Joby did not wait to give an answer but threw back the covering. When she had agreed to being secreted inside a wagon, she had not thought how horrible it would be. "I will find her," she announced as she leaped over the side.
"You know nothing," Tode said, feeling that this girl was his responsibility until Jamie was freed.
"I know every rabbit hole of this country, and maybe I can find the exit to your tunnels. If this city-bred Frances of yours is lost, she will not know where to go."
"I cannot allow-" Tode began.
Pushing aside great armfuls of flowers, Berengaria sat up and said, "She knows all the shepherds and cowherds in the county. No woman will be able to escape their notice. She must go."
Beside Berengaria, Axia sat up. "And you said we do not need her. Oh, Tode, please do not allow Frances to wander about alone. You know that she is helpless. She can do nothing on her own."
"You are not right about that," Tode said, frowning, but then he knew there was sense in what the women were saying.
"Please," Berengaria said softly, and that decided Tode.
Joby didn"t wait for the answer but ran across the fields toward Henry Oliver"s house.
As Tode handed each woman a dipper full of water in turn, he looked at them. With Axia"s talent at painting, she had managed to transform herself and Berengaria into old, haggard-looking women. Although to Tode"s eyes, nothing could make Berengaria less than exquisitely beautiful, and he"d told her so.
As for Joby, Tode had refused to allow anything to be done with her as a disguise. With her boyish haircut and clothes, what else could be done with her? "Shall we try to make her into a girl?" Tode had said, indulging himself in a rare moment of spite because of all the nasty things Joby had said about him. "But no, not even you, Axia, are that talented."
So now he was glad to get rid of Joby, for her constant disobedience was a trial, and now he needed cooperation for what he had planned.
It was full dark by the time they reached Oliver"s house, and Tode was glad for the state of confusion that reigned, even though he was worried about Frances. How had she escaped from a stone tower?
It took just minutes to ascertain that Frances had not yet been found, that Jamie was still locked below, still refusing to sign anything. Once again Tode vowed that he was going to murder Joby when this was all through, for Oliver had told him that it was "the odd little Montgomery girl"s idea" that he kidnap the Maidenhall heiress and thereby force Jamie to give him his beloved Berengaria. After meeting Berengaria, Tode refused to believe that she had any knowledge of what her young sister had done.
Tode knew that Oliver"s brother Ronald had stationed men at the front gate, watching for anyone who remotely looked like one of their Montgomery neighbors. Ronald had said that he wouldn"t put it past those Amazonian Montgomery women to try to rescue their brother themselves, so he wanted all women entering to be scrutinized.
But no one had looked at Tode with his wagonfull of flowers. Or if they did look, they burst into laughter.
"He has played the fool for many days if they have all seen him," Berengaria whispered to Axia beside her, and there was bitterness in her voice.
Her words echoed Axia"s thoughts exactly.
Once they were inside the grounds, the women listened as Tode pulled Henry Oliver to the side of the wagon and offered his help in bringing Frances back. He knew how women loved flowers, didn"t he? Yes. Well if he were to scatter them about, Frances would be attracted to them and come back. They would be a kind of bait, didn"t Henry see?
"Like putting out cheese for a mouse," Henry said in wonder.
"Exactly," Tode answered. "But do not tell that brother of yours or he will find the heiress before you do and he will take all the credit."
"Yes," Henry said. "Ronald thinks he is the only smart person in the village."
Tode thought Ronald believed he was the only smart person in the world, but that was beside the point. "So where shall we put them?" Tode asked, and Axia could feel the blankness of Oliver"s mind.
"In the dungeon with the prisoner?" Tode suggested. "She will try to go to him first, will she not?"
"Oh yes, of course." Leaning over, he whispered to Tode. "Do not let my brother see you, as he will let no one down there, not even me."
"Then why do you not go and tell him that this is your house and not his and that she is your heiress, and he is not to interfere in your life ever again? After all, it was you who was smart enough to kidnap the Maidenhall heiress, not him."
"But that will make Ronald very angry."
"Yes, and while he is raging, I will put the trap out for the heiress. You are not afraid of your brother, are you?"
"Well, maybe... No! I am not. You go and put your flowers out. What harm can flowers do?"
"Right." Tode waited a few moments for Henry to walk far enough away before he flipped back the edge of the canvas and said, "It is safe now. You can come out."
"You are the most brilliant man I have ever met," Berengaria said as Tode helped her down. "All my life I will owe you, and my sister will-Ow!"
"Sorry," Axia said, "my foot must have slipped. I think we shouldn"t waste more time talking and should get on with it."
"By all means," Tode said, and there was a bit of a chuckle in his voice.
Twenty minutes later, Tode, Axia, and Berengaria, with Henry"s permission, were on their way down the stairs to the dungeon. There was so much confusion since Frances"s escape that no one noticed that Axia was holding Berengaria"s hand, leading her across broken flagstones, and whispering when she was to step over a pile of offal on the floor.
"Disgusting!" she hissed, but a look from Tode silenced her. Once they had to stop while Tode made some foolish faces at the kitchen help, and both of the women held each other"s hands so tightly they hurt. Neither of them liked that Tode had to humiliate himself this way.
