not bear to
be hurt.'
'I'll do the utmost in my power to save you from the slightest hurt again,' he vowed. 'But it is late and we are to be married tomorrow.'
'I am so pleased it is to be here. I would not care for another London wedding. Come.'
She rose and led the way upstairs. Although Alice, suddenly aware of the proprieties, had ordered a separate room to be prepared for Adam, he did not even glance at the door as he followed, Bella through hers.
Slowly, lovingly, they helped one another to disrobe, and joyfully they clung together.
'I suspect it will be a lifetime's task to tame such a wildcat!' Adam murmured mockingly.
'I'm not a very conformable wife,' she warned him, and evaded his grasp as he came for her.
He advanced purposefully and she dodged to the other side of the bed, wrapping the curtains about her and giggling as he tried to disentangle them. At last he picked her up and tossed her onto the bed where she lay, peeping through half-closed eyes as she feigned sleep.
Adam tickled her feet and she shrieked, rolling over and trying to pull the covers about herself. He dragged them away from her and suddenly, as their bodies touched, they paused and stared deep into one another's eyes.
'My most precious love!'
'Adam, my darling.'
Bella discovered that night, as they laughed and loved, that there were many delights she had never previously imagined for two people united in heart and mind as well as body. Their passion was greater than ever before, and together they reached heights of ecstasy never yet attained, but a deeper, more tranquil emotion gripped them both as they afterwards lay quietly entwined in one another's arms.
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