The Heiress by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online Page A

white goddess.”
    Rhys was trying to understand. “Your words and your tone do not agree. You describe a wonder of nature, but you sound as though she is a virago. Come, tell me, what could a woman who looks like that do to discourage a man?”
    â€œShe cannot read or write,” Jamie said. “And she loves to have her portrait painted. She—”
    Rhys laughed. “A true woman. Perhaps I shall try for her if you are too good for her.”
    At that Jamie gave Rhys a look that stopped him cold. “I must do what I must. I have to think of my sisters, and if this woman is winnable, I shall do it.”
    â€œI do not believe it will be such a hideous task.”
    â€œYou
have not seen how beautiful she is,” Jamie said. “She will take much wooing. It is what she is used to.”
    â€œAs opposed to your plump-bosomed sparrow?” Thomas asked as he studied Jamie. He was older than Rhys or Jamie, neither of whom had reached the age of thirty. But Thomas, at nearly forty, had seen enough of the world to know to attach himself to a man like Jamie. Once James Montgomery thought of a person as “his,” he took care of that person, going without if need be, but he made sure that those who belonged to him had what they needed.
    Jamie smiled. “Ah, to be free,” he said. “To be a farmer’s son and marry whom I wish.” He raised his mug. “To freedom,” he said, draining the contents.
    Rhys and Thomas exchanged looks before drinking. No matter how long they were with Jamie they’d never understand him. He was one of the few men to ever see the Maidenhall heiress, and he was complaining because she was beautiful.
    â€œTo freedom,” they said and drank.

Chapter 5
    D id you see him!” Axia said, her face flushed with anger.
    â€œNo, I did not,” Tode answered, cleaning his nails with a penknife, not betraying how upset he was.
    When a burly gardener had carried her into the house, Tode’s heart had nearly stopped at the sight of her unconscious form. For a moment he thought she was dead. He had her taken to her room, and there he’d bolted the door against intruders, demanding that a doctor be sent for from the village. But when Tode realized Axia had merely fainted, he wouldn’t allow the man inside. Instead, he’d given Axia a strong drink and had made her tell him everything that had happened. And as she spoke, he did his best to conceal his fear, for she could have been hurt by this intruder.
    â€œHe does not walk, he struts,” Axia was saying. Now fully recovered, she was pacing about the room in anger. “He swaggers. He throws back his shoulders and walks as though he owns the earth. Why? Because he is an earl? Ha! My father has two earls a day for breakfast.”
    â€œNo wonder he is choleric,” Tode said.
    Axia did not smile at his jibe. “You should have seen him lusting after dear cousin Frances. It would make you sick.”
    Tode doubted it would but did not say so, especially since he tended to agree with her about Frances. “You were clever to tell him she was the heiress. He might have taken you else.”
    â€œNo, no, not him. Not James Montgomery.
He
wants to
marry
me. Her. Marry her gold, that is.” Axia landed hard on a chair. “Why does no one see
me?
My father locks me away as though I have done something wrong. Criminals have more freedom than I do.”
    â€œNo heiress or young woman of your standing chooses her own husband,” he said, trying to inject some reason into her anger.
    â€œYes, but she does not have men coming over the wall just to
see
her. See how she glitters, that is. Sometimes I am grateful to my father. What do
they
”—she waved her hand, vaguely indicating the people beyond the garden walls, people she’d never met—“think I do all day?”
    Tode knew he had to, at times, live up to his title of jester. “Eat