There was a moment of stunned silence as both Marigold and Rowan stared down at the scene below. That Falk might be copying his ancestor was bad enough, but that he might actually be that ancestor, was a little too unsettling.
Rowan gave her a quick smile, and put his hand briefly over hers. “Well, I suppose it’s no more bizarre than anything else.”
“Bizarre wasn’t exactly the word that sprang to my mind,” she replied.
“Nor really to mine, but it’s more agreeable than some of the ones that did.”
Marigold glanced at him, wanting so much to tell him about Robin and Jenny.
He met the glance. “What is it?”
“Rowan, I have more to say.”
“About Falk?”
“Well, in a way. I’ve wanted to tell you before, only you wouldn’t let me, but now that so much has been said, you really should know the rest.”
“I give in gracefully, but let’s come away from the edge here. On the assumption that Falk can turn his little nest of feather-headed acolytes into real birds if he wishes, I don’t really fancy being swooped upon by the likes of Lord Toby Shrike, who looks as if he would quite enjoy impaling us upon something suitably sharp. There’s a little hollow just the other side of these graywethers, where we’ll be safe from detection.”
He drew her down into the small dip in the grass, and there took off his coat, loosened his neckcloth, then lay back beneath the heat of the June sun. “Right, now tell me whatever it is.”
Cool in her gingham gown, Marigold lay at his side among the wild thyme and other scented wildflowers. She gazed at the flawless blue sky. “Before I met you, I knew something very odd was going on, indeed it started at Castell Arnold when the robin flew out of a rowan tree and caused Merlin’s death.” She told him everything that had happened since then.
When she’d finished, he gave her a rather wry smile. “Perhaps I should have known too.”
“Why?”
“Well, I told you Jenny’s portrait was discovered in the attic, but what I didn’t say was that it was found because a bird was trapped there, and a footman was sent up to get it out. The bird was a robin, and it lighted on the portrait, which was under a cloth behind an old cupboard. In his efforts to catch the bird, the footman pulled the cloth off, and realized he’d found a lost portrait. The robin then flew out of its own accord, the footman came down and mentioned his discovery to Beech, who told me. I went up to investigate, realized whose portrait is was, and had it brought down.”
“Did you see the robin?”
“No.”
“If you had, I’m sure it would have had some odd white feathers in its wings.”
Rowan plucked a piece of wild thyme, and rubbed it between his fingers. “You know you wondered the other night if that damned mallard was connected with it all? Well, given all that’s become clear since then, I’ve just thought of an amusing coincidence. The first Lord Avenbury was named Francis.”
“Really?” She smiled and turned her head to look at him. “Why do you think Jenny can speak to me, but Robin can’t?”
“Marigold, the abilities of supernatural birds are a mystery to me,” he replied with a slight laugh.
She sighed. “Jenny keeps begging me to save them, but I don’t know what to do. All I’m certain of is that I have to be at your side to fight the curse, and that’s why marigolds appear in Jenny’s portrait. On the day of the will, Robin brought me a marigold and rowan leaf in front of Falk, and I saw for a moment that Falk was alarmed. Now he and his friends have burned the same plants at the oak. He knows that while I’m with you I am a threat to his plans. Rowan, I’m sure I have a strength or power of some sort, for I felt it yesterday when I touched the standing stone, but I don’t know what it is or how to use it. Falk is aware of it, but is satisfied that his strength is much greater. He regards me as something of a single candle next to his blazing sun!”
Rowan answered a little teasingly. “Don’t belittle yourself, madam, for Robin and Jenny are relying on your candle. And so am I, come to that.”
“Don’t joke, it’s not funny.”
“All right, let’s be serious again. Something puzzles me. Why do you think Robin caused Merlin’s death? After all, it helped Falk, not you. Because of that single event, he was able to create a will to suit himself, and take Castell Arnold from Perry.”
She suddenly perceived the answer. “By removing Merlin, Robin freed me to marry you!”
“But it was pure chance that brought us together at the Spread Eagle!”
“Was it?” She looked intently at him. “You said you stayed there because your appointment at Windsor Castle took much longer than expected. Why did it take longer?”
“Well I...” He drew a long breath, and then laughed a little sheepishly. “There was a robin in the Queen’s apartment, and her ladies were having the vapors. It took some time to quieten things.”
“I hazard it was our robin. You see? It wasn’t chance after all!”
“All right, I accept that chance probably had little to do with it, although how it could be foreseen that on such minute acquaintance I would ask you to marry me, I fail to see.”
“Rowan, you are the one who has always believed in fate. I’m in the portrait, and so I have to be here. Therefore you asked me because you were bound to. And if Robin and Jenny’s interest in me is anything to go by, I’m not meant to be a helpless bystander. There is something I have to do. Robin and Jenny know I can help. They aren’t ordinary birds, they’re supernatural, and Jenny can speak, so why doesn’t she Tell me!”
