Rebecca Hagan Lee (35 page)

During their marriage, Meredith had lived in fear that one day Blake would risk scandal and divorce her. The certainty of it haunted her during her recuperation from her accident. She was crippled and unable to bear children.

He needed an heir. The courts might listen to his plea. He was a popular member of government and wealthy enough to pay for a parliamentary divorce without the risk of scandal. He might emerge from his marriage to her unscathed--able to marry legally and father a legitimate heir. In a desperate act to retain control over Blake's future, Meredith had decided to orchestrate her own death. Her accident had taken away her mobility, but it had been a strange sort of blessing in disguise. Her death had given her a certain amount of security that she hadn't had before she lost the use of her legs. Now she sat back and pulled the strings and watched her puppet dance. It gave her great pleasure to know Blake continued to support her beggarly family and to have them dance attendance to her, to come when she summoned them and carry out her bidding for the promise of money to pay gaming debts or to buy thoroughbreds. And it gave her enormous satisfaction to use Blake's money to pay spies to follow him and report his movements to her.

He was changed. The weeks with the Fairfax girl had changed him. And to think she had been worried about his having an affair with the girl's mother.

She should have known Patricia Fairfax was too jaded for Blake's tastes. He believed in honesty and integrity and was drawn to innocence. It had been the girl he'd wanted, not the mother.

Meredith had never valued her virginity except as a means of getting the material things she desired. Maybe she had sold her virginity too cheaply after all--to Jack instead of to Blake. Blake might have continued to worship her if she had been the innocent girl she'd pretended to be. His utter rejection of her still rankled. She simply couldn't understand it. It never occurred to her that he might be repulsed by her lack of innocence or her affair with Jack. As long as they kept it in the family, what did it matter who she slept with? Blake had had no right to dismiss her. So he felt foolish and betrayed. So what? He had married her. Besides, Jack hadn't been repulsed.

He had been eager to trade favor for favor. Why didn't Blake understand that that was the way the world worked? She hadn't asked for his love, just his name and the power he could give her. Power was what she needed from him, not love. She wondered if he knew how stupid he had seemed to her before the wedding--a lovesick schoolboy mooning about making calf's eyes at her.

Refusing to bed her before the wedding, unwilling to compromise the reputation of his intended. Well, the joke had been on him! The whole village had been laughing at his ignorance. Blake hadn't known that Jack was already her lover, had been her lover since she was fourteen. Hadn't he known that the only reason Jack hadn't married her was because he had to marry money and her family had none? Blake hadn't understood that she had always planned to marry him and keep Jack as her lover. She had very nearly run out of time. Her family had decided she had to marry for money and the old magistrate had offered for her. Her parents would have accepted him, too, because he was well off. Old, disgusting, and fat, but the richest man in the district next to Blake's father. Meredith had held out for Blake, refusing to marry the old pig, even though he threatened to expose her affair with Jack and even went so far as to blackmail her, and just when she thought she might have to reconsider the magistrate's offer, Blake had finally noticed her. The heir to Everleigh had finally stumbled into her web. She had married Blake and then she waited for the opportunity to rid herself of the blackmailing old magistrate. She had been so confident. She had thought she had everything. But Blake was her ultimate mistake. She mistook his youth for weakness and his love for blind devotion and she had overplayed her hand. She had been so sure of him and her power over him that she failed to recognize the depth of his character. He had been young and full of ideals and the completeness of her deception abhorred him. He had believed her pure and above reproach, and he had found her dirty and soiled from overuse. They had badly misjudged each other and both had vowed never to repeat their mistake.

"If we keep sitting here reminiscing I'll begin to think you care about me, Blake, and that just won't do under the circumstances ..."

"Just what are the circumstances?"

"Pretending to be dead has it limits. I'm bored by the lack of activity, so I've decided to reclaim my position as your wife." She said it so matter-of-factly, Blake was taken aback by her audacity.

"You've never been my wife."

"Legally I am," she said. "And that's all that counts. Will you really try to prevent me, a poor cripple, from reclaiming my position in society and the comforts my husband's wealth can provide? I don't think so."

