The Faithful Heart (34 page)

A wave of desperate anger turned her tears to
frustration. “But you’ll flirt with Lydia? You’ll do that! Are you
and she lovers?”

“We were,” he confessed in a hush.

“How could you?” His admission enraged
her.

He glanced up to meet her eyes. “We were
barely more than children. Lydia knew I was Lord Hugh’s son, that
there was a chance I could be raised to the title. I was young and
… curious and she was willing and ambitious. It was Constance that
I really loved. Constance was so beautiful and good and Lydia was
so … Lydia.” The shame flickering in his eyes told Madeline more
than any words could. Her anger ebbed. “I was weak and I’ve paid
the price for it. I’m paying it still.”

Madeline shook her head to clear the
frustration of a situation she barely understood. “Then why are you
stooping so low as to flirt with her now?”

“I have been baiting Lydia,” he replied, “in
the hope that she will leave Jack alone. She’s always wanted me.
She still thinks I’m the one with the power and that Jack is an
idiot. If I distract her then maybe she will only go so far as to
marry Jack for his title. My hope is that if I,” he couldn’t meet
her eyes, “if I become her lover again then she will leave Jack
free to be yours.”

The possibility stirred a longing deep in
Madeline’s core. Perhaps they could get away with that. As soon as
she felt the temptation to give in to that sort of compromise her
heart rebelled. She shook her head, back stiff with defiance. “No.
I won’t agree to that. Don’t you see, Simon, that’s not good
enough! I refuse to let her win. She cannot have any part of Jack!
He’s mine!”

Simon sighed, his shoulders sagging. “My
dear, you sound very much like another woman we both know.” He
glanced up. The comparison made Madeline sick to her stomach. She
backed away. “There are duties Jack must fulfill that mean so much
more than what you or I want, my lady.”

“All this because a clever whore stole a pile
of money in the forest and hired a few bullies with swords to guard
it,” she huffed a bitter laugh. “Are we really that weak?”

“We wouldn’t be if the Earl hadn’t left Derby
with most of the army.”

Madeline blinked. She sucked in a breath and
glanced up at Simon. “Do you think Sir Crispin has enough authority
to dispossess Jack in favor of you?”

“My lady,” Simon scowled, “I told you
no.”

She waved him off, shaking her head and
pacing as the ideas came to her faster than she could grasp them.
“He wouldn’t have to do anything, but do you think he has enough
authority to appoint you lord?”

Simon stood straight and silent, watching her
as she chewed her lip. “I don’t know, my lady. I honestly don’t.
It’s possible. It depends on the terms invested in him with the
Earldom.”

“Do you think Lydia would believe that he had
that kind of power?”

He sucked in a breath. “I believe she
would.”

Madeline stopped pacing and stood face to
face with him. “Would you be willing to pretend that you were the
rightful lord of Kedleridge?”

His jaw dropped open and he stared past her,
eyes flashing as he caught on to her plan. “Yes, I would.”

“And,” she swallowed, flinching at her
ruthlessness, “do you think that if you offered to marry her and
give her the title and all that she would still hand the money over
after the wedding?”

He drew in a breath, his face hardening with
resolve. “I would force her to agree to those terms.”

For a moment they stared at each other. The
air in the room sizzled. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t want
to make you do this, but-”

“You’ve no need to be sorry, Madeline.” A sad
smile softened his features. He raised a hand to cradle her face.
“You remind me so much of her, so much of Constance. She would have
loved you as if you were her own. She would have wanted me to do
this. For you.”

Madeline let out a shaky breath. “Where is
Crispin? Does anyone know where he is right now?” She rushed past
Simon into the hallway to keep herself from breaking down. She had
a job to do.

“Jack had a letter from him this morning. The
messenger that delivered it was wearing Matlock’s ensign.”

Madeline froze and whipped around to face
him, all color leaving her. “He’s at my father’s house?”

Simon laid a hand on her arm. “My lady, would
you like me to come with you?”

Her gut felt as though it was filled with a
thousand snakes. She shook her head. “No, Simon. If I have to go to
my father’s house, if that’s the only thing that will save Jack,
then I have to go alone.”

