The Faithful Heart (32 page)

“Yes we can!” she insisted, laying a hand
over his heart.

He used the gesture to push away from her,
forcing her to put her feet on the ground, to stand on her own.

“You don’t understand.” Frustration poured
back into his face. “If it were just about me and you then I would
move heaven and earth to be with you, MP,” he pleaded with her.
“But we need that money. Derbyshire needs that money. England needs
that money.”

“Since when did you care about England or
even Derbyshire for that matter!” she balled her fists, ready to
pound him where moments ago she had wanted to give him
everything.

“Since it became my business to care about
them!” he shouted, throwing his hands out. “Oy, if someone had told
me a year ago that bein’ a nob was more than having a big, soft bed
and people bowin’ to you on the streets I would have laughed in
their face. The thing is, it is more than that, Madeline. I gotta
take care of people. People I don’t even know are dependin’ on
me.”

“And what about the people you do know?” she
choked, furious with herself for being so close to crying when what
she really wanted to do was talk sense into him. “What about us?
How will marrying that whore Lydia help me?”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “We need
the money!”

“And that’s why we’re scouring the forest to
find it! We’ll let the priests go as soon as we find it!”

His eyes widened. She bit her lip over her
slip.

“We don’t have time for any bloody scavenger
hunts in the woods,” Jack told her. “Pennington arrived at the
castle the other day and he’s already packed up most of Derby’s
money to ship off to London. When he leaves we’ll be broke. Do you
know what that means? Do you know what it means to be hungry? To
break the news to staff that you don’t have their wages? That their
children will go without?”

“We can think of something, I know we
can.”

“I have thought of something, Madeline! Lydia
will hand over the whole hoard as soon as I marry her.”

“And you believe her?”

“Yes, God help me, I do! She’s more
interested in gettin’ a bloody title and orderin’ Simon around than
counting coins.” She opened her mouth to argue the point but he
overrode her with, “All she really wants is to play queen. She
doesn’t give a fuck about the money or about me.” Madeline flinched
at his curse. “Surprised that it’s not me she’s after?” he
misunderstood her reaction. “Well I’m not! It’s no bloody wonder.
What woman in her right mind would want me for a husband if I
didn’t come with a bleedin’ title and estate?”

“Me!” she shouted, grabbing his arm as he
tried to turn away. “I want you, Jack! I wanted you long before you
were Lord John of Kedleridge! I ran away from the convent to be
with Jack Tanner, not Lord John of Kedleridge!”

Her words had the opposite effect than what
she’d planned. Jack’s face contorted in misery. “I know!” he
rounded on her. “I think of that every second of the day, every
step of the way. It’s killing me, Madeline! Because as much as I
want to ditch the whole bloody lot of ’em, Simon helped me to see
that I owe ’em!”

“Simon?”

“The people of Derbyshire look up to me and I
can’t let them down.”

“Simon told you that?”

“Yes, and bless him, it’s true!” He turned
away from her, wiping the rain from his face, clutching the sides
of his head as if he would go mad. She reached for him but before
she could touch him he blew out a breath and whipped back to her.
“And you know the ruddy worst of it is that Simon is the one who
should really be the lord of Kedleridge.”

“Simon?” she blinked.

“Yeah! Simon! He’s the bastard son of the
last lord, the one Roderick offed. And that’s the bloody irony of
the thing. I’m just a sodding peasant pretendin’ to be a nob while
the real lord practically wipes my bum in the morning.”

Somewhere through the shock of what he’d just
told her a flash of hope cut through her despair. “Jack Tanner,
you’re the most noble man I’ve ever met,” she faced him with enough
determination in her eyes to redirect the course of the world.

He laughed, shaking his head. “And like I
said, you’re the worst liar in England.”

“No I’m not.” With every heartbeat she saw
the situation more clearly. “You are willing to sacrifice love for
duty. You’re willing to do the last thing on earth that you want to
do because you know it will save people. Well I won’t let you.”

His face contorted in pain. “You have to, MP.
Please. Where are the priests?”

“I’m not telling you. I’m going to get you
out of this, Jack.”

She turned to leave the parapet. He caught
her by the arm.

“I love you, Madeline, but we don’t have time
for whatever you’re planning.”

“No?”

