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Fire's Lady

Chapter Twenty-Four

Wonder was in Matthew's eyes, and pride, and a love so overwhelming that if she were to die at that moment, Alexandra felt she would have had her full measure of earthly happiness.

Janine stood in the doorway, crying over the reunion of father and daughter and Alexandra was about to weep herself when suddenly she realized they were not alone. A man in late middle age stood in some ten feet away from them, watching the tableau with an odd look of consternation and joy upon his kind face.

Matthew looked up. "Edward! Come over here this minute and meet Alexandra and my daughter Katie." His pride was so unbridled that she wondered how she'd ever worried he would not take to the child. "This is Edward Whittington, Alex. He's both my attorney and my friend."

Whittington shook her hand warmly. "I have heard endless tales about your charm and beauty, madam, yet I fear Matthew understated the case."

"You are quite the gentleman, Mr. Whittington."

Katie, who had been amusing herself by pulling on her father's nose and lower lip, sneezed and Janine snapped to life once again.

"We should be gettin' the little one out of this drafty hallway," the young maid said, draping a light blanket over the infant's head.

"To the library," said Matthew. "We'll toast Katie's birth." He smiled at the redhaired maid. "You, too, of course, Janine. Just tell the driver to bring the bags around back and--"

"No." Edward Whittington's voice rang out loud and clear. "Tell the driver nothing of the sort."

Confused, Alexandra looked at Matthew for explanation but he was staring at his friend in surprise. "To the study then?" he asked with a cautious chuckle. "If you have any objections to the library, Edward, I'd be happy to--"

Edward did not return the smile. "I look forward to toasting the birth of your daughter, Matthew, but this is not the time." He glanced at the baby then at Alexandra and her stomach tightened with fear. "I think it in the best interests of your family if you were to take them up to the country house tonight and away from San Francisco as quickly as possible."

"Ridiculous," said Matthew as his daughter sneezed again. "Madolyn is away for the weekend. Certainly Alex isn't in any danger."

"Danger!" Her voice rose an octave. She had been under the impression he was in San Francisco seeking a divorce. Danger of any kind had not occurred to her. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"You have not told her?" asked Whittington.

"I did not want to worry her."

"I am extremely worried now, Matthew, so I would advise you to tell me exactly what is going on."

He did and two hours later, a frightened Alexandra climbed into the coach with Katie, Matthew, and Janine.

"My house in the Sonoma Valley will be available Sunday, Matthew," said Whittington just before closing the door to the coach. "Make certain no one sees you at your house. If Madolyn gets wind of this, there's no telling what will happen."

Matthew was to bring Alexandra, Katie and Janine to Whittington's house on Sunday then return to San Francisco that night as if nothing had happened.

"There will be an end to this," Edward said, kissing Alexandra's cheek, "and soon. Until then, we cannot lose by being cautious, can we?" Matthew tried to reassure Alexandra as they made their way to his estate but the thought of Stephen Lowell being somewhere in the vicinity sent a stab of fear coursing through her.

"Perhaps he has gone to Europe," Matthew offered, stroking her knee beneath the cashmere lap robe draped across them. "We may be worrying for naught."

Alexandra nodded but she couldn't shake the feeling of dread that had settled over her. The gypsy's warning about the "yellow-haired man" resurfaced and she shivered.

Matthew looked down at her and she saw the hot flame of desire in his eyes. He glanced across the coach at Janine who slept with a still-sneezing Katie curled in her arms. The baby's face was flushed and damp and Alexandra feared she might be feverish. It would be good to put her down in a real bed tonight and not in a rumbling, smoke-spewing railroad car. A good night's sleep and one of the herbal remedies Dayla had sent along should do the trick.

"Were we alone, Alex, I would venture to take the fear from your heart."

"But we are not alone."

His fingers trailed higher up her thigh and she almost cried out. Even through the heavy layers of her traveling costume, his touch was incendiary.

"I intend to take you as soon as we reach the estate." His breath caressed the curve of her ear. "I ache with wanting you, Alex."

Her eyes closed against the rise of desire within her and she could only count the minutes until they were finally alone.

Edward Whittington had told Matthew that a full complement of staff still worked at the estate so it came as no surprise to any of them that a few lights were burning inside the huge main house. What did surprise Alexandra was how odd a structure the house was. Set as it was in the middle of nowhere, it meandered all over in a haphazard pattern and, although the house boasted three stories, the windows seemed closer to the ground than the norm, most especially the first floor windows which were nearly obliterated by a row of dense hedges.

