Caversham's Bride (The Caversham Chronicles - Book One) (21 page)

“No. I never asked to be abducted. I never asked for you to purchase me. I never asked for any of this. All I ever wanted was to live in peace, raising my brother as my parents would have wished. I had dreams of someday marrying a man who loved me as my father loved my mother.

“But fate had other plans for me, Your Grace. What you see as my attempt to escape you, was me doing everything in my power to get back to that place in my life where I could control my destiny. For that I am to be punished for the rest of my life?”

She wiped her tears, and Ren reached for her again, and she backed further away from him, wanting nothing to do with him.

“I never asked for you to purchase me. If I had been unsuccessful in rescuing Luchino, it would have been because I had died trying. Then he and I would have been together, along with with our parents, in heaven.”

She turned away from him. Guilt overcame him as he realized what he’d done. Because if he had done as he originally intended, he would have returned her to her family untouched. But the attraction to her, the intense need he felt to possess and keep her, cherish her and protect her, took over and he’d been unable to let her go. He stood silent for several long moments before finally speaking again. And when he did, she seemed surprised at what he said.

“I am sorry.”

Her eyes grew wide and hopeful. “If you truly are, then tear up the marriage certificate and allow my brother and me to remain here. I have friends in Naples, and my mother’s family in Rome. We will make a new life for ourselves. I can find work....”

“That is impossible,” he interjected.

“Why?”

“Because, as I told the priest earlier, you could already carry my child.”

“I will
never
allow you to take my child from me,” Lia said.

“Regardless of what transpired in the past twenty-four hours, the bargain remains in effect.”

“Why are you doing this? Can you not see the futility of such a scheme? We would never suit. You want a wife to beget heirs upon. I wish to be my husband’s equal,
con pari dignita.
” She took a deep, slow breath and shook her head. “Will you swear to me that you will never separate me from my child? I warn you now, if I suspect you think to take my child away from me, I would leave you first, taking my child with me.”

“Lia, you are in no position to make demands. We entered into an agreement, and now a marriage. In any court of law, as your husband I am now the legal guardian of your brother, and the father of any babe you conceive. You would never get custody of either should you try to leave.”

His voice grew more and more deadly with each word he spoke. “And know this, if you ever attempt to flee, I
will
hunt you down.”

She slapped him. “
Bastardo!
”

With a lightning quickness, he grabbed her, pulling her closer. Leaning back, he glared down at her. “I hate to disappoint you, but I look just like my father.”

Cursing him, Lia called him every foul name in English and Italian that she could think of. “I don’t care if your conception had witnesses. You’re still a....”

He jerked her closer, and kissed her. A hard, punishing kiss that was not meant to arouse, but to stop her from hurling those poisonous barbs at him as though she were the only one in the room with feelings. “
You
ran away. You would have left, probably carrying my child, to live on the street somewhere?” He stroked the column of her neck, then cupped the back of her head. “My child,” he growled. “You would have kept my child from me. And that would make you no better than her.”

“I’ll never allow you to take my child,” she repeated, pushing away from him and ducking under his arm, putting some needed distance between them. “I do not know who
she
was, and I don’t care. But, unless you threatened to take her child from her against her wishes, she and I have nothing in common.”

Ren straightened and strode to the door of the cabin. Turning back, he gave her a frozen glare and left the room, locking the door behind him.

H
er husband didn’t return to their cabin that night. The next morning she waited for his arrival, which never came. Not that it mattered, unless he promised he would never separate her from her children, she would have nothing to do with him ever again.

If she were to leave him, it would be easier with the inheritance as a means of supporting herself and her brother. But the man could have it. Before marrying the Englishman she stood little chance of getting it from her aunt anyway. Lia had resigned herself long ago to surviving without the money. She just needed to go find her mother’s family in Rome.

His second, Angus, appeared carrying a breakfast tray, behind him was a lad with a pitcher of fresh water for washing, and behind them two more men carrying a trunk she’d never seen before.

“These are the clothes from the Italian seamstress,” the older man said.

She thanked the men, and listened as the door was again locked from the outside.

Lifting the lid to the tray, she saw fish, fruit and bread, and dove into the meal with gusto. The Englishman who was her husband hadn’t seen fit to send her a dinner tray the night before and she was famished. Once done with the meal, she washed and changed clothes from the dress she married in to another, less embellished, frock. She paced the perimeter of the cabin, unsure of what to do. She wanted to go above deck, but the door was locked. Glancing at the limited selection of books in his bookcase, she drew one down, taking the bench seat beneath the windows and began to read.

This was how her husband found her several hours later. Upon entering the room, he stood between the door and table staring at her. Lia could have sworn he wanted to say something. But he didn’t. Instead, he turned and stalked from the cabin after he took a chart from the bench and tucked it under his arm. This time, she didn’t hear the key turn the lock as he left.

Leaning back in the chair, she thought about this man she was now to call husband. It seemed his emotions changed each time she saw him. Yesterday he hated her. Today he was seemingly remorseful. Why? All night long, she thought about his accusations.

He said she used him.

Admittedly, it had been wrong of her to run away the other night when she should have confronted him with what she’d heard, so she could see where he might come to that conclusion. But he was using her as well, to bear him an heir. Which was worse?

He planned to use her body and discard her once he got what he wanted. His intentions toward her were more despicable. His was the more grievous wrong committed. Except to his convoluted male mind, he probably didn’t think of it that way. She didn’t see any common ground with which to begin discussion.