“But I would willingly go with you if you
need me.”

A wave of affection like nothing Madeline had
felt for anyone save Jack surged through her. She turned back and
threw her arms around Simon, hugging him as though it was revealed
that he was her true father and her life in Matlock had been a lie.
When she broke away to charge off on her mission she was too choked
up to speak.

“My lady,” he called after her as she dashed
down the hall. “If you are not back by tomorrow, if Matlock lifts a
finger to harm you, I will come get you and bring you home.”

Chapter Nineteen

A small crowd turned up in the street outside
of Derby Castle in the soggy morning to watch the two carriages
bearing Plantagenet standards being loaded. Jack stood between the
crowd at the gate and the carriages with his arms crossed and a
scowl on his face. Silly though it may have looked, he wore two
swords in his belt, both positioned in such a way that at a
moment’s notice they could be drawn and ready. The men Pennington
had brought with him to load and drive the carriages watched him
with anxious glances. They figured Lydia’s guard was there to
intimidate them and not Jack. For once Jack was glad of it.

“I would like to thank you for the splendid
hospitality you have shown me during your visit.” Pennington
appeared at the top of the castle stairs with Aubrey. The bastard
had the gall to grin at her as though she had invited him for a
garden party.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Aubrey sent him a
sardonic grin in return, one hand holding her enormous belly as she
waddled down the stairs. “We won’t be able to afford to entertain
anyone for a long time to come.”

Pennington laughed as if her words were a
joke. He didn’t even offer an arm to help her down the stairs. Not
that Aubrey would have accepted it. Jack left his position and
strode across the courtyard to escort her down the last few steps
and across to the carriages. Pennington balked at the sight of him.
Good.

“Do you have the account record, Pennington?”
He managed to tower over the man while escorting Aubrey.

“Yes, uh, I must have it here somewhere.”
Pennington fumbled through his tunic. “Let’s see, where did I put
it?”

Jack exchanged glances with Aubrey. “Right!”
he raised his voice while maintaining his noble accent. “Unload the
carriages! Take the money back to the treasury to be counted!”

“No, no, no!” Pennington trembled and laughed
nervously. “That won’t be necessary.” He jogged to the first
carriage and gestured for his page to open the door. He stuck his
head inside and pulled a small chest from under the seat, throwing
back the lid and sorting through it.

“I swear to God I will have that man’s hide
someday,” Jack mumbled to Aubrey as they followed on Pennington’s
heels.

“Not if I get it first,” her frown turned
into a wink when their eyes met.

“Here it is, here it is.” When he turned
around to find Jack and Aubrey feet away from him he jumped and
gasped. “How … how foolish of me,” he barked a nervous laugh and
presented Jack with a rolled piece of parchment.

Jack let Aubrey’s arm go long enough to
snatch the scroll from him. Pennington snapped his hand back as
though he’d handed the parchment into the jaws of a rabid dog.

Jack unrolled the parchment and read.
“Halston, business has delayed me,” he over-emphasized his accent
to hide his slow reading, “and as I shall be making a detour before
returning home, please see to the following.” He lowered the
parchment and glared at Pennington. “This is not an accounting of
the money you’re taking from Derby.”

“Isn’t it?” Pennington took the parchment
from Jack. When Jack then proceeded to reach for his swords
Pennington yelped and spun to fish through the small chest again.
“This is it! This is it I swear, my lord!” He swung back around to
present Jack with another slip of parchment. “So sorry for the …
the mix up.”

Jack swiped the second parchment and
swallowed the look of triumph that wanted to break out on his face
as he read it. The bloody fool thought he could pull one over on
him and was practically pissing himself because he couldn’t. It was
a tiny victory, but he’d take it. “Good,” he nodded. Pennington
sighed in relief, his shoulders going slack. “Now I want you to
have someone at the royal treasury sign this parchment and send it
back to me as proof that every cent you have taken has gone where
it should. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly, perfectly, my lord.” Pennington
took the parchment and nodded. “Now if you’ll excuse me, we really
should get going.” He backed away, hitting the carriage step that
his page had lowered and wincing. He turned and scrambled into the
carriage as if his life depended on it.