Matthew instructed the driver to let them off in the front, then to follow the sandy drive to the back of the house where the bags could be unloaded. Alexandra, Janine and the baby waited in the chill night air while he fumbled around in his pockets for the big brass key to the front door.

"Damnation," he muttered. "I know it is in here some place."

Katie punctuated his statement with another sneeze and Alexandra looked at him with wide eyes. "Hurry," she said, as Janine pulled the blankets more tightly about the baby's body. She reached over to touch Katie's cheek. "I think she is running a fever."

"Holy Mother of God!" Janine's exclamation split the air as she stared at the front door.

Alexandra turned in that direction and her blood went cold as she saw Stephen Lowell in the doorway.

"What a perfect family scene we have here," he said as if they had just seen him yesterday. "You should ask your father to paint a portrait of it, darling girl."

Matthew stepped in front of Alexandra, as if to shield her. "What the hell are you doing here, Lowell?"

Stephen's smile was as bland and perfect as always. "I might well ask you that same question, old man."

"I own the goddamned house," said Matthew, his voice approaching a growl.

"No, darling," came a woman's voice from somewhere behind Stephen. "You own half of this house."

Alexandra thought she would die from apprehension as she stood there behind Matthew, unable to see what was transpiring. Madolyn, she thought, clutching Katie close. That voice had to belong to the infamous Madolyn Porter McKenna.

"Do come in," invited Stephen, ever the gentleman. "We are having a house party this weekend but a few more guests are always welcome."

"I'd rather rot in hell," Matthew spat.

"I'd rather you rot in hell, too," Stephen concurred cheerily, "but it is late and you do, after all, own part of this house."

Matthew turned and grabbed Alexandra's arm. "You're going to Whittington's tonight," he said low.

"Matthew, you're not thinking of staying here alone, are you?"

"I'll be damned if I am driven from my own house by a sniveling, rutting coward like Lowell."

"Matthew!" Her voice rose with fear. "Remember all that Edward said. You wouldn't be safe."

"There are other people here," he said, his anger pulsing from him in waves. "They would not try anything."

"I will not leave without you, Matthew."

"You'll do as I say, Alex."

"You have not the right to order me about."

"And you hadn't the right to come across the country the way you did."

"Matthew, so help me, if you continue to--"

"Missus!" Janine's voice was high and tight. "Missus! The baby!"

Alexandra's mouth opened in horror as she saw the infant gasping for breath in Janine's arms.

"Katie!" Alexandra snatched her daughter from the maid. Her forehead was slick with sweat and she cried weakly as Alexandra touched her cheek.

If they left, they risked their daughter's life.

If they stayed, they risked their own.

Looking down at her daughter, she knew what the choice must be.

Stephen stepped back to allow them inside the grand hallway but Alexandra's concentration was focused on her daughter and not her surroundings. She was, however, aware that Madolyn McKenna stood quietly near an elaborate marble sculpture, looking as perfect and unapproachable as one herself. As a parlormaid led her and Janine up the winding staircase, Alexandra glanced down at Matthew's wife, glimpsing the shiny coronet of ice-blonde hair and the tiny, perfectly curved body in a dress of pale blue silk.

"A beautiful child," said Madolyn Porter McKenna in a voice sleek as her gown. "He reminds me much of Christopher."

An unpleasant prickling sensation rippled through Alexandra and with a nod in Madolyn's direction she continued up the stairs.

"You're a lucky man, McKenna," said Stephen as Alexandra disappeared up the staircase. "You have a wife and a mistress under the same roof. Other men would kill for such an opportunity."

"I am sorely tempted, Lowell," Matthew said through clenched teeth. "I advise you to not provoke me."

"Ah, yes! I'd forgotten your infamous temper." He glanced over to where Madolyn had been standing but she had vanished. "Were Madolyn here I would ask her to refresh my mind about your murderous ways."

"I'm warning you," Matthew said, drawing closer. "One more word, Lowell."

"I shudder to think what you're capable of, McKenna, with all that shanty Irish blood in your veins."

A clear vision of his mother on her knees cleaning house so her children could live in dignity rose up before Matthew and in an instant he had Stephen Lowell pinned against the wall, gasping for breath.

"I would kill you, Lowell, if you were worth spending the rest of my life in jail." He released Stephen in disgust. "Unfortunately, you're not."

"The score between us isn't settled yet," said Stephen, straightening his jacket, "but it will be soon. Have no fear."

"Thank you for the hospitality," Matthew said dryly, "but Alexandra and I will take our leave in the morning."

"You'll go nowhere until I say you can, McKenna."

The coach had been dismissed and all of the estate's vehicles were out fetching party guests for tomorrow night.

