Borrowed Vows (17 page)

“I love you, Rosalind.”

At last he’d said the words she longed to hear! She moved swiftly around him and linked her arms around his neck to kiss him fiercely on the mouth. Joy caroled through her, and for a moment she forgot the harsh truth—that later this very Lammas Eve he was going to learn about the affair with Thomas Denham. She forgot too that she was Kathryn Vansomeren, a woman from another time, another life...

He drew back first, taking her face in his hands and looking into her eyes. “Rosalind, I couldn’t bear it if you failed me as she did...”

“I won’t, I swear I won’t.” But the bitter truth was beginning to wash soberingly through her now. Lammas Eve, the duel... Time was ebbing away, and she was powerless to change what was going to happen.

His thumbs caressed her. “I’m yours now, Rosalind, your creature, unable to do anything without you, unable to spend a night unless I make love to you. You’ve made me this way, you’ve stolen into my heart and enslaved my body. I trust you because when I look in your eyes now I can see my love and need reflected so clearly that I might almost be gazing into a mirror.”

“Oh, Dane...”

But as she raised her lips to be kissed again, he shook his head and released her. “There’s something I have to tell you, Rosalind. I haven’t told anyone else, and the only others who knew are dead, but it will explain why I despise Thomas Denham so much.”

She leapt to the wrong conclusion. “Are...are you going to say he was Elizabeth’s lover?” she gasped.

“No, not Thomas, his brother William.”

She was shaken. “And that was why you called him out?” she whispered.

“Yes. I’ve fought three duels. The first was in my hot-headed youth, over the dubious honor of a fashionable courtesan, and the second was when I caught a cardsharp with five aces in his hand. Neither reason was worth dueling over, and now, with hindsight, I can see the third wasn’t either. Elizabeth was never the woman I believed her to be. Behind her smiles and glorious beauty, she was cheap and shallow, her only talent being an unequalled ability to seem loving and faithful. She was an adulteress, but she was carrying my child, there was no question of that, and for the child’s sake I protected the reputation of the mother, which is why I held my tongue over the reason for calling Denham out. He had his own reason for staying silent. As you know, his father was a strict church-going man who believed in the Ten Commandments. He’d have cut William off without a penny if he found out about Elizabeth.”

Kathryn reeled from the shock of what she’d just learned.

No wonder Dane despised the Denhams. She found herself recalling what Jeremiah Pendle had written about the duel. The banker claimed Dane had tampered with Thomas’s pistol, and went on to suggest the same might have happened when William died. No, she still couldn’t believe it. Dane would never do anything so contemptible, not even in the face of such unbelievable provocation. Two wives, both guilty of adultery with a Denham, and now, to make his anguish even greater, the second wife carried her lover’s child!

He took her trembling hand and drew the palm to his lips. “Rosalind, that’s what I meant earlier about thinking the circumstances would be dangerously similar if I married you. I knew there’d been something between you and Thomas Denham, and feared you might repeat Elizabeth’s adultery, but I wanted you so much I couldn’t help myself. So I had you, but I wore Elizabeth’s likeness as a reminder never to give my heart completely. Each time I felt your spell, I looked at her and remembered what she’d done. That way I was protected from further hurt.”

She didn’t know what to say. Suddenly everything was so clear. “What happened to Elizabeth?” she asked.

“The duel took place about a month before she was brought to bed, and I allowed her every comfort and consideration. I didn’t know what I intended after the birth, but then she died, and the onus of decision was taken from me.” He looked into her eyes again. “Can you understand how I felt when I returned from the war and found you so cool? And then, when I heard the rumors ...”

“Rumors?”

“Your name was linked with Denham’s, you’d been seen together, and—”

“I met him socially, that was all. Oh, and once when I was out riding I encountered him.” What else could she do except lie? But it was becoming increasingly difficult. She wanted to tell him the truth, but knew there was no point. Fate would march relentlessly on. Later today he would find out about Rosalind and Thomas, and at dawn tomorrow the duel would be fought.

He smiled gently. “I know now that my suspicions were unfounded, but a man who’s been betrayed before sees fresh betrayal at every corner.” He ran a fingertip down her cheek.