“Being supernatural may not mean she actually knows. Maybe you have to find out for yourself.”
She turned her head to look at him. “I’m determined everyone is to live happily ever after.”
He laughed. “As in the best fairy tales?”
“Yes!” she said fiercely. “I’m not going to let Falk and or a miserable old Tudor alchemist dictate my fate! Nor yours, nor Robin’s nor Jenny’s. Nor Perry’s, come to that.”
“What a veritable tiger you are, Lady Avenbury.”
“I fight to defend what I love and what is mine.”
“I know you do.”
“I’ll fight to keep you from Alauda,” she said suddenly, hardly knowing the words were there until they’d been said.
He smiled a little regretfully. “I, er, fear I haven’t been entirely fair with you concerning Alauda. The fact is I don’t love her anymore, nor is she still my mistress. It’s over.”
Marigold sat up to stare at him. “Over?” she repeated incredulously. “But, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Oh, reasons ...”
“When did it end?”
“From the moment you told me she was party to what Falk perpetrated at Castell Arnold. How could I love someone who was capable of such spite?” He smiled up at her. “Especially when the victim is so very, very fascinating, being not only an amazing forger, but a gifted mimic as well.”
He assumed a lisping tone. “Oh, Alauda, Alauda, you’d betht know the earl is therching for you!” Marigold was dumbstruck. Even without speaking to Alauda, he’d known it was her?
Her stunned silence amused him. “As to the note you composed so carefully, did you really think I wouldn’t recognize my own paper and ink? I knew Alauda hadn’t sent that second note, but as I had no intention of complying with the first, I fear you labored in vain, Marigold.”
“If you wish to make me feel foolish, you’re succeeding.”
He pulled her back down to the grass, and leaned over her. “The last thing I wish to do is make you feel foolish, Marigold,” he said softly, drawing a thyme-scented fingertip gently across her lips. “The truth is, I was flattered by your efforts to obstruct Alauda. No, that’s not strictly true, for I’m still flattered.”
“You’re my husband, Rowan, and I didn’t intend to share you with her.”
“You’ve never had to share me.”
“But I would have had to at Vauxhall Gardens if I hadn’t followed you, wouldn’t I?” she said quietly.
He shook his head. “No. I know what it may have appeared to you, but in fact I was leading her on, with every intention of informing her the liaison was over. I’m afraid I was punishing her for her treatment of you.”
“How astonishingly ungentlemanly, my lord.”
“I agree, but in mitigation I offer the fact that I had just discovered how little of a lady she really was.”
She smiled, and couldn’t resist reaching up to touch his cheek. “Well, my husband, I am a very determined wife. I’m not going to let Falk succeed in anything on midsummer day! This legend is mine too, remember? And I only believe in happy endings,” she whispered.
He took one of her ringlets in his hand, and parted the strands between his fingers. “I wish I could believe too, but I can’t. Marigold, I didn’t tell you it was over with Alauda because I was afraid you would feel too much for me, and be hurt because of what I think must happen in eleven days’ time.”
“I’m going to outshine his beastly sun!” she said determinedly.
“Marigold—”
She broke in. “Anyway, it’s too late to prevent me from feeling too much.”
“I can only bring you heartbreak.”
“That I suffer already, but I would rather endure an age of heartbreak because of you, than never have met you at all.”
“Oh, Marigold ...” He put his lips softly to her forehead.
She gripped his arms. “Rowan, if you no longer love Alauda, do you think you will ever be able to love me?”
“Oh, foolish, adorable Marigold, don’t you realize that I already do?” he breathed, and bent his head to kiss her.
Her arms slid joyously around him! She loved and was loved, and her heart was so full of happiness she thought it would burst. His kiss became more urgent, and she felt the sensuous brush of his tongue against hers. His scent filled her nostrils, so heady and masculine, so arousing ... He untied the drawstring on her gown, and her bodice parted to allow his hand to cup her breast. Her nipple was hard and so sensitive to his touch that her breath caught with pleasure. His lips moved from her mouth to her throat, and then down to her other breast. He took her nipple into his mouth, drawing upon it and flicking it with his tongue until she almost cried out with delight.
She felt him drag her skirts up, and then undo the front of his breeches. She held her breath with excitement as he pushed into her, filling her with his entire length. For a long moment he did not move at all, but simply lay joined with her. She felt how he throbbed within her, then he leaned up to look into her eyes.
They gazed at each other as he began to withdraw and then reentered. His strokes were long and leisurely, becoming gradually more and more imperative. She could feel herself reaching out toward something wonderful, a doorway into ecstasy. They crossed the threshold together, and were swept up into a glory of emotion and color that was so magnificent that she felt tears on her cheeks.
They lay together afterward, still joined, their hearts beating close, their fingers and limbs entwined. There was complete understanding between them, a shared intimacy so precious that neither of them wished to break it. Love enveloped them both, as warm and glowing as the sun itself.