"And don't think you'll commandeer one of them when they return," Stephen added, "for the drivers are in my employ and listen to no orders but mine."

"You're a bastard, Lowell," Matthew said. "A true bastard."

"A bastard?" Stephen's laugh chilled Matthew's bones. "I think not, McKenna. I believe you brought the bastards with you."

The suite of rooms the parlormaid showed Alexandra to were large and beautifully appointed in an English country decor. There was a sitting room, a large master bedroom, and a nursery complete with a crib for Katie and a bed for Janine.

The parlormaid bade them goodnight and the first thing Alexandra did was strip the baby of her clothes and sponge off her body. She had only a clean blanket from the crib to bundle Katie up in so she sent Janine downstairs in search of their trunks.

Fortunately Alexandra had kept a sampling of Dayla's herbal remedies in her handbag and she lay Katie down in the crib then hurried into the sitting room to search them out. Measuring out a portion of the fever concoction into a shotglass, she realized she needed water and hurried down the hall on the offchance the house possessed upstairs plumbing.

She passed one closed door after another and had she not bumped into another maid, she would never have found the facilities. The maid explained that the sixty year old house had been structured as an anomaly for its time, boasting running water on all three stories, and to accomplish that miracle the stories had all been truncated. That illusion of the windows being closer to the ground had been no illusion at all. The ceilings were all abnormally low and outside the shrubberies practically reached to the second story.

Alexandra carried the pitcher of fresh water back to their suite of rooms. A woman's voice trilling a lullaby floated out from the nursery and she smiled. Janine was a godsend, truly a--

She stopped in the doorway, her mind filling with horror. Katie, wrapped in a warm blanket, was in Madolyn McKenna's arms.

"Is she all right?" Alexandra asked as she entered the room. Madolyn said nothing, just continued to sing to the baby.

"Put that child down," Alexandra said, her voice a study in self-control. "She is feverish and needs her sleep."

Madolyn had beautiful eyes of china blue and those china blue eyes stared through Alexandra. Dear God in heaven, she thought. Tell me the right thing to do. Her heart pounded as if trying to break through her ribcage.

"It is late, Madolyn," Alexandra said quietly. "The baby should be in the crib."

Madolyn blinked and seemed to notice Alexandra for the first time. Gently she put the baby back in the cradle then slumped to the floor in tears.

What on earth was happening? Alexandra ran to the doorway and called out for the upstairs maid who expertly helped Madolyn to her feet as if this were an everyday occurrence.

"You were right, Matthew," she said when he joined her a few minutes later. "We should not be here." Quickly she told him what had transpired. "She is mad! I saw it in her eyes. Please, have them bring the carriage around and we'll--"

Matthew put a hand on her forearm to silence her as a stream of sleepy stableboys put their luggage in the front room. Janine was in her element, ordering the boys about, and if the situation were not so desperate, it would have been quite amusing. "Do not unpack, Janine," said Alexandra as soon as the door closed behind the stableboys, "for we are going to leave for Mr. Whittington's house soon as the carriage is brought round."

"Continue with your work, Janine," said Matthew, overriding her.

Alexandra spun around to face him, fury rising in her breast. "Have you not heard one word I've said, McKenna? Katie is in danger! We must leave and the sooner the better."

"I agree she should not be near Katie, but I fail to see this madness you speak of, Alex."

"I sense it, Matthew. I can feel it in my very bones." She searched for the right words to make him understand but could find none to explain a mother's instinct. "You must believe me when I say we must leave."

"We can't leave, Alex."

"What do you mean, we can't leave? Surely they cannot hold you prisoner!" She gestured toward the baggage in the middle of the room. "Forfeit our belongings. I do not care about anything except getting away from here." The memory of Madolyn with Katie in her arms filled Alexandra with terror.

"Listen to me, Alex. The coach is gone. We're fifteen miles from the nearest house."

"Take one of their coaches. My God, they are half yours, are they not?"

"The coaches are all out, Alex. For the moment, we're at Stephen's mercy."

She and Janine stood there and listened as he explained the situation.

"When I do not return to San Francisco on Monday, Edward will spring into action," he said, in an obvious attempt to comfort her. "We just have to hold on until then."

"I have such a terrible feeling about this, Matthew. If you had but seen her with Katie--"

"They are watching us, Alex. Right now they have servants outside the door making certain we stay put."

"Tomorrow night then," Alexandra persisted. "Once the party starts, we could slip away."

"Walk fifteen miles with a sick infant? Be reasonable, Alex." He paced the room angrily. "A horse. Damn it. If we only had a horse..."