“You asked me if the
Lady Marchwood
was named after you. Of course she is, for I would never name her after Elizabeth.”

She caught his hand urgently. “Dane, you do believe that I love you, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Whatever happens, I’ll never stop loving you.”

Puzzled, he looked into her eyes. “What is it? Why do you say it like that?”

She couldn’t reply, and had to look away.

He turned her face toward him again. “Tell me, Rosalind. Whatever it is that bothers you, I want you to tell me.”

She had to dissemble. “There isn’t anything,” she said, trying to smile.

“Sometimes I find you so changed, that...” He didn’t finish.

“Yes?”

“That I feel I’ve fallen in love again with someone new. As if you’re my third wife, a different woman entirely from the others.”

She gazed at him with silent anguish.
I am someone new! I’m Kathryn Vansomeren, and I love you so much my heart’s breaking!

He released her then. “Now I’ve bared my soul at last, I need to blow the final cobwebs away. Would you mind if I go for a ride before breakfast? I believe a wild gallop across the park will be the ideal way to bury the past once and for all.”

She didn’t want him to leave her, but knew he must. She smiled. “Of course I don’t mind. Just come back to me.”

“You know I will.” He searched her eyes again. “Promise me you’ll tell me soon.”

“Tell you what?”

“Whatever it is I should know.”

“There isn’t anything.”

He smiled. “Oh, yes, there is, and when the time’s right, I know you’ll tell me.” Bending his head to kiss her on the lips, he turned and went into his dressing room.

When the time was right? The time would never be right to tell him a truth like this! She glanced toward the connecting door to her own apartment, and suddenly knew Alice was waiting beyond it. Time was always the master, and was about to dispatch Kathryn Vansomeren back to the future.

Chapter Eighteen

Kathryn went through the door and faced the nurse. “I’m finding this more and more difficult,” she confessed without preamble.

“I know.”

“He’s told me about Elizabeth and William Denham.”

Alice smiled, “Then you have his love, my dear.”

Tears sprang to Kathryn’s eyes. “Yes, his love and his
trust
! He believes in me now, Alice, but later today he’s going to find out about the real Rosalind and Thomas Denham! I can’t bear to think of the pain he’ll experience when that happens. Have you any idea how he suffered the last time? He loved Elizabeth, and she failed him. Now he loves me, and he’ll think I’ve done the same thing. It will destroy him.”

“You may be able to save him from that.”

“How?” Kathryn demanded bluntly. “It seems to me there’s absolutely nothing I can do except lie to him, and I’m starting to hate myself for it. I began this for purely selfish reasons; you promised me the sort of pleasure I’d always wanted, and I thought why not? But things have changed. I love him, and can’t endure the thought of how he’s going to feel a few hours from now. He’s going to be so devastated he’ll never trust anyone again, and who can blame him?”

Kathryn turned away, trying to blink back the angry tears. Now wasn’t the moment to lose her grip, she had to
think
! Mustering her composure, she faced the nurse again. “I know Rosalind and I have been trading places. Every time I’m here as her, she’s in the future as me. And she’s pregnant, right?”

“Yes.”

“So what’s in all this for her?”

“I will tell you later today, when the challenge has been issued and you experience the torment of being rejected by Dane.”

Kathryn gazed at her. “Oh, thanks, it’s great to know you’re on my side!” she said dryly.

“Don’t misunderstand me, my dear. It is necessary for you to go through it all, for only then will you be able to make up your mind about something that will change your very existence.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I will tell you later,” Alice said again.

“To hell with later, I want to know now!”

“No.”

Kathryn drew a long breath and tried to calm down. “Okay, but will you at least tell me about the duel itself? I’ve read what’s in Pendle’s diary, and I don’t believe a word of it. So what really happened?”

Alice paused. “I don’t know.”

Kathryn didn’t believe her. “You mean you don’t intend to tell me that either?” she accused angrily.

Alice shook her head. “That isn’t my reason, my dear. You see, I really don’t know anything that happens after midnight tonight. From the first stroke of Lammas Day, my already dwindling powers will be gone forever.”

