Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) (34 page)

“Is that you, Tanner?” she asked and coughed.

“Yes, sweetheart, it’s me.”

She leaned her head against the broadness of his chest just as Clay and David called out. Within seconds, light appeared as they came forward with torches in their hands, and it was this light which led them out of the tunnel.

~ ~ ~

Tanner stayed constantly near Diana’s bedside, refusing to budge despite Frances’s constant clucking. “You need looking after, too,” she gently scolded him. “We’re doing all we can for Diana.”

“Don’t bother with me. I’m not the one with the raging fever, the delirium, the one who may lose her child. There must be something else that can be done!” Tanner’s words were uttered with a sense of hopelessness. Ever since he’d taken Diana from the tunnel she’d been so horribly ill that he feared she would die. And the doctor from Camden couldn’t seem to do much for her except to pour a nasty-smelling brew down her throat four times a day.

As Tanner sat beside her bed with his hand on her abdomen, he felt the baby kick. It seemed the child was all right for now, but Diana might die. Once again cold fear clutched at his heart. So this was retribution. At that moment he knew he was paying for all of the wrongs he’d committed while he was a spy, yet perhaps his retribution would not be complete until he paid in full by taking Diana and their child. If that happened, he’d suffer such torment of soul that only his own death would assuage the pain.

“Diana,” he pleaded with her, “get well. Please try and get better. I love you so much, more than you can possibly know. Without you I’m a shell of a man. I’m nothing. You’re my obsession, my love. Always and forever. Please, please…”

Diana didn’t respond. Her face was ashen, more pale than he’d ever seen it, and she had such trouble breathing that he doubted she could hold on for much longer.

He buried his head upon the covers, slowly coming to the realization that his mother was touching his shoulder.

“I heard the woman is ill,” Naomi said.

“Her name is Diana, Mother, and yes, she’s ill.” Glancing up at his mother, fresh tears filled his eyes. “I’m going to lose her and the baby.”

“Mariah, my son, have you forgotten the Indian ways, the ways of your ancestors, which I taught you at my knee? The white man has little knowledge of natural cures, but if you let me help her, I think your Diana will live.”

“Can you help her, Mother?” Tanner grasped her hand hard and looked like a little boy again.

Naomi nodded. “But only if you keep that busybody out of the room for a few days.”

Tanner knew she meant Frances, and for the first time he smiled with hope. “Anything you want, my mother.”

~ ~ ~

“Humph, I don’t know what that woman’s doing in there, Marisa, but I think we should barge in and see. Why, Diana’s very life may be in jeopardy.” Frances stood in the parlor doorway, her face expressing horror and disapproval. “All of that chanting and those smelly herbs Naomi brings into the house is heathenish. Tanner’s no better than his mother to allow it.”

“Mother, don’t interfere. I know you have Diana’s best interests at heart, but without Naomi’s help, Diana might die. Tanner told me this morning that over the last few days Diana has improved a great deal.”

“Then I want to see my niece.”

“No,” Marisa said, and she meant it.

Frances gave up, realizing she wasn’t going to win. “What will the neighbors say about this? If the truth ever reaches Charlestown about Diana having two husbands we’ll never be able to live down the gossip.”

“Oh, posh. I don’t care what those old biddies think.”

“Marisa! I’m shocked at your attitude. The sooner I get you back home to Charlestown and away from these disturbing influences, the better off you’ll be.”

A delighted grin turned up the edges of Marisa’s mouth as she beckoned her mother to sit down and have tea. “By disturbing influences, do you mean Clay?”

Frances lowered her voice to a whisper. “Yes. Really, it’s not proper for a young unmarried lady and young man to inhabit the same house, even under these trying circumstances. I know Clay wants to marry you, dear, but you need a proper courtship. Anything could happen, you know, if you two are constantly together.”

“It’s already happened. I think I’m having a baby.”

“My God, my heart!” Frances leaned against the sofa, her hand on her chest.

“Now, Mother, don’t take on so. Your heart is perfectly healthy and you know it. Besides, Clay and I have been legally married for nearly month. We went to Camden one day and were married.”

That news caused Frances to recover immediately.

“I’m so pleased!” Frances gushed.

“So am I,” Marisa admitted, accepting her mother’s kiss on her cheek. “Now if only Tanner and Diana can know such happiness again.”

            ~ ~ ~

After a week of Naomi’s remedies Diana’s fever broke, she didn’t cough as often, and her cheeks began to bloom with a pinkish tinge. “I think you’re healing,” Naomi advised her. It was a lovely late December morning. A chill was in the air, but the glow from the fireplace warmed the room. “I’ll find Tanner for you.”