"There are horses in the barn," Janine piped up. "I saw them when I went with the parlormaid to be fetchin' the stableboys for the trunks."

"The same problem remains, Janine," said Matthew. "If Alex or I disappear, the game is over."

"But if I be the one doin' the disappearing, who in the world would ever notice?"

"It would have to be at night, Janine," he said. "I'd give you the best directions possible, but it's been years and the terrain can be difficult." Janine straightened her shoulders proudly. "I would be willin' to try. I love that little babe same as I love my brothers and sisters and I would be doin' anything to keep her safe."

"I shall never forget you for this, Janine," said Alexandra softly. "Not in a thousand lifetimes."

They sat down to formulate their plan.

Two hours later the bedroom was dark save for the candle flickering on the nightstand. From the room next door came the sounds of Janine's snoring and the soft sibilance of Katie's even breathing and Alexandra thanked God for the medicinal herbs Dayla had thought to pack.

Matthew had assured her no danger could possibly befall them that night and she believed him. The country house was still and with the door to the suite securely bolted Alexandra felt safe.

Yet, as she stood there in the candlelight before him, she trembled.

"Have no fear, Alex," he said, his beloved voice for her ears only. "We are alone now."

Warmth, liquid and sweet as honey, flooded her veins as he slowly walked toward her, unbuttoning his shirt with sensual deliberation.

"No," she said, her voice low and urgent. "Let me."

He lowered his hands to his sides and inclined his head toward her. "My pleasure."

"No, Matthew. The pleasure is mine."

She undid the oval buttons and slid the shirt off his broad, well-muscled shoulders and onto the floor.

"Never again," she whispered, pressing a kiss along the side of his neck. "I'll never allow us to be separated again."

He reached behind her and smoothly undid the hooks on her dress and in an instant it slithered to the floor next to his shirt. He touched the curve of her shoulder with his finger and she wondered that she did not dissolve in the heat.

"I have changed," she said, her fingers hesitating at the laces of her corset. "I may not be all you remember."

"You are a miracle come true, Alex. Nothing can change that."

She hesitated, her body flaming with a combination of fear and wild desire. "The baby..."

Swiftly he undid the laces of her corset and she stood there naked before him.

His gaze burned across her hips, the slight swell of her stomach, the proud fullness of her breasts.

"Matthew? Dear God, Matthew, say something before I--" But then he dropped to his knees before her and the tears she felt against her skin filled her heart with joy.

"There is something we must talk about, Alex." He rose and stood slightly away from her. "Something of vital importance."

"I realize how much you have given up for me."

"Matthew, I--"

He placed a finger against her lips to silence her. "I'm not a fool, Alex. I know how you've longed for a church wedding, to say our vows before God. I know full well how much you have sacrificed because of my situation."

"I could not do otherwise. I love you. I shall always love you. It is as simple as that."

"I want to marry you, Alex."

Why would he even broach the topic? Didn't he understand that wishing for the impossible only made reality more painful?

"Perhaps one day things will change," she said, wishing she could believe her own words. "Perhaps Madolyn will come to her senses and--"

"You don't understand, Alex. I want to marry you tonight."

"Perhaps we should get some rest, Matthew. It has been a long and trying day."

"I haven't been drinking, Alex."

She didn't try to deny what she'd been thinking. "It was a natural assumption."

He took her hands in his, strong fingers enveloping hers in his grasp. "There is so much I cannot offer you now, Alex. Let me give you what I can." Releasing her, he reached inside his jacket and withdrew a small square box.

"Please, no!" she said, shaking her head. "You must not be extravagant, Matthew. I do not need diamonds to prove your love."

His beautiful eyes were dark with emotion. "Open it, Alex. I have carried it with me for months."

"Matthew, I--"

He pressed the box into her hand. "Open it."

She lifted the top and stared in amazement. No flash of diamond or sparkle of emerald. Resting inside was a simple ring of burnished gold. Puzzled, she met Matthew's eyes.

"It's a wedding ring," he said, taking it from its nest of black velvet. "My mother's and her mother's before. Now it is yours."

Her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Matthew! I do not know what to say."

"Say yes, Alex. Wear this ring."

The gold was smooth and cool against her skin as he slipped the wedding band on the third finger of her left hand. Ducking his head, he pressed a tender kiss against her lips.

"You're my life, Alex." He touched her cheek. "You and Katie. Nothing can part us."

That night by the glow of the waning candlelight, they pledged their love and fidelity and asked the Almighty to bless their union and Alexandra offered up a silent prayer that soon they would be safely back at Sea View where they belonged.

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