The Heiress by Jude Deveraux

neck, his cheek on her shoulder, one of his heavy thighs across hers. How intimate, yet how right, she thought. “Is she so valuable to you?”
    â€œI cannot fail. People depend on me. But the wagons …” He was feeling drowsy.
    â€œYes, the wagons,” Axia said with a grimace. She haddreamed of a trip across England without people gawking at her—or now it was Frances—because of the Maidenhall name. But her father had sent those heavy wagons that were no doubt full of untold wealth, and all along the journey they would create curiosity. She gave a great sigh. “Were I the Maidenhall heiress I would want to be someone else.”
    He gave a sleepy smile. “And who would be greater than she? The Queen of England?”
    â€œNo, of course not. I would be … someone ordinary. A merchant’s wife mayhaps. Staying at inns or in a tent like this one. I would want no one to know who I was.”
    â€œYes, but people have seen her.”
    â€œWho?” she asked. “I have heard she’s been a prisoner all her life. Never allowed out of the gates. It is my guess that she has never seen the world, never seen a puppet show, never seen a cathedral, never met anyone who was not properly introduced to her, never—”
    Jamie chuckled. “You do have an imagination. Frances is so beautiful she would call attention to herself wherever she went. If I traveled alone with her, I’d have trouble protecting her.”
    â€œShall I infect her with smallpox?” Axia asked helpfully.
    Jamie laughed again. “I wish I could take you with me. You please me. You give me ease.”
    â€œOh yes! I would like that,” she said, sounding like a child.
    â€œAlas,” he said sadly, “I cannot.”
    â€œWhy? Because I am so ugly? You would be ashamed of me?”
    He didn’t know how he’d feel to see her in daylight, but that was not his worry. “She might try to kill you.”
    â€œWho? Why would anyone try to kill
me?”
    â€œThe heiress’s cousin. Frances, the heiress, is a sweet-tempered, lovely woman, but she has a cousin who is eaten with jealousy.”
    â€œOh?” Axia’s voice cracked. “How do you know she does not have cause for her—her misdeeds? Sometimes women appear one way to a man and another way to a woman.”
    â€œLike you? Do you appear attractive to me yet hideous to others?”
    â€œSometimes. But what of the cousin? Does she have nothing to recommend her?”
    â€œI thought she did, but no, she is not what I thought. I do not like liars.”
    â€œBut perhaps there were reasons why she lied.” Her voice was rising above a whisper.
    Jamie raised himself on his elbow. “You sound as though you know her.”
    â€œNo, of course not. How could someone like me know
her?
But I know what it is to have a beautiful older sister.”
    â€œAnd how do you know that the cousin is not beautiful?”
    Axia’s mouth was a tight line. “From the way you speak of her. There is a different tone in your voice when you speak of the beauteous Frances than when you speak of the cousin. I have heard that tone all my life when people speak of my sister. But never have I heard it addressed to
me.”
    â€œSometimes a woman needs more than beauty,” he said, thinking of Berengaria. Axia could feel a change in him. “You shall go to my sister,” he said softly, as though this were a great honor.
    â€œGo to your sister? Why? What—?”
    â€œI will not leave you to your fate. I feel responsibility toward you after tonight. Yes,” he said, and she could feel that he was smiling, pleased with his idea. “I will leave money and a letter with the Maidenhall steward, and tomorrow you shall leave. I will write my sisters and tell them you are to arrive.”
    For a moment Axia was overwhelmed by his generosity. No one gave gifts to one as rich as she. At