“Naomi,” came Diana’s strengthened voice from the bed. “I want to thank you for saving my life. I know how hard this must have been for you, because I understand the way you feel about me.”

“Tanner explained all to me,” Naomi admitted.

“Then you don’t hate me?”

“No, Diana, I do not hate you.”

“Can we be friends?” Diana held out her hand.

Naomi took it, and for the first time that Diana could remember, she saw Naomi’s face light up with a lovely smile. Diana realized then why Harlan had fallen in love with her. “Yes, we are friends.”

When Tanner entered the room seconds later, he kissed Diana’s lips. “Mother told me that you’re doing better and that you’re going to be fine.”

“Yes, and we’ve made peace with each other, thanks to you.”

“All I did was explain about the lie Kingsley told me, a lie I foolishly believed.”

Tanner sat on the bed and held her against his chest. He stroked her hair then held her hand. “Everything’s all right now, Diana. We’re going to have our baby and be a family. You’re mine, my love, forever.”

“Not quite, Tanner. You’re forgetting one very important point.”

“What?” he asked, troubled.

“We’re not legally married.”

Tanner nodded. “Our first wedding anniversary was last week, but you were too sick to celebrate it.”

“Aren’t you going to marry me again?”

“Hmm, that’s an interesting question. I seem to remember that the first time I asked you, you refused me.”

“I didn’t, and anyway you forced me into it, Tanner. Don’t you want to marry me?”

Tanner shot her an assessing look before squeezing her arm like a garden tomato. “You’re rather scrawny.”

“And you’re impossible! So, I suppose I shall have to bury my pride and do the asking, and I shall ask you but one time. Tanner Sheridan, will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

“Good. And don’t ever tell me you were tricked into doing the right thing by me!” Diana retorted with a mischievous gleam in her eyes, until Tanner seductively silenced her with his kiss.

26

“I feel so sinful to be doing this,” Diana complained to Tanner with a naughty twinkle in her eyes. “What if Jenny wakens and needs me?”

“Then Hattie will tend to her,” Tanner said and took her hand to guide her away from the house and toward the river. “Jenny is three years old now and has slept through the night for the last two years. So you have no excuse not to indulge your husband in a midnight tryst.”

“I’m always indulging you, Tanner Sheridan.” Diana laughed up at Tanner, his face made more handsome by the brilliant light of the full moon. What she said was true. No matter what Tanner wanted Diana indulged him, for she realized early on that his needs were hers and vice versa. He seemed contented looking after her, Jenny, and Briarhaven. Under his hand, Briarhaven was now a thriving rice plantation again. Jenny was the most adorable child, a miniature of her father, and Diana was the happiest she’d ever been in her life. There was nothing left for her to want except many more years of the same. “But what about prickly pine needles and gnats? I don’t want my backside to be permanently engraved or to serve as a feast for hungry insects.”

“We have a blanket,” he reminded her, and when they reached the bluff, he laid it upon the ground and gently lowered her onto it.

“Sometimes I think you’re depraved.”

He joined her on the blanket, took her in his arms, and nuzzled her neck. “And aren’t you glad for it?”

Diana laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Yes,” she admitted. “And speaking of depraved, I forgot to tell you that I ran into Gabriella Fox last week when I visited Anne.”

Tanner reigned tiny kisses on her neck and parted the bodice of her gown, totally absorbed in his task and not paying any attention to what she said until Diana repeated herself. “What about Gabriella?” he asked.

“Dear Gabriella is having a child again.”

“How many will that make?”

“Four. It seems that old Mr. Fox wasn’t quite as old as Gabriella originally thought. He’s not about to leave this life without making Gabriella earn her keep as his wife and the mother of his children.”

“Good for old man Fox,” Tanner mumbled as he pulled the bodice away from Diana’s shoulders.

“But the tart had the audacity to insinuate that something was wrong with either you or me because we have only one child.”

“So?”

“Doesn’t that bother you, Tanner? Don’t you wonder if there may be something amiss with us. After all, Jenny is three years old and I haven’t conceived again and…”

“Diana.”

“What?”

“If you don’t be quiet and let me kiss you, then we may never be able to match the Fox brood.”

Diana’s smile dazzled and bewitched Tanner as she arched against him, inviting him to take what had belonged to him from the very first moment they met. Her voice was a breathy whisper in his ear. “Whatever you say, my love. We have a great deal of catching up to do.”

END

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