Pendragon

"Ah, that person who struck me last night might be lurking about to do it again?"

"Everyone is accounted for," he said, lying easily. "No, I just don't want you to overdo." Actually, he knew the exact location of everyone in the castle, including Mrs. Black and Barnacle, who was currently lying on his back on the kitchen floor, arms flung out, groaning. Mrs. Black merely stepped over him.

She left him. She wanted to kiss him again, feel that moan of his in her mouth.

Lord Kipper found Meggie in the center of a maze that had fallen to ruin at least twenty years before. She was standing there, staring about at all the yew bushes, wondering how she could fix it, when she heard him say from behind her, "Ah, my beautiful young bride."

She raised an eyebrow up at that, knew he'd said it exactly that way on purpose, and said, "Thank you, Lord Kipper."

"I wish I had seen you first, but alas, I didn't."

"My father would have howled had you inquired about me, sir, since you are even his senior by many years."

"When it involves men and women, years don't matter."

"I shouldn't like to be a widow at twenty-one because my husband died of old age."

"How old are you now?"

"I am nineteen. That would give us two years of bliss before you croaked it."

He stared at her, as if she were, Meggie thought, some strange bird that had just dropped out of the sky, as if he didn't know whether to shoot her or stroke her feathers. Then he laughed, threw back his head and laughed and laughed.

Meggie just looked at this beautiful man, and now that he was laughing, he looked more than beautiful, he looked dazzling, surrounded by overgrown yew bushes, a watery sun shining down on his head.

"I understand that Libby isn't at all certain that you are serious about admiring her."

He was still gri

"You will, certainly. What do you want, Lord Kipper? You are certainly far afield from the castle as well as far afield from your own home."

"I heard that someone struck you on the head. You saw absolutely nothing at all?"

"I heard some harsh breathing when the thunder had just boomed and the lightning had just lit up the bedchamber, and I saw a shadow of someone, wearing black.

Nothing more. Why? Were you the one in my bedchamber, Lord Kipper?"

That remark sent one of his perfectly slanted eyebrows straight up. "I? No, my dear, I was sleeping, as I recall, in the arms of a very pleasant young woman in Cork."

"I did ask, didn't I?" Meggie looked heavenward.

"Yes, you did. You are not at all what I would expect from a vicar's daughter." He paused, his eyes darkened. "Thomas doesn't deserve to be a widower when he is so young."

Meggie laughed, just couldn't help herself. "Indeed he doesn't. You have been a terror, haven't you, sir?"

"Oh yes," he said, and looked around. "I am still able to, thank God." He looked about for a moment, then pointed. "There was a lovely old bench here at one time. It's quite a mess, isn't it?"

"Yes. Ah, there's the bench, but it's very dirty."

"No matter." Lord Kipper pulled a clean handkerchief from his pocket and wiped off the bench. "Do sit down, my lady."

Meggie sat.

"Does your head hurt?"

"Just a bit now. Do you know what is happening here at Pendragon, sir?"

"Call me Niles. No, I don't."

"Someone tried to kill me. I've only been here two days. Surely that's too short a time to make anyone hate me enough to crack open my head. I have been thinking about this. Someone knew I was coming and because I was me-Meggie Sherbrooke-I was hated enough for that someone to want to kill me. Does that make sense?"

"You mean," Lord Kipper said slowly, looking deeply into her Sherbrooke blue eyes, "that someone hated you before they even met you?"

"Or hated my family perhaps. Or the person believed Thomas would be with me, only he wasn't. I am very worried that this person is after Thomas, not me."

"I also heard that Madeleine wants you pregnant, by tomorrow if that's possible. She was even mumbling about putting an aphrodisiac in your tea. She even asked me to give you advice on how to seduce Thomas if he tired after only one or two encounters."

Meggie nearly fell off the bench she was so shocked. "I-sir, you can't speak like that, surely. An aphrodisiac? You're making that up just to make me turn red and stutter."

"Oh no. Thomas's mother, you know, she's always told me everything, asked my advice endlessly, even things I had no interest in. She is single-minded, is Madeleine."

"Have you been her lover, too?"

"Of course."

Meggie slowly got to her feet. Her head was pounding. She felt light-headed. The morning sun had disappeared behind a mass of soft gray clouds. It would rain soon.

He was beside her in an instant. "Meggie, lean against me. I can see you're not well."

She didn't want to. His hands were around her arms, pulling her closer, then she jerked away, fell to her knees, and vomited. There was little enough in her belly, so her body shook with dry heaves. She felt as though she were jerking apart, from the inside out. She just wanted to fall over and not move, maybe for the rest of the morning, or maybe for the entire day. The thought of her mother-in-law putting an aphrodisiac in her tea made her dry-heave some more.

She was aware that Lord Kipper was holding her hair back. "I'm sorry, but I don't have another clean handkerchief," he said. "Let me help you back to the castle."

Meggie didn't make it. They reached the entrance to the maze when she felt so dizzy she couldn't stand up. She was shaking, her teeth chattering. She heard him say her name, then she didn't hear anything at all.

Thomas was with William when he saw Lord Kipper striding toward them, Meggie in his arms. Thomas ran.

"I say, Thomas, what's-"

Thomas had her in his own arms in just a moment, so scared he thought he'd choke on it.

"She vomited, then fell over, Thomas," Lord Kipper said. "Put her to bed, my boy. I'll fetch Dr. Pritchart."

When Meggie awoke, it was to see her husband not two inches from her nose. He looked very worried. No, it was more. She saw a thick veil of anger in his eyes.

She raised her hand to his cheek. "Thomas," she said, her voice as thin as gruel. "I'm all right."

He took her hand in his and held it. "Just rest, Meggie. Be quiet. Don't talk now. Damnation, what happened?"

"I nearly shook myself apart I got so sick, then I tottered beside Lord Kipper a bit, then just collapsed. I'm sorry, Thomas."

"Dr. Pritchart will be here soon. Just hang on."

"Thomas, I don't want to die."

His breathing hitched. He hated this, couldn't bear it anymore. "You won't die, Meggie, I swear it." The stable lad had been so scared, he'd nearly followed Thomas into the bedchamber.

She closed her eyes against the pain. He held her hand, spoke nonsense to her until Dr. Pritchart arrived.

"Go away, my lord," he said, and Thomas reluctantly left the White Room.

He heard voices coming from the drawing room. When he neared the open door, he heard his mother say, "What a weak-kneed chit. Just a small blow to the head and here she is whining and carrying on."

Then Aunt Libby said, "I wonder if perhaps she wasn't trying to flirt with Niles. Did she follow him into the maze? The foolish stable lad wouldn't say anything, just that Lord Kipper had seen him watching her ladyship."

Thomas said as he walked into the room, "This will stop right now. Enough from both of you." He paused a moment, then attacked. "Mother, I think you're the person who struck Meggie. You have yet to tell me why."

Madeleine slowly rose to her feet, her face pale, her eyes darkening. "No, Thomas, I didn't strike her."

"Is she going to die, Thomas?"