Blake immediately recognized the threat. "There's a grave in a cemetery with your name on it, Meredith. It's been there for the past six years. Under the circumstances, I'm sure the courts will understand. Now that you've unexpectedly returned from the grave, I think a divorce is in order."

"You can't prove adultery," she said. "So you wouldn't dare go to the courts."

"Try me, my dear." He smiled grimly. "Please try me."

Flustered for the first time in years, Meredith tried to bluff. "Jack--"

"Owes a small fortune in gambling debts in nearly every club in London.

Most of them to me. His father-in-law has been paying his bills and I've been buying up his markers for years." Blake found some satisfaction in Meredith's obvious surprise. "And I don't think Annalise's father would continue to support his son-in-law if he learned about you and Jack, do you?"

"My father--"

"Is also greatly indebted to me. Come now, Meredith, I know that doesn't come as a surprise to you. You had to have money to live on. And accomplices in your elaborate scheme." Suddenly the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

Suddenly Blake understood why he'd never been able to put his past with Meredith behind him. It had all been too neat. He'd never been able to believe the past was over because he hadn't seen her body, hadn't really believed it was possible for Meredith to die so quietly. "I'm sure if I dig deep enough, I'll find that a vast majority of the money I've been loaning to your father over the years has gone to your upkeep and to pay your spies. The courts might be interested in talking to you, your father, the other members of the family, and Jack as well for helping to perpetuate a hoax in order to extort money from me."

"Why would the courts listen to you--an adulterer and a bigamist? Suppose I tell them you participated in the hoax? Suppose I convince them that you kept me locked away in a house in the country while you pretended I was dead? Who do you think they would believe then?"

"Suppose we dig up your grave and see who's really buried there?" Blake shot back. "The village of Everleigh is without a magistrate--and has been for the last six years."

Meredith blanched as Blake's barb hit it's mark.

"It's over, Meredith. You should have stayed dead. Because you don't have a choice. I won't let you get away with your blackmail this time. You won't be reclaiming your position, or your title, or moving into Lawrence House. That's my home. My sanctuary. The one place in England I can call home and where you have no claim."

"But, I'm your legal wife...."

"A mere technicality, like the one that protects Lawrence House from you."

"I remember," she said. "Lawrence House is entailed. It belongs to mother of the heir. That brings us to Cristina Fairfax," she said smoothly. Too smoothly. "While you're in London petitioning the courts and parliament for your divorce, it might be a good idea if you make other arrangements to house your little doxy. It wouldn't do to have both of us under the same roof at the same time."

Blake saw the grim determination in the firm set of her jaw. She would not rest until she had her revenge against him, but he didn't fear for himself. He knew she would think twice before tampering with the controller of the purse strings. No, her revenge would be more subtle than an attempt on his life. It would be directed at someone else. Someone he cared about. He had to protect Cristina. He had to keep her safe. He would have to find a way to protect her and the other people he cared about. For the time being, he would have to find contentment in doing everything humanly possible to thwart Meredith and to frustrate her scheme to get her hands on his property or on Lawrence House.

"Leave Cristina out of this."

"She tried to usurp my place," Meredith said softly. "She tried to take my title and what rightfully belongs to me."

"She did nothing of the kind. She has nothing to do with what's gone between us." Blake clenched his fists at his side to keep from wrapping them around Meredith's slender neck. "For Christ's sake, Meredith, you're supposed to be dead. I've believed you were dead for six years!"

"I've been crippled for six years," Meredith spat at him. "I've been crippled--confined to a chair--unable to walk, unable to ride, unable to...

for six long years. And all because of you."

"Me?" Blake was genuinely surprised. "How?"

"You gave me that damn horse."

"That horse was a gift--a birthday gift--if I remember correctly."

"He nearly killed me," she gasped.

"I thought he had," Blake said. "Unfortunately I was wrong."

Meredith felt his disgust like something tangible hanging between them. She saw the contempt he didn't bother to hide. His smoldering glances flickered over her.

"Nevertheless"--she dismissed Blake's contempt and his angry glances--"I'm warning you, Lord Lawrence, to be very careful about the arrangements you make for Cristina."

