DeButy & the Beast (29 page)

"I was kidnapped," he interrupted.

She wasn't so sure she believed him. He saw, too easily, the skepticism on her face. "It matters little. Queen Carola has declared our marriage void."

"Queen Carola, whoever the hell she is, has no jurisdiction in North Carolina," he said testily.

"But on Puerta Sirena she rules second only to me," Sebastian said lowly. "In a few days, we will leave for that island, and there Anya will become my queen."

Julian turned to the annoying man. "Anya is my wife, and she's carrying my child. If you think—"

"The child is mine, now," Sebastian declared. "I have claimed it."

"You can't just—"

"I can."

Julian turned and pulled Anya toward the house. "We need to discuss this in private." The guards blocked their path, and when he tried to skirt them they stepped to the side to remain between him and the house. Anya's little knife didn't seem much of a threat, since the blades they carried were four times longer and twice as broad.

"Anya is to be queen," Sebastian said with an almost intolerable serenity. "She goes nowhere without my permission and the guard of my most trusted men."

Julian tugged on Anya's hand and pulled her close. She was well, which assured him that the person who had arranged his foiled shanghai meant her no harm. For that he was grateful. But this new development...

"I have been so worried about you," he whispered.

"There was no need," she said crisply. "I have been fine without you. I did not miss you at all. You deserted me without a care, and..."

"I did not desert you."

"You did." He saw the sharp hurt in her eyes, the indecision. "Perhaps you are telling the truth and the leaving was not of your choosing, but the result was the same. You broke your promise."

The expression in her eyes was enough to do any man in, there was such deep longing and pain there. Julian moved his mouth close to hers. One kiss, to tell her he loved her. One kiss, to make things a little bit better, until they had the time and opportunity to work this out. His mouth moved toward hers, but at the last moment she turned her face and presented her cheek.

* * *

Julian looked different, Anya thought as he stormed into the house. His hair was longer, his beard a few days old, his clothes unkempt. But the change she saw was much more than skin deep. His eyes... a new passion flickered there, something deep and true that she had not seen in him before.

"He threatened to kill me," Sebastian said with humor and horror.

"He did not mean it," she said as the king came up behind her.

"I believe he did."

Why had he come back? And with that ridiculous story about being kidnapped. Maybe he had forgotten something. Maybe the captain of his ship had tossed him off the way the pirates of Puerta Sirena had been tossed off their own ships, and he had nowhere else to go.

Maybe he had realized that he truly did love her.

Too late. She would not allow herself to be hurt again. Even if Julian did love her, that love would not last. Eventually he would leave again. He would break her heart again.

Sebastian could never hurt her, for one simple reason. She did not love him.

Peter appeared in the north parlor doorway. "Miss Anya, your breakfast is getting cold."

At Sebastian's orders, the servants who had defended him from Julian's knife fell into step behind her. She now had her own personal guard, it seemed. Could they keep Julian away?

She hoped so. She could not stand another broken heart so soon.

Her eyes cut to the side as she made her way to the dining room, waiting for Julian to appear. He did not, but Grandmother joined her at the table.

"Anya, why are you wearing that... that outfit?"

"I wished to do so."

"You have so many beautiful dresses—"

"Julian is home," Anya interrupted.

Grandmother's eyes went wide, her cheeks lost their color. "He is? I thought... Seymour said he had taken a ship to Australia. What happened?"

Anya shrugged and played with one of the biscuits on her plate. "I do not know." Why share his ridiculous story about being kidnapped? It was an excuse for his behavior, and she chose not to believe him. "I told him I was going to return to Puerta Sirena with Sebastian, and he left."

"Anya," Grandmother said crisply, "you are not returning to Puerta Sirena." She nodded sharply in that way she had, leaving no room for argument.

"I belong there," Anya said quietly.

"You belong
here
."

Anya shook her head.

In truth, she did not belong anywhere. Not here, not on Puerta Sirena. Oh, she was going to make a terrible queen!

"Well, where is Julian now?" Grandmother asked tersely.

"I do not know. Maybe he left. Maybe he is here in the house, still." Yes, he was here in this house. She felt him. After weeks of missing her husband, she actually felt his presence in this house.

Grandmother gave her a small smile. "Perhaps he came back because he missed you, and he now realizes that the two of you should remain here. Together. He'll do away with that ridiculous pagan king, and everything will be the way it should be." Again, she nodded.

Anya picked at her biscuit. She had a sinking feeling nothing would ever be as it should be, not ever again.

* * *

Julian had not slept for more than twenty-four hours, and it was beginning to show. After leaving Anya and her damned king, he'd stormed through the house looking for Seymour. Jeremiah would come with the truth, when he found it. He would get the information from the man who had hired him and Milton, he would learn who was behind the plot.

But Julian knew what had happened. Who else but Seymour would hire thugs to see that Julian left this house and didn't return? Seymour, who had been so distressed by the news that Anya wanted a dozen children. Seymour, who had been so happy that his sister would turn her back on her share of the Sedley fortune for love. Seymour, who apparently wanted it all for himself.

It had been Peter who'd finally told him that Seymour had gone out the night before with friends and had not returned. The butler was not concerned. This was normal behavior for Seymour.

Julian had washed his face in cool water and now laid back on his own bed. His heart pounded erratically, his vision was cloudy. He could not think straight! In truth, the shock he'd received on his homecoming probably had more to do with his state of mind than something so simple as lack of sleep.

He closed his eyes. So that was King Sebastian. A new fury rushed through his blood. He had painted a picture in his mind, a picture he could live with. In spite of Anya's insistence that the king was young and handsome and virile, in his mind he'd given Sebastian an ugly face, a spindly body, and a grating voice no woman would care to hear. He had made the king old and ugly and... less than ordinary.

