Sweet Savage Eden (39 page)

He waited, and smiled. Then he kissed her forehead.

“Jassy, it is the truth. I never touched her. I will be glad to swear it.”

She was quiet for a moment. Her eyes remained closed, and he thought that she slept, but then she answered him. “And I, milord, swear that what I feel for Robert Maxwell is a deep friendship; he is my brother, my sister’s husband, and nothing more.”

Her eyes opened and met his.

“It will be a long, cold winter, my love. Truce?” he said.

Her eyes fell closed again.

“Truce,” she agreed.

XV
   

A
s Christmas neared, winter came upon them in full, cold and hard and brutal. Jamie left very early each morning in search of game and came back later every afternoon. Jassy quickly realized that there could be little class distinction here, for the settlers were forced to band together to survive. Jamie had managed to bring many supplies from England, but they must be shared, and being a “lady” here—especially Lord Cameron’s wife—was a matter of responsibility and not leisure.

She did have help, for their household servants had come to the New World for a new life, and were willing to work hard to survive the rigors of the winter. It wasn’t, however, England. There were no major social obligations for nobility or gentry, and though Jassy did spend time writing a letter to Jane and Henry to be taken back on the next ship to arrive, it was her only correspondence. The settlement did not yet provide the customary activities for ladies of means. Jamie assured her that in the spring they would entertain the governor of the Jamestown colony, and that they would ride to the other settlements. But on the whole, she certainly had no demanding social schedule; she didn’t need to prepare to travel to Court, nor was she expecting any royal visitors. She did have a busy household, with constant
tasks, and if she occasionally mourned for the grand manor in which she had reigned so briefly in England, she was also quick to forget the elegance when engaged in some necessary chore. The days were short, and the nights were long and cold. Men of all classes cut trees and stacked wood; women sewed, salted and smoked and preserved meat and foodstuff, made candles and soap, and engaged in the endless task of laundry.

The Indians began appearing more frequently. They came to the palisade to trade; they came in friendship. In winter they wore buckskin, the men
and
the women. Jassy did not see Powan again. She was fascinated by the Indians but also wary, and she tended to keep a careful distance from them. A few of the settlers who had been with the hundred since Jamie had first chosen the site knew some of the Indians’ language and managed to communicate with them effectively. Jamie knew enough of it to get by very well, and she saw him greeting various of the Indians many times. He knew them by name, welcomed them, and encouraged Jassy to get to know them. But even then he warned her that she must take care around them too.

“Why?” she asked him one night. She was bundled into a long blue nightgown, and he was at his desk, setting the last of some entry for the day into his calendar. He looked up at her, startled.

“Why?” he repeated.

“
You
seem to like them very much, but you warn
me
away.”

“I do not warn you away. As my wife, I expect you to greet them always with courtesy.”

“I am courteous,” she told him, her temper simmering at his indication that she had not.

He shrugged, then set down his pen. “I have seen you near them, madame, upon occasion. You are stiff, and careful not to come too close. That is not exactly courtesy.”

“I met Powan and—”

“You did well, yes. It seems that you are deeply fascinated, but I think, too, that you forget that they are men
and women just as we are. They are made of flesh and blood, and they are born with hopes and fears and emotions.”

“I am aware of that,” Jassy said coolly. “I did not think that you had complaints about my demeanor as your wife.”

“The little actress,” he said softly. “I do always wonder what you are
really
thinking or feeling.”

“I would assume, milord, that you expect me to do better here, with savages and farmers, than with your friends of the nobility and gentry back home.”

“I assume, milady, that you will do just fine, no matter with whom you are cast.”

“So, have I done well here?” she demanded, her chin high. She knew that he watched her often; she never knew what he
thought
.

“You know that you have done very well. You need not seek a compliment. In fact, you have done exceptionally well, considering your hatred for the voyage, and for leaving England. I think you hated it all enough to regret the marriage, no matter what it brought to you.” He watched her pensively. “Tell me, milady, have you regretted it?”

She kept her eyes upon his, and her throat went strangely dry. Her eyes lowered. “I—I have regretted nothing,” she murmured. “You forget, I could still be a servant in my brother’s house.”

“You are an ingenious woman, milady. I’m rather sure that you’d not have stayed there long.”

She ignored his words and pleated the sheets beneath her fingers. “Tell me, milord, have
you
regretted your marriage?”

He took a long time to answer, sitting back in the chair. He stared at her so long that she flushed, and very deeply regretted the question.

“My passion for you has not died, milady,” he said at last.

“That does not mean you do not regret the marriage,” she murmured, her cheeks aflame.

“I do not regret the marriage,” he said. He looked back
to his paper but continued speaking to her, returning to the subject of the Indians. “Remember, Jassy, that you are to take care with the Powhatans. In their beliefs they are very different. They did not spring from Adam and Eve but from the pouch of a giant hare. They fear their evil god more than they love their benevolent one, and they have sacrificed their own infants and children to that god. They have little mercy for their enemies.”

“Are we their enemies?”

He set his pen down and walked over to the hearth, stopping to watch the fire burn. “If Opechancanough’s brother still lived, I would have felt more secure. He was a man of peace, while Powhatan earned his great power by violence, and Opechancanough is a man who is quick to violence too. They have at times befriended us; they have never really accepted us.”