Once out of the kitchens, Tode led them through a labyrinth of old stone corridors filled with barrels, boxes, and rusting farm equipment. It seemed that everything Henry Oliver"s family had ever owned was stored in the cellars below, and at times Axia had difficulty keeping Berengaria from stumbling as they made their way through the confusion. Now and then there was a torch stuck in an iron holder on the wall, but for the most part they were in darkness.
After what seemed to be an eternity, they came to a small room, seeming to be brightly lit after the gloom of the cellars. The heavy oak door to the room was open and the three of them were able to walk through without making a sound. On three sides of the room were huge damp stones and on the fourth wall there was nothing, just the black emptiness of a tunnel that seemed to stretch into infinity.
Before the tunnel was a table, a chair, and a guard sitting alone, his chin resting on his chest and sleeping soundly.
Part of Axia breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the guard was asleep and part of her was terrified. Tode had said that he would think of something when the time came to put the guard off, but he did not yet know what it was. He had said that at worst he would have to stay and entertain the man while Axia and Berengaria went to Jamie. When Axia had asked what would happen to him when they found Jamie was gone, he had not answered.
But now she could see that the guard was asleep, his head hanging down on his chest-and the keys were hanging on the wall near his head. If Tode could just get them down soundlessly, without waking the guard, she knew they would have pa.s.sed the first step.
"What is it?" Berengaria whispered anxiously.
Axia shushed her, fearing that her voice would wake the guard, then she gripped Berengaria"s hand hard while she watched Tode creep forward and remove the keys from the wall. When they jangled, Axia drew in her breath sharply.
"What is it?" Berengaria asked again, making Tode turn and frown.
Annoyed, Axia jerked on Berengaria"s hand to let her know she should say nothing, but when she saw her open her mouth to speak again, Axia whispered, "The guard is asleep."
In a normal voice that in the entrance to the black tunnels was as loud as cannon fire, Berengaria said, "There is no one here but ourselves."
Axia thought the fear that ran through her might cause her to die on the spot. Anxiously, she looked at the guard, but he remained asleep.
With some annoyance, Berengaria said again, "There is no one here, I tell you."
At that, Tode stopped, keys in his hand, and looked at the guard. As far as he could see the man was not moving, not even his chest was lifting as he breathed. Slowly, tentatively, he reached out his hand and touched the man"s shoulder. His body was warm, but when the man did not flinch at Tode"s touch, he put his fingertips to the man"s neck.
But when Tode touched him again, the guard fell face forward, the sound of his forehead hitting the table making Axia jump.
Only when Tode pushed the man"s body back against the wall could he see the small knife wound in his chest. It wasn"t very large, but it was exactly in the correct place; the man must have died instantly.
"Jamie!" Axia said, dropping her flowers, then running into the darkness of the tunnels without giving heed to where she was going.
Taking the torch off the walls, Tode grabbed Berengaria"s hand and followed Axia as fast as he dared, for the floor was so slippery it was dangerous.
The horrid little cell where Jamie had been kept was empty, only a pile of b.l.o.o.d.y clothes to show that he had been there.
"Where is he?" Axia demanded, as though Tode and Berengaria would have the answer. But even if they had, she did not wait for their reply because she plunged into the darkness of the tunnels outside the cell. She was sure that Jamie could not have gone upstairs; there were too many people who would see and recognize him. The only way he could have escaped was into the tunnels.
As fast as he could, Berengaria"s hand firmly in his, Tode held the torch aloft and ran after Axia, catching her as she was about to run down a black corridor. "We must not separate," he said, looking into Axia"s frightened face. "We must stay together. Do you-?" He broke off at a sound coming from the entrance to the tunnels.
"He"s dead! Get torches. I want him found!" they heard a voice shouting. "Look! There"s a light."
Without thought, Tode threw the torch into a puddle of heaven only knew what liquid that ran the length of the floor, and they were plunged into darkness. Absolute, total blackness.
When Tode and Axia hesitated, Berengaria took the lead. "Follow me," she said, and never in her life had she ever loved saying words more. She was the leader now, and they were helpless.
The tunnels were dirty and long unused-and as she soon found, they were full of hazards. In places the floor had caved in or the ceiling had collapsed.
"Be careful here," she whispered. "There is a hole here. Do not step amiss."
"How can you tell?" Tode asked, holding her hand, Axia behind him.
"This place is less hazardous than my home, what with the fallen daggers and swords of my brothers. And Joby finds that moving a piece of furniture is easier than walking around it." For all that there was danger, she could not help feeling a sense of purpose and strength at this new responsibility. For these minutes she was no longer the Family Burden, but someone who was needed.
Now she concentrated on getting them out of there. Pausing, she sniffed the air.
"What are you doing?" Axia asked, impatient. Where was Jamie?
"I am trying to smell the sun," she replied cryptically. "This way."
Tode had to pull Axia along behind him, for he was afraid she"d start asking Berengaria questions about how and why, her curiosity overriding her fear.