"I won't let you have Lawrence House, or anything else that belongs to me."

"But that's the problem, isn't it, Blake? Lawrence House doesn't belong to you. It belongs to the mother of the heir. Currently it belongs to your mother, but in a few months"--Meredith shrugged her shoulders--"who knows?"

A cold chill ran up Blake's spine. "If you do anything, if you attempt to harm Cristina in any way, I'll--"

"I wouldn't dream of harming Cristina," Meredith assured him. "I'm sure she's a sweet young girl. I have nothing against Cristina Fairfax--except the fact that she's about to inherit everything I've ever wanted."

"All right, Meredith," Blake said. "I'll give you whatever you want. I'll give you Willow Wood and Lawrence House and any other property you name."

"You can't give me Lawrence House, it's entailed," Meredith reminded him.

"I'll telegraph my mother," Blake promised. "I'll have her give it to you."

"Nice try," Meredith congratulated him. "But your mother can't give it away, either. Nobody can give it away, remember? It has to be passed down from one mother of the heir to the next."

"Then name it, Meredith," Blake said. "I'll give you whatever you want."

Meredith smiled. "Will you give me your firstborn child, Blake?"

Blake recoiled as if she had slapped him. "What?"

"That's what I want. That's the only thing that will satisfy me."

"You're insane!"

"Perhaps," she agreed. "But I warned you years ago that you would regret not telling me about Lawrence House. How about it, Lord Lawrence? Do you regret it yet?"

"I heartily regret ever having set eyes on you."

"The feeling is mutual," Meredith assured him. "Now how much longer do I have to wait before I can claim my child. Two months? Three?"

"You'll never get your hands on my child," he told her. "And if you get within a foot of Cristina, I'll kill you," Blake swore.

"Poor Blake," Meredith clucked her tongue. "You don't seem to understand the situation. I will have your firstborn child. Or no one will." She smiled at him. "Pretend you're King Solomon. Give him to me or watch him die. And maybe his mother as well."

"Meredith, I'm warning you, if you attempt--"

"I don't have to attempt," Meredith said. "I've had ten long years to plan my revenge--four years of marriage to you and six long years of pretending to be dead. The die has already been cast. My revenge has already begun. Either you take your child from Cristina Fairfax and give it to me, or you watch them both die."

"I won't let you do this."

"You can't stop me. Even if you kill me, the plan will go forward. I'll have my revenge--from the grave if necessary."

"I will stop you," Blake vowed. "I'll find some way to stop you."

"I don't doubt you'll try," Meredith said. "In the meantime, we'll see how you enjoy the scandal of finding out the whole empire knows you're a bigamist."

"God damn you, Meredith!"

Meredith looked down at her chair. "He already has."

No one delights more in vengeance

than a woman.

--JUVENAL 60-130 A.D.

*Chapter Twenty-two*

Ambassador Paget entered Blake's office through the secret panel just after Blake called for the two sergeants-at-arms to remove Meredith and Jack from the building and to escort them to separate quarters on embassy grounds and to remain there until a contingent of uniformed guards arrived. "You heard?"

Blake asked as the ambassador quietly entered the room. He didn't look up, but sat in a leather chair near the fire with his face buried in his hands.

"Everything."

"Well?" Blake asked, softly. "Any suggestions?"

"We can't keep them under guard forever."

"More's the pity," Blake replied bitterly. "How long?"

"We have the right to hold them on charges of breaking into the embassy, but as they are both the queen's subjects, we won't be able to question them for more than forty-eight hours."

Blake nodded.

"That should give you enough time to make a good start on the journey to London."

"London?" Blake stared at the older man. "I can't go to London. I can't leave Cristina. I can't protect her if I'm in London and at this stage of her confinement, I'm afraid for her to travel."

"You have no choice, Blake," the ambassador told him. "You must go to London. You must file a suit in Doctor's Commons and at a court of Common Law and have them grant you a divorce as soon as possible so you can sue Meredith on the grounds of adultery and petition Parliament for a divorce. And you must do so in person, before word of tonight's debacle reaches London--before she can reach sympathetic ears."