Love Wild and Fair

have thought and thought, and there is simply no way to take her from the vizier's palace without raising an immediate hue and cry which would bring almost certain recapture, with all its ensuing difficulties. The island is the only place we may take her from and still have time for getting away.' She stopped for a moment. 'My lord,' she spoke gently to him, 'my lord, there's something you must know. You were told that the vizier prizes Incili above all women. You were not told that after he obtained his royal wife's permission, he made Incili his second wife.'

Bothwell swore a ripe oath under his breath, and Esther smiled briefly before continuing. 'So, my lord, you will not simply be retrieving your wife, you will also be stealing his!'

Francis began to laugh. 'What is it about the wench that all men who love her want to make her their wife?' he chuckled. 'My poor cousin no sooner took his royal Danish bride for dynastic purposes than he was trying to force Cat to accept the position of maitress en titre. Her first husband, Patrick Leslie, had to chase her over half of Scotland for almost a year before he could get her to the altar. And I, may God help me, ended up an exile without lands or country for-among other alleged sins-trying to make her my wife. Now you tell me that Cicalazade Pasha asked permission of his royal Otto-mon wife to take my wife for his own?'

The old woman's cackling laughter joined Bothwell's deep chuckle. Stopping, she wiped her damp eyes and said, 'We will go over our plans in a few days.'

PART VIII. THE ESCAPE

Chapter 57

SHE straggled up through the blackness, fighting the smothered feeling that overwhelmed her, clawing at the hard hand clamped over her mouth. Full consciousness returned as the voice in her ear became wonderfully familiar.

'Shhh, love!’Tis me.’Tis Francis!'

Her eyes flew open and then widened at the sight of the bearded man bending over her. The hand was taken away. Catching her breath, she laughingly sobbed, 'Damn me, Bothwell, ye look like the sultan himself!' Then the tears spilled out of her and she flung herself at him, weeping soundlessly.

Holding her closely, he smoothed the head beneath his hand and said in a gentle, teasing voice, 'Can I not go off to earn us a living, madame, without yer getting captured by pirates? Ye've led me a fine chase to be sure!' Her shoulders shook all the harder. 'Sweetheart, 'tis all right,' he soothed. 'I am here to take ye home. Dinna weep, lass. Ye've been so brave. Esther Kira has told me how brave ye've been.'

She squirmed out of his grasp and turned a stricken face up to him. 'Do ye love me, Bothwell?'

For a moment he looked stunned, and then he mused, 'Now, let me think a bit. I've crossed three seas and come through two straits. I must now turn about and go back the same way, dragging two women wi me. It will be a bloody miracle if we get to Italy alive! Perhaps I did it for the adventure of it? Christ, madame, what do ye think?'

'I am used, Bothwell. I am terribly used. I hae been the vizier's favorite. Do ye still want me back?'

He began to laugh, then became serious again. 'My ever honest Cat. Do ye think I dinna know what yer life has b^en? Angela di LiCosa made it very plain what kind of a man her brother was. If all I wanted was a body in my bed, Cat, I might-though not easily, I'll admit-have substituted another woman for ye.' He wound her tawny hair about his hand and pulled her to him. His mouth gently brushed hers, and his warm sapphire-blue eyes smiled down at her. 'But then, my dearest love, who would have sworn at me in Gaelic, or helped me to raise our bairns, or talked wi me of Scotland on the long winter nights in the years to come?'

She caught her lip in her teeth, and her eyelids closed in a futile attempt to hold back the hot tears that poured again down her cheeks.

'Aye, Cat, I love ye,' he said. 'Now let us stop this foolishness. In less than two hours the sun will be rising.’Tis best if we're quickly gone from here.'

The guards?' she asked.

'Conall and I dispatched them.'

'There were six. Did ye kill them all?'

'Aye.'

'The bodies?'

'Where they died.'

'No! The vultures will get them, and the birds will be seen by the peasants. Someone is bound to get curious and investigate. The supplies for my week's stay came yesterday. No one will come here for at least a week unless something is amiss. Weigh the bodies with stones and sink them into the sea. Then there will be no carrion for the birds, and therefore no curiosity.'

He shook his head admiringly. 'Madame, ye constantly surprise me,' he said, and handed her a bundle from the floor. 'Yer traveling clothes. Get dressed while I get Conall and attend to the other business. Susan is waiting in the boat. Go down to the landing when yer ready, and dinna be fearful of the young man there.’Tis Esther's great- grandson, Asher. He goes with us partway.'

' 'Tis nae the young men who frighten me, Both-well.'

Standing up, he grinned rakishly at her. 'Yer a fetching sight, madame, with yer pretty tits pointing at me like that. Would that we had some time. This bed looks comfortable.'

'Never here,' she answered him vehemently. 'I've spent too many unhappy hours here! I'd sooner be tumbled under a hedgerow!'

'Once we are safely away from here, madame, I will see if I can accommodate ye,' he chuckled, and ducked a well-aimed pillow. Laughing, he ran from the kiosk.

Cat sprang from the bed. I am alive again, she thought triumphantly. Once more I have survived!

And she laughed aloud as she undid the bundle he had given her. She found women's underclothes, but the dark-blue pantaloons, white shirt, vest, sash, boots, and turban of a young man. Dressing quickly, she pinned her hair tightly and covered it with a bandanna before placing the little turban on her head. Pulling on the boots, she stood up and wrapped the sash about her waist. Catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror, she unwrapped the sash, removed her shirt, and bound her full breasts with a linen cloth. Then she dressed again, adding the embroidered vest over her shirt. Another look in the mirror brought a smile to her face. No one looking at the young man would suspect him of being the vizier's beautiful second wife!

She looked about the room a final time, but there was nothing she wanted to take with her. From her conversations with Esther Kira, Cat knew that whatever she needed for the long journey would be provided by the Kira family. She would take none of the jewelry given her by the vizier. On her right hand she wore the heart-shaped ruby that had been given her by Patrick Leslie, and the turquoise ring Esther Kira had given her to hold potions. On her left hand was the great emerald wedding band Francis had given her. She needed nothing else. She didn't even turn back for a last look as she went through the kiosk door.

She walked swiftly through the lovely gardens. It gave her a savage pleasure to think that the man who had used her body as he might have used a dumb animal would no longer enjoy his beautiful island. That would be her small revenge on Cicalazade Pasha. He would always associate the island with her, and he would quickly hate his pleasure palace with its hundred memories.

Suddenly she stumbled over a body in the center of the neat gravel path. It was Osman. She felt no regret. Stepping over it, she continued on her way, carefully descending to the quay where the boat waited.