Now and then Axia would look behind her to see if she could see the torches of Oliver"s men, but she could see nothing. In the thirty minutes or so that they had been walking, she was aware that they had pa.s.sed large obstructions and tiptoed around holes in the floor. She thought that if she could see, she would believe the tunnel to be impa.s.sable.
"Wait!" Berengaria said when they came to a wider place in the tunnel, a place so wide that Axia could open her arms and hit nothing. "Someone has been here."
"Jamie?" Axia asked, breathless.
"I cannot tell, but I feel that someone has been here."
"Can you smell them?" Axia asked in wonder, and the way she said it made the others laugh.
And it was while they were laughing that the man jumped from the shadows and held a knife to Tode"s throat. "One word and you are dead," came a harsh voice in Tode"s ear.
"Jamie!" Berengaria and Axia said in unison, then Axia made a leap in his direction, her hands outstretched, reaching for any part of him that she could find.
"h.e.l.l and d.a.m.nation!" Jamie gasped in shock and some annoyance, but the next second he was pulling Axia to him and kissing her, holding her to him as closely as possible.
"Jamie, my love," Axia whispered, "I thought I would die without you. Are you well? Did they hurt you?"
"Not at all. They-Ow! Well, perhaps a bit." He nuzzled her neck. "Will you nurse me back to health?"
"I will do things that will make you want to live," she said throatily, then there was silence as they continued kissing, their privacy ensured by the blackness of the tunnels.
Standing just a few feet away, two people listened to them with mixed emotions. For many years, Tode and Axia had been everything to each other, but now he could tell that their friendship had changed forever. And Berengaria could feel how much her brother loved this woman who had come so suddenly into their lives and turned it upside down. Now she knew that Axia had done nothing to entice her brother, nothing except love him, love him completely and totally, without thought for herself. Berengaria had not paid much attention when Axia had said she would give up her own life to save Jamie"s, but now she could feel Axia"s fear for Jamie"s safety as well as her need of him.
Berengaria was glad that someone loved her dear brother the way she thought he should be loved, but at the same time, a great wave of loneliness washed over her. Jamie was her best friend, and he was the only male she had ever known who did not care that she was blind.
As Berengaria was feeling the loss of her brother, Tode slipped his hand in hers, then leaning toward her, he kissed her on the side of the mouth. "You will not be alone," he said, seeming to read her mind. "Not while I have breath in me."
"Come, imp, release me and tell me what you are doing here. As if I did not know. Tode! How could you bring her into this mess? Oliver"s men are serious in their pursuit of the Maidenhall money. But you allowed Axia-"
"And me," Berengaria said softly.
While Jamie was speaking, Axia was running her hands all over him to find out what damage had been done to him. She felt him jump at his sister"s voice; then she felt the anger rise in him.
"We needed her," Axia said, trying to head Jamie off. "She can see where we cannot."
"It is bad enough that you endanger my wife, but to take my bl-my sister," he corrected himself. "Tode, I hold you accountable for this. You should not have brought women into this. Especially not-"
"Go ahead and say it!" Berengaria spat out. "He should not have brought your useless blind sister into this. That"s what you want to say, isn"t it?"
"I did not say that nor did I mean that. None of you should be here."
"We came to save you, you ingrate!" Axia said. "And for your information, Berengaria is not blind down here. She can smell the sun."
For a moment, Jamie hesitated, then he laughed. "All right, I cannot fight that. Come, let us go." But to his consternation, neither of the three followed him. Turning back, he said, "They will be searching for us soon. We must find the exit and quickly."
Axia put her hands on her hips, knowing that he could not see her gesture. "Berengaria can see better than you, so we will follow her."
It was in that moment that Berengaria decided that she truly loved her new sister-in-law. No one had ever said that Berengaria could do anything better than anyone else. For all that she was blind, she was still a Montgomery, and her pride swelled. "Come. This way!" she commanded and began walking in the opposite direction that Jamie had started to lead.
Jamie was wise enough to concede leadership when he was not the best man for the job, so now he turned and followed the others.
Berengaria led them through what seemed to be acres of tunnel, and after a while Axia thought that she too could "smell" the sun. Once they came upon a ceiling that had fallen, blocking the path. Tode and Jamie cleared the rubble, neither of them allowing the women to help.
"Jamie is hurt more than he lets us know," Berengaria whispered, taking a sip from the water bottle they each carried. "He is bleeding. I can smell it."
Axia took a breath. "Yes. I could feel it when I touched him. Are you sure we are going toward the exit?"
"Oh yes. I can-"
"Berengaria!" Axia suddenly said. "Could you smell the sun if it were nighttime?"
She chuckled. "I cannot actually smell the sun but what the sun does to the land. It makes things grow, and I can smell the plants and the fresh air. It seems so obvious to me which way to go. Can you not tell?"
"Not in the least. Could you find our way back, the way we came?"
"Yes, of course." With one ear turned toward Jamie as he struggled with the rocks, she said softly, "My brother Edward used to take me into the forest miles from our house and leave me to find my way back. He said that dogs could do it, so I should be able to also. The first time he did it I thought I would stay there and wait for someone to find me, and if they did not, I would die, but then I remembered we had strawberries for supper."