How else could he live with the fact that Anya had once been his concubine?

But Sebastian was none of those things. Most women would probably find the heathen attractive. And the bastard had asked Anya to be his queen, and wanted to make Julian's child his heir.

Never. He would follow them to Puerta Sirena, if he had to. He would fight to the death for his wife and child.

At least she was safe, he thought, the rage he was unaccustomed to fading slowly. And well. Pregnancy agreed with her. How could she be more beautiful than he remembered? Her hair redder, her lips more perfect, her eyes brighter. He had dreamed of her, while imprisoned in Miller's Crossroads, and even in his dreams she had not been so beautiful.

As soon as his head cleared and Anya was calm enough to be reasonable, he would explain again what had happened on the road. She would understand, and forgive him.

A few hours of sleep, that was all he needed. Julian took a deep breath. He could hear people moving throughout the house and voices muffled by the thick walls. A man, a woman. A voice he knew, another he did not.

Below stairs, something fragile hit a wall or the floor and shattered with a resounding crash. Julian smiled and drifted into an uneasy sleep.

Chapter 18

Anya was surprised to see Julian come down to dinner. What had she hoped? That he would leave? That he would follow her around and beg her forgiveness? She had not seen him all day, though Peter had said he was resting in his room. She had been tempted to open the door and peek in, but she had not. Angelo and Hector, the guards Sebastian had assigned to her, never left her side, even though she had tossed more than one vase their way and had ordered them several times to leave her be.

For the evening meal, Julian had bathed, shaved, and put on clean clothes. He wore a very nice black suit Grandmother had insisted he have, a conservative contrast to the scarves Anya continued to wear. He looked very gentlemanly, but for the gleam in his dark, hooded eyes.

Anya took a seat at the table. Sebastian sat in the chair at her right. Julian took the chair to her left. Her heart almost thudded through her chest when the two men bracketed her.

There was quite a crowd at the table tonight. Grandmother at the head, as usual, Queen Carola at the foot, the place she had chosen for herself. Julian, Anya, and Sebastian were on one side of the table, a yawning Seymour and the Mathias newlyweds on the other, along with a disinterested Uncle Ellis. While Grandmother had not forgiven Valerie for defying her, she did concede whenever Anya asked to see her cousin, and of course Valerie wanted to spend as much time as possible with her father before he sailed away for parts unknown again.

The islanders from Puerta Sirena, four men and two women, stood close by, silent and ready to defend their king and the queen mother. And Anya herself, she supposed.

Sebastian leaned down and placed his mouth close to Anya's ear. "I do not think the man who was your husband likes me much," he said, a hint of teasing in his deep whisper.

"I doubt he cares enough to dislike you," she answered in a voice as low as his own.

"I disagree."

Julian laid a hand on her knee, and Anya jumped. He leaned close, and nudged her hair aside as he whispered, "When did you take to wearing scarves and jewels again, my dear?"

"They are more comfortable," she answered turning the back of her head to Sebastian and glancing up at her husband, who remained so close, so very close. No. As Sebastian said, Julian was the man who used to be her husband. She waited for a lecture on proper clothing for a lady. Instead, Julian's fingers slipped higher on her bare leg.

"I like it," he whispered in her ear as his hand traveled higher.

"You do?"

His fingers stopped short of their intended target, swaying on the tender skin at her inner thigh and going no higher. "Of course I do."

Grandmother cleared her throat loudly, and again Anya jumped. Good heavens! She had almost forgotten that she and Julian were not alone.

"Julian, where on earth have you been?" Grandmother asked sharply.

Julian's eyes raked over everyone at the table. "While on the road to my aunt's house, just a few hours after leaving here, I was set upon by robbers and kidnapped."

Grandmother raised a hand to her chest. "How terrible."

Valerie and William expressed their horror, as well, and even Seymour showed his surprise.

Betsy had made a fine roast, and it was passed around the table, along with the vegetables she had prepared.

"What bad luck," Seymour said as he piled potatoes onto his plate.

Julian stared at Anya's cousin. "It wasn't bad luck at all," he said darkly. "The note summoning me to my aunt's house was false, a ruse to get me on the road alone."

"They meant to kill you?" Valerie asked, horrified.

Julian's fingers tightened at Anya's thigh. "No, they meant to shanghai me."

This last statement got Uncle Ellis's attention. "Shanghai?"

"Yes. Someone wanted, very much, to get me as far away from this house as possible."

Anya lifted her eyes cautiously. When Grandmother passed Julian the large bowl of potatoes, he had no choice but to remove his hand from Anya's leg and take the food. "So it is true?" she whispered. "You were abducted?"

"Yes," he said. "Did you really think I'd simply leave you without a word?"

Anya nodded. That feeling she did not like welled up inside her. Fear. Trapped tears.

"Well, how did you escape?" Seymour asked brightly. "It sounds like a grand adventure. I'm sure it makes for an exciting story."

Julian laid his eyes on Seymour. "Not tonight," he said calmly. "I have more important things on my mind."

Grandmother cleared her throat again. "Well, Anya, now that Julian has returned, I'm sure you've reconsidered your plans to return to Puerta Sirena. Goodness, Julian, we thought you'd taken off for Australia. That's what we were told. I imagine the same ruffians who kidnapped you also arranged for us to hear that story."

Julian scoffed. "The ruffians who kidnapped me are incapable of planning anything so devious. No, someone hired them to shanghai me. That's the person who made sure you all thought I had taken off for... where did you say? Australia?"