“No!” She arched an eyebrow at him. He blew
out a frustrated breath. “Fine. You don’t believe me? Believe
this.” He fished in his pocket and pulled out the rosary. “Here.
Take it back. I don’t want it anymore.” He grabbed her hand and
pried it open and thrust the rosary into her palm, closing her hand
over it. “Take it and go away.” His voice cracked as he spoke.

“No, Jack, I won’t!” She held it out to him
again. He crossed his arms, hiding his hands in his armpits and
glancing off over the city. “Take it!”

“No.”

She wasn’t going to win the argument. With a
sigh she lowered her hand. “Do you know what kept me going through
the winter, Jack? It wasn’t my faith in God or the Church or Mother
Mary or any of the saints. It was my faith in you, Jack.” He
glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. “I had faith that you
would come for me one day. But I couldn’t wait, so I came for you.
So now it’s your turn. You need to have faith in me, Jack.” He
bowed his head, gaze trained on his feet. “You need to have faith
that I can save you from the trap that witch lead you into.”

“I don’t have time for faith,” he
muttered.

“Jack, you don’t have time for anything but
faith.” She squeezed her hand around the rosary. “So I suggest the
two of you become better acquainted.”

He continued to stare at the ground, his face
pale and hopeless. Everything in her wanted to throw her arms
around him and kiss him into believing everything would work out.
Instead she turned and stormed down the stairs and towards the
courtyard. She prayed her horse was still saddled and waiting. Jack
was right, they didn’t have time to search for Lydia’s stolen
treasure. They only had time for one desperate gamble. Simon.

Chapter Eighteen

“What do you mean you don’t like pears?”
Joanna’s shout echoed along the dungeon hallway.

“I mean I don’t like them!” Ethan shouted
back. Even from the other end of the hall Toby could hear the
teasing in his master’s voice. He sent Tom a wary sideways glance
and picked up his pace.

“Well pears is what you’re going to eat or
you’ll eat nothing at all!” Joanna snapped back. Toby and Tom
rounded the corner into the tiny room in time to watch Joanna plunk
a plate full of sliced pears with a bowl of some sort of sauce on
the table next to Ethan’s chair. Ethan sat with his bandaged foot
up on a padded stool, a grin on his face. Joanna raged on. “You
don’t know the trouble I had to go through to get some of that
carob sauce for you, you ungrateful wastrel!”

“That’s My Lord Ungrateful Wastrel to
you!”

Toby groaned. Joanna huffed in frustration.
She noticed Tom and Toby and jerked away from the table and
Ethan.

“Thank God in heaven above you’re back!”

“Hello, Joanna,” Tom mumbled. Toby stepped
over to kiss his sister’s cheeks. They were as hot as August.

“What, no hello for me?” Ethan raised his
eyebrows at Tom.

“You don’t deserve a hello,” Joanna rounded
on him. “Only a goodbye!” She whipped back to Toby. “Would you
kindly tell your master that since he’s living on charity he should
eat what he’s served and be grateful for it?”

“My lord,” Toby sighed, “You should
really-”

“And will you please tell him that I am here
out of the kindness of my heart and that I am most certainly not
his personal serving girl?”

Toby squeezed his eyes shut as he began, “My
lord, Joanna is-”

“What, are you on her side now?” Ethan
interrupted.

“How dare you treat my brother like he’s your
lapdog!” Joanna marched back to Ethan’s chair, towering over him.
“Don’t you know he-”

“Joanna!” Toby shouted to stop her from
saying anything more. He scurried to the table to take a look at
the offending pears for himself. “They look quite good, my lord,”
he spoke as if coaxing a child. “Maybe if you just….” He dipped one
of the slices in the sauce and handed it to Ethan, eyebrows
raised.

Ethan took the offering and bit off the end.
“You’re right, Toby, they’re quite good.” He sent Joanna a wink and
popped the rest of the pear slice into his mouth.

“So help me God,” Joanna started, rushing
towards Ethan, fist raised.

“Tom and Madeline have just returned from the
forest!” Toby stepped between the two, arms outstretched.

“What did you find?” Ethan’s teasing humor
turned to seriousness in a flash. He stretched to look around Toby
at Tom.

“Nothing,” Tom shrugged, glancing away, his
face flushed with shame on Ethan’s behalf. “They weren’t there.
They aren’t anywhere.”

