Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine (reading an ebook TXT) 📕

and old pains healed. In this life, Jo. " He gazed down at her silently for several minutes. Then he raised his hands to her face again. "But for now, we'll meet in the past. You know your place there. You are still a young and obedient wife there, Jo, and you will do as I say. Now, you are going back ... back to that previous existence, Jo, back to when you were Matilda, wife of William, Lord of Brecknock, Builth and Radnor, Hay, Upper Gwent and Gower, back to the time at Brecknock after Will's birth, back to the day when you must once again welcome your husband and lord into your bed. "

Chapter 16

The dining room in the hotel on the rue St. Honore was beginning to empty. Nick was immersed in some sketches and Judy was bored. She got up and helped herself to some English newspapers discarded on the next table, then, pouring herself some coffee, she began to leaf through them.

"God! They're not even today's, " she exclaimed in disgust after a moment.

Nick glanced up. "They get the new ones in the foyer. Here. " He tossed some francs on the table. "Get me a Times while you're at it, will you?"

But Judy was staring down at the paper on the table in front of her, open-mouthed.

"So he went ahead and did it, " she said softly. "He actually did it. "

There was something in her voice that made Nick look up. Even upside-down he recognized Jo's photo.

"What the hell is that?" he said sharply. He snatched the paper from her.

"It's nothing, Nick. Nothing, don't bother to read it—"

She was suddenly afraid. After a week without a mention of her name, Jo's shadow had risen between them again. She stood up abruptly. "I'll get today's, " she said, but he never heard her. He was staring down at yesterday's copy of the Daily Mail.

He read the article twice, then, glancing at his watch, he stood up, folded the paper under his arm, and strode toward the iron-gated elevator. He passed Judy in the foyer and never saw her.

Impatiently he allowed the elevator to carry him slowly up to his floor. He wrenched the doors open, then strode to their room. It was several minutes before the number in London was ringing. He sat impatiently on the bed, spreading the paper out beside him with his free hand, as he waited for someone to answer.

The tone rang on monotonously in Jo's empty apartment. Upstairs, Henry Chandler looked at his wife in exasperation. "Why doesn't she get an answering machine if she's a journalist? If that phone doesn't stop ringing it'll wake that damn baby again. "

"She's gone shopping, " Sheila Chandler said slowly. "I saw her leave earlier. "

"Did you see the kid?"

"No, she was alone. "

They looked at each other significantly.

Downstairs the faint sound of the phone stopped. Seconds later they both heard the thin protesting wail.

"Who are you calling?" Judy threw back the bedroom door and stood in the doorway, staring at Nick.

"Jo. "

"Why?"

Nick put the receiver down with a sigh. "I want to know why she did such an idiotic thing as to give that story to Pete Leveson. She'll lose every bit of credibility she has as a serious journalist if she allows crap like this to be published. Look at this. 'I was married to a violent, vicious man, but my heart belonged to the handsome earl who had escorted me through the mountains, protecting me from the wolves with his drawn sword. ' Dear God!"

He picked up the phone and rattled it again. "Mademoiselle? Essayez le numero a Londres encore une fois, s'il vous plait. "

"It is nothing to do with you, Nick, " Judy said softly. "Jo has done it, for whatever reason, and it can't be undone now. "

She saw his knuckles whiten on the phone. "Eh bien,merci Essayez un autre numero, je vous en prie, mademoiselle. "

"You're making a fool of yourself, Nick. "

"Very probably. " He tightened his mouth grimly as he slammed the phone down at last. "Sam's not there either. Look, look at this last bit. 'I shall not rest, Jo told me, until I have learned the whole story... ' Even you, Judy, know enough now to have guessed that that is dangerous for her. "

Judy turned away. "I don't expect she really meant it. "

Nick stood up slowly and walked across to her, spinning her around by the shoulders. "You knew about this article, didn't you? Down there, in the dining room, you weren't surprised. You were triumphant. " His eyes narrowed as he held her facing him. "So what do you know about all this?"

Judy stood quite still, staring up at his face. "You tell me something first, Nick Franklyn! Are you still in love with Jo? Because if you are, I shall bow out of your life now. Perhaps I could write an article or two myself. 'How my lover challenged a man eight hundred years old to a duel over another woman. ' That's it, isn't it? You can't bear to think of her in his arms, this Richard de Clare. You watched her, didn't you? Last week when you rushed off and left me, you went to Dr. Bennet's and watched her dreaming about making love to another man. You had to see it!"

She broke off with a little cry as Nick raised his hand and gave her a stinging slap across the face. The impact of it threw her against the wall and she stood there, her hand pressed to her cheek, her eyes brimming with tears. "You bastard—"

"That's right. " His face was hard and very white. "I've warned you before, Judy. Leave Jo alone. " He turned to the bed and picked up his portfolio. "I have a meeting to go to now. I suggest it might be better for both of us if you pack your stuff and clear