“Well that’s something I never thought I’d
see!” Aubrey exclaimed as they stepped back while Pennington’s
servants prepared to leave.

“What, me gettin’ things done?” Jack dropped
back to his regular accent.

“No.” Aubrey tried to hide her grin as
Pennington’s carriage lurched forward. “I never thought I’d see the
day that Arthur Pennington called you ‘my lord’! What did you say
to him?”

Jack smirked. “It weren’t so much what I said
as how I said it.” He patted the hilt of his sword.

His smile dropped as soon as the carriages
rolled through the gates and out into the city. The courtyard felt
as empty as it ever had. Jack turned worried eyes to the castle
servants watching from the top of the stairs and the higher
balconies and windows, then looked to the crowd of people still
hanging around the front door. Time was almost up.

“Alright, Aubrey,” the last of his humor
vanished, “where did you an’ Madeline stash the priests?”

“Oh come on, Jack,” Aubrey’s smile was too
tight to be genuine. “Let’s not talk about that now. Let’s go
inside and have a snack.”

She tried to walk on but he caught her by the
arm to stop her. She was on the verge of spewing some other kind of
excuse when something else caught Jack’s attention. Tom emerged
from the crowd outside the gate, heading towards them. Jack twisted
around, looking for Madeline. If he could pin her and Aubrey down
together then maybe they would finally see reason about the
priests. But Madeline was nowhere.

“Oy, what’d you want?” Jack’s heart plummeted
when it became clear Madeline wasn’t there.

“I want to talk to you,” Tom answered as he
approached.

The guard Lydia set to watch him closed his
hand over his sword and growled at Tom.

“Oy, cool it, mate,” Jack scolded him. The
man had been in a bad mood since he had given him the slip the day
before. Jack turned his attention to Tom. “What do you want to talk
to me about?”

To his surprise, Tom blushed and stared at
the cobblestones, his jaw working around words that were having a
hard time coming out. Jack glanced to Aubrey, but she only
shrugged.

He was just about to lose patience when Tom
blurted, “I want to help you.”

Jack blinked. Tom dragged his eyes up to meet
his. He meant it. Tom really wanted to help. “What do you want to
do?” he asked, unable to think of anything better to say. Tom
shrugged. “Aren’t you still chummy with Ethan? What does he have to
say about all this?”

“Ethan can go hang himself,” Tom spat. As
soon as he’d said it his face flushed deeper and a look of misery
clouded his eyes. Whatever the hell Ethan had done to upset his
brother, it’d been bad.

Jack exchanged another glance with Aubrey
before asking, “Where’s Madeline?”

Again Tom answered by shrugging. “Don’t know.
Haven’t seen her since yesterday afternoon.”

Jack struggled to tamp down the panic that
rose in his gut. “You don’t know?” He wrestled with the urge to
throttle his brother or run off in search of Madeline. Wrong though
it was, there were more important things to deal with first. “Do
you know where them two are hiding all the bloody priests?” To his
surprise Tom nodded. “Bloody hell,” he scowled at Aubrey. “So
everyone knows where they are but me?”

“Now Jack,” Aubrey began, rubbing her belly
as a form of self-defense.

Jack ignored her, turning back to Tom. “I
only need one, mate. Just one. Where are they?”

“At Morley,” Tom mumbled, staring at the
ground.

“Tom!” Aubrey snapped at him, proving he was
telling the truth.

A chill passed through Jack. It didn’t feel
nearly as good as he hoped it would to know he was doing the right
thing and to finally have the means to do it. “Will you ride out
with me to get them?” he asked Tom.

Tom raised his head to meet Jack’s eyes and
nodded. Jack nodded in return and jerked his head towards the
stables. The two men marched off to have horses saddled.

“Wait! Jack! No!” Aubrey chased after them as
fast as she could. “You can’t do this!”

“Aubrey, I don’t want to get into this with
you.” Jack didn’t break stride.

“But you can’t marry Lydia, you can’t!” She
tried to grab his arm but he shook her off. “Don’t do this! Think
of Madeline!”

His stomach and chest burned at her plea but
he couldn’t answer her. He couldn’t even look at her. “You comin’
too?” he barked at the guard who had jogged after them.