“Come on,” Ethan slouched. “They have to be
somewhere. They couldn’t have gotten that far with a couple of
strongboxes.”

“Oh please!” Joanna rolled her eyes and
crossed her arms, stomping to sit in the chair on the other side of
the table.

“What?” Ethan grabbed another slice of
pear.

Toby exchanged a pained glance with Tom. He
cleared his throat. “My lord, the forest outlaws have amassed
considerably more than a few strongboxes worth of spoils.”

Ethan sighed. “We’ve been through this
before, Toby. We stopped a dozen carriages at most in the last
year.”

“We did,” he scratched his head, wincing,
“but the others, Roderick, Connor, that lot, well, my lord, they
kept busy.”

Ethan puffed out an incredulous breath. “I
don’t think they were in much of a position to do anything.
Besides, I gave them strict orders to monitor traffic through the
forest only. They wouldn’t disobey my orders.”

Joanna laughed out loud. “Are you sure you
didn’t break your head instead of your foot?”

The teasing light in Ethan’s eyes went hard.
“I’ll have you know that I don’t tolerate impertinence in
everyone,” he scolded her. “I let you get away with it because it
amuses me.”

Joanna’s brow arched so high Toby was sure
she would fall over. “Is that what you think?” She stood. “I’m not
putting up with this anymore.” She headed for the door.

“Joanna!” Ethan called after her. “Joanna
stop!” He pushed himself out of his chair and stood on one foot,
using the table for support. “Please don’t go!”

Toby blinked wide at the genuine pleading in
his master’s voice. His surprise deepened when Joanna froze,
clenched her jaw and her fists, drew in a breath, and turned around
to face him.

Ethan hopped a step forward. “Okay, for
argument’s sake let’s say that the forest people were up to more
than I was aware of.” Joanna rolled her eyes. Tom blushed darker
and stared at the floor. Toby was fairly certain he was on the
verge of bursting into tears. “If they weren’t obeying my orders
then whose orders where they obeying?”

“Roderick’s,” all three of them answered
simultaneously.

Ethan was taken aback. “You’ve never even met
Roderick,” he challenged Joanna. “Besides, Roderick is fifteen.
He’s fond of me. He would never disobey me.”

“My lord,” Toby winced. “Roderick is a
murderer. And you did throw him off in the end there.”

“No I didn’t,” Ethan argued with a nervous
laugh.

“Yes you did,” Tom backed him up.

“And Lydia happens to be his aunt.”

“Ah. Lydia.” He glanced to Joanna, unable to
meet her eyes. Joanna’s cheeks darkened several shades. Toby felt a
familiar panic begin to rise. “I don’t see why Lydia should matter
so much.”

“She pays attention to him,” Toby tried to
explain. “She says sweet thing to him.”

“So?” Ethan shrugged.

“A compliment now and then goes a long way,”
Tom snapped with enough energy to make Toby jump.

Ethan crossed his arms, leaning his hip
against the table for balance. “I compliment you.”

“Not much,” Tom muttered.

“What are you, a girl?” Ethan snorted.

Joanna yelped.

“Anyhow,” Ethan waved the argument away.
“That’s not the point. The point is that you are all fooling
yourselves if you think that Lydia or Roderick or whoever has more
than a few farthings in their pockets as they roam the woods.”

“My lord,” Toby cleared his throat. “I’ve
seen it. Tom’s seen it. They have a fortune. Somewhere.”

Ethan furrowed his brow in confusion. “Why
didn’t you tell me?”

Tom huffed out a breath. “We did tell you,
Ethan. We told you every day. We brought word that Roderick and
Connor were getting out of hand. We told you about the carriages
being waylaid. We even tried to give you reports about the money.
You refused to listen.”

“You weren’t trying hard enough then,” Ethan
glared at Tom.

“We weren’t trying hard enough?” Toby took a
step back at the sudden explosion coming from Tom. “We were working
our fingers to the bone trying to keep things together while you
were in your tent rutting with whatever skirt came along! Sorry,
Joanna,” he muttered at the end of his rant.

“Not at all,” Joanna’s reply was shrill. She
glared fire at Ethan.

“Thanks a lot, Tom!” Ethan’s anger boiled
over. Toby wasn’t sure whether his face was flushed from anger or
embarrassment.

“I’ve done nothing but watch your back for
more than a year!” Tom went on. “I lost my brother because of
you!”