Kathryn stared at her. “Oh, come on, how can that be right? You knew about me, and I was way in the future beyond Lammas Day!”

“I can’t explain it, Kathryn. I simply knew you when you came to Gloucester. All I can say is that I recognized in you a kindred spirit. That is how it is, as you yourself will discover when your powers are realized.”

But Kathryn still wasn’t satisfied. “Then how did you know Thomas Denham is going to die tomorrow? Well, answer me that? If you can’t see beyond midnight tonight, how could you possibly know? I only found out about it yesterday, when the guide told me at the castle, but when I saw you by Dane’s portrait, you already knew.”

Alice smiled. “Yes, I knew, because when you were seeing Dane here at Marchwood, Rosalind went into the future and did what you were to do later the same day. She went to the library and read the same things you read. In the few minutes before you and she changed back to your own places again, she told me what she’d discovered.”

So Rosalind, in her guise of Kathryn Vansomeren, was the person Simon the librarian had logged the things out to earlier that day! No wonder Simon the librarian thought she was the same woman come back again. She
had been
the same woman! Rosalind found out all about the duel, went back to the apartment to think and listen to the radio for a while, and then forgot to switch the latter off when she drove back to Marchwood in time to change places again. Kathryn almost wanted to laugh. But then something struck her. “If Rosalind and I are changing places, what’s she doing right now?”

“She’s trying to speak to your husband.”

“Richard?” Kathryn was puzzled. “Why? Why does she keep contacting him and saying all that stuff about going back early?”

Alice drew a long breath. “You must believe me when I say that now isn’t the time to tell you everything. But when you do learn all there is, I know you’ll understand.”

“Well, I’ll have to take your word for that, won’t I?”

“Yes, and if you wish to see Dane again today, at the sailing of the
Lady Marchwood
, you must continue to take my word for everything.”

Kathryn drew back a little. “Be there when he finds out about Rosalind and Thomas? Be Rosalind at that moment, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes. It must be so.”

“No! I don’t want that!”

“Then this must be the end of it all, my dear. I will return you to your own time, and you will never see Sir Dane Marchwood again.”

Kathryn closed her eyes. “No, please, I don’t want that either ...”

“I have asked you to trust me, and I ask you again now. I spoke of an audacious plan, and I still believe that plan to be possible. What does your intuition tell you? Should you return to your own time forever? Or will you come back here today to be with Dane when he learns how Rosalind has betrayed him?”

There was no real contest, for Kathryn couldn’t contemplate never seeing him again. “I’ll come back here,” she whispered.

Alice smiled. “Then you must be at the lock gates of Gloucester docks at midday.”

“The lock gates at midday,” Kathryn repeated, but suddenly she was her modern self again, tying on her robe and hurrying to answer a knock at the apartment door.

It was Jack Elmore. “This was delivered yesterday evening, miss,” he said, presenting her with a huge bouquet of her favorite yellow roses.

Startled, and still a little dazed from the suddenness of the change of time, she took the flowers.

He grinned. “I know it’s early, miss, but I knew you were up when I saw you draw the curtains back a short while ago. I’ve an apology to make, for you were out when they came yesterday evening, and I put them in a cool corner to give you on your return, but I clean forgot them. I hope you don’t mind too much. Reckon someone back home misses you.”

“Are you sure they’re for me?” Her wits were so much at sixes and sevens, it was all she could think of saying.

“Well, unless there’s another Mrs. Vansomeren staying here ...” He grinned again. “Go on, take them, for they must have cost your old man a pretty penny to send from America.”

“My old man? Oh, you mean my husband.” She stared at the roses. Yes, they’d be from Richard; he knew how much she adored yellow roses. She’d carried them on their wedding day.

“I didn’t exactly sneak a look at the card, it was just easy to see,” he explained hastily.

She gave him a quick smile. “I don’t mind if you read it, Jack.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then, miss. I’m sorry I didn’t give you them yesterday.”

“It’s okay. Oh, Jack?”

“Miss?”

“How do I get to the docks from here?”

“Oh, there are several ways, miss. My favorite is along by the river. They’re all marked on the Gloucester Docks leaflet. It won’t take you long to get there.”