Her eyes fell to the thin gold band on her finger. The symbol of the sacrament and vows taken yesterday afternoon was the only thing they shared.

Suddenly a vision of the young priest, with his straight, dark hair and soft, brown eyes stood before her saying “
Repeat after me...from this day forward. For better or for worse...”

Surely this wasn’t what God intended a marriage should be. Her father never treated her mother roughly or spoke to her with the venomous tongue Ren used with her last night.

“
...from this day forward.
” There was no pleasant future in sight for her, that much was sure. So was she now to live out her days in a loveless relationship with nothing to look forward to? Living in fear of her husband sending her away?

Another vision appeared, and she closed her eyes tight so she would not have to look at it, but still it was there. She saw Maysun cradling an infant, her face radiant with maternal bliss. In this vision her friend repeated the words she’d told her when she woke up in the harem. “
You can be as happy as you allow yourself to be. Your fate lies in your own hands
.”

“
...from this day forward
,” echoed the vision of the young priest.

Her happiness was within her own control, as Maysun had told her. She had to talk with her new husband. If
she could make peace with him, it might make living with him more bearable. He might never love her, and she might never love him, but she could not continue with the way things were.

When the cabin was near dark, she heard a knock at the door. Lia stood, faced the door, and called out for whomever it was to enter.

“It’s Angus, Yer Grace, come to bring ye a dinner tray.” The door opened slowly and the stout, gray-haired Scotsman entered carrying a tray. Angus placed the fresh tray on the table, and lit the room’s only lantern, then picked up the remains from her previous meal.

“The weather might get a bit choppy tonight, so ye might want to eat now as there’ll be no meal cooked after this one.”

She nodded at him, and the old salt left the cabin. Peeking under the cover of her meal she set it aside and settled in with a book as the weather began to worsen.

B
racing his legs, Ren guided the ship’s bow into a wave, cutting it in half. He wanted to go below to speak with Lia, but the weather had taken a turn. The storm he thought he might skirt became something he had to face directly. His new wife had to wait. The approaching squall line needed his attention. He had three ships full of cargo and ninety-six men he wanted to bring home to England alive.

For the next six hours, he held a steady westerly course through the Mediterranean, fighting a hard north wind and waves that crashed against the starboard side of his lead ship. The stinging drops pelted his exposed flesh, feeling much like the lash of the cat. He deserved every strike for the pain he caused her because the entire predicament they were in was his fault. No one else’s but his, and he owed her an apology.

L
ia set the tray in the corner of the railed table and looked for something heavy to place around it so it wouldn’t slide around. She spied several, large books on the bookshelf and carefully laid them around the platter, filling the desk’s surface.

She wondered if these classical tomes were Ren’s, and if he had read them. There were works from Aristotle and Plutarch in Latin, Shakespeare, and a Bible. He also had books on architecture, agriculture and business, even some of the more current works from the popular poets, such as Goethe, Keats and Byron. She picked one up and carried it with her to the bed.

The ship began to pitch more violently now as the vessel moved deeper into the storm. Lightning streaked across the night sky a fraction of a moment before the accompanying thunder clap reverberated through her body. Giving up on the book, she blew out the flame in the swaying lantern just as another wave threw her to the floor. Lia crawled the rest of the way to the bed, where she wrapped herself in a blanket and waited for it all to be over. As she huddled there under the covers, she worried about her brother on
Sea Witch
, wondering if he were frightened by the storm. She prayed for his safety, and that of her husband and all his men. She prayed for the souls of her parents and Maura, and lastly, she prayed for her own.

Several hours later she was holding on for dear life to a table leg fixed to the floor when she felt the sway and pitch of the ship lessen, and within minutes, return to normal. She scurried to the bank of windows and looked up at the night sky.

Stars. Millions of little dots twinkling in the velvety-dark heavens above. They’d made it through the storm. This ship, and the two behind them. She hoped her brother was well on the other ship, and not frightened. Saying a prayer of thanks that they all had cleared the bad weather, Lia climbed onto the bed and wrapped the cotton blanket tighter around her, exhausted now that the threat of danger was over.

She lay on her side, drew her knees up, and nodded off, lightly dozing an indeterminate amount of time before the sound of the door opening woke her. Ren entered the room. Lia feigned sleep to keep his attention from her, afraid they might argue again. She heard him move about the room, then felt the mattress dip when he climbed on. He gathered her into his arms, and held her close. It was difficult to sleep with his scent and warmth enveloping her. What she really wanted was to turn into him and thank him for seeing them through the storm. But she was afraid that any words might be heard as angry and condemning, then they would find themselves back in the heat of a shouting match. And she truly was tired of fighting.

A few moments later, she heard the even breathing that told her he slept, and only then could she relax enough to get real sleep.

T
he eerie light of the full moon off the water, reflected in the cabin, created a faint blue glow in the room. Turning over to face Lia, Ren heard her deep, even breaths through her parted lips, and watched the rise and fall of her chest, covered only by her thin chemise, leaving the blanket twisted about her waist.

He’d been warned that Lia was spirited. But she was also brave, strong-willed, stubborn, vivacious, expressive, and... honest. Just days ago she’d enthusiastically thrown her naked body into his, happy to be so close to rescuing her brother. That emotion was as genuine as she was. How could he believe Lia was cut of the same cloth as Margaret? That devious wench had played the innocent miss, pretending to want marriage to him, all the while she’d been having an affair with his cousin, Thomas, and conceiving his child. Ren thanked the fates that he’d been spared a marriage to her because he likely would never have known until it was too late.