Despite herself, she was shivering. “Why are we here, then?”

Annoyed, he stared at her. “Madame, we are here because I choose it so.” He walked over to the bed, and she flushed, realizing the intent in his eyes. He tilted her chin so that their eyes met. “And
you
will take grave care, milady, because I have commanded that you do so, will you not?”

She was not sure what he meant, but she nodded to the dark demand in his eyes, and she trembled then, for his arms came around her with every bit as much demand as stoked his eyes. This she could not regret, this magical flame that leapt between them.

But later, when she lay by his side and heard the even whisper of his breath as he slept, she wondered uneasily of the future. Her fascination for him grew daily. But would the time come when the passion he felt for her died, when the flame ran its course? If so, she would be lost, and she would not even have the strength of her hatred to sustain her.

She was his wife, she reminded herself. She was about to bear his child. But was that enough?

For the first time she realized that she wanted his love.

On the twentieth of December, Robert and Lenore
moved into their new home. The entire settlement had worked upon the finishing of the house, including Robert and Jamie. They were all very excited, as the house was nearly as grand as Jamie’s, and put together very quickly but very well. Jassy was somewhat startled by Lenore’s enthusiasm, for her sister was often very conscious of class, and the house did not compare to the home she had known growing up.

“That was always our brother’s home, Jassy,” Lenore explained. “This is the very first home I shall have of my own.”

The three sisters worked hard upon a set of tapestries to keep the cold out. “Ladies’ work, and very proper!” Lenore assured Jassy. She had never approved of Jassy’s involvement with John Tannen and his pathetic little family, but Jassy had shrugged aside her objections. It was surprising, though, to realize as they worked together on the last day that she would miss Lenore. And when night fell and the men came back to tell them that it was time to move, she embraced Lenore warmly, and Lenore hugged her fiercely in return. Then Robert kissed her and smiled at her. “Good-bye, little sister. Take care.”

“We will not be so far,” she said.

“Merely a stone’s throw,” he agreed.

“It is a very small community,” Jamie said dryly. “I daresay that we will see as much of one another as we always have. We shall merely … sleep in different places.” He drew Jassy away from Robert and back to his side. He seemed tense and somewhat irritable. He did not seem to mind, however, kissing Lenore very warmly before it was time for them to depart.

Jamie was to see them to their new home. Jassy assumed that she would accompany them, too, but when she asked Molly to fetch her cape, Jamie whirled her around, shaking his head. There was a curious fever about his eyes. “Madame, it is late and bitterly cold for you to come out in your condition. Your good-byes have been said, and you can take a walk to the new house in the morning with Elizabeth.”

She wanted to argue with him. She longed to see the new house, with the last of it completed. And she didn’t like being left alone when surely they all would have a welcome toast and Jamie would probably stay very late while she sat upstairs alone.

“Jamie, there is no reason—”

His jaw twisted and set. “There is every reason.”

She lowered her head, then tossed her hair back, ready to challenge him. “Jamie—”

His hands fell upon her shoulders, his eyes burning. “It is not a good night. The snow has iced over, and you might trip or stumble, and fall. Would you risk my child so readily?”

“We shall all get together in the morning,” Robert said cheerfully. “Well, maybe not.” He grimaced. Robert was learning the way of the settlement. He was accompanying Jamie on his morning hunting trips outside the palisade. “I shall be out with Lord Cameron, but then you ladies shall probably enjoy each other’s companionship well enough.”

“To bed,” Jamie told Jassy firmly.

She set her jaw, kissed Lenore, and then Robert once again, and hurried for the stairs. Jamie nodded to Molly, and Molly nodded gravely in return, and followed Jassy.

Jassy fumed to Molly about her ill treatment, and Molly, setting out one of her bed gowns and folding the lace ruff Jassy had worn fashionably about her neck, cheerfully ignored her. “Women do get temperamental in your state, so they say, pet! Oh, I do hope that I shall find out soon enough! Crawl into bed now.”

Curious, Jassy obediently crawled beneath the covers. “Now what does that mean, Molly?”

“John Tannen has suggested that we should marry.” Molly was trying very hard to subdue her excitement. “He is asking Father Steven if we might marry before Christmas Day.”

“So quickly!” Jassy gasped.

“And more proper than not,” Molly murmured. “Jassy, I spend so much time there with the children and … all. Oh, Jassy, I am so excited! I am getting on, you know.

And once I felt so old and worn and I thought that no man would ever have me … I have been honest with John, he knows all about my past, and he cares nothing of it. He says that all that matters is what lies between the two of us. He said that I was a whirlwind of giving energy, and that he cannot help but love me, for he has watched me with his son and his little sister-in-law, and thinks that they could have no finer a stepmother, nor could he choose a more tender bride.”

“Oh, how beautiful!” Jassy cried. “I am so very pleased for you, Molly.”

“It is all thanks to you, Jassy.”

“Molly! I did not make you kind and good and loving!”

“You gave me a new life. You and Lord Cameron.”

And
Lord Cameron, Jassy silently acknowledged. She lowered her eyes and bit into her lower lip. He had made life good. He had made it a tempest, and he was still a horrible autocrat, but she could no longer imagine a life without him. He infuriated her, he stimulated and excited her to sheer abandon, and he was the force of her life.