breeze brought her the scent of burning candle wax and the jasmine perfume that Delo lately favored. She crept toward the oak. From its deeper shadow, she discerned the source of the glow. Yellow light shone gently through the slats of the old gazebo, outlining the leaves of the ivy that draped the structure. It seemed a magical place, romantic and mysterious.
Cerwin awaited her there. He had lit a candle to guide her to him. Her heart surged and raced. It was perfect, a minstrel's romantic tale. She was the heroine, the young woman wronged by fate and her family, beautiful, young and heartbroken over her father's captivity. Despite all that her unloving family had done to her, she would be the one to make the ultimate sacrifice that saved them all. Cerwin was the young man who had come to deliver her, for his manly young heart thundered with love for her. He could not do otherwise. She stood still in the fickle moonlight, savoring the drama of it all.
She walked softly until she could peek inside the leafy door. Two figures waited inside. Delo was huddled up in a corner in her cloak, but Cerwin paced back and forth. It was his motion that made the candle's light erratic. His hands were empty. She frowned to herself. That didn't seem right. Reyn would have brought her flowers at least. Well, perhaps whatever Cerwin had for her was small. Maybe it was in his pocket. She refused to let it spoil the moment.
Malta paused only to push back her hood, shake out her hair and spread it carefully over her shoulders. She scraped her teeth over her lips to redden them, then entered the spill of light from the gazebo. She walked forward with a dignified pace, her face grave. Cerwin noticed her immediately. She stopped where she could be half in shadow. She turned her face to the candlelight's caress and opened her eyes wide.
'Malta!' he whispered in a voice choked with suppressed emotion. He strode toward her. He would sweep her up in his arms. She braced herself for that, but instead he halted and then dropped to one knee before her. His head was bowed and she could see only his dark curly hair. In a tight voice he said, 'Thank you for coming. When midnight passed and you were not here, I feared-' He gasped in a breath that was almost a sob. 'I feared I had no hope at all.'
'Oh, Cerwin,' she murmured sorrowfully. From the corner of one eye, she noted that Delo had crept to the door of the gazebo and was peeking out at them. For a moment, it annoyed her. It spoiled the mood to have Cerwin's little sister watching them. She pushed the thought away. Ignore her. It didn't matter. Delo couldn't tell anything without getting in big trouble herself. Malta took a step closer to Cerwin. She set her pale hands to his dark head and ran her fingers through his curls. He caught his breath at her touch. She turned his face up to hers. 'How could you think I would not come?' she asked him gently. She gave a soft sigh. 'No matter what sorrows batter me, no matter what danger to myself… you should have known I would come.'
'I dared to hope,' he admitted. When he looked up at her, she was shocked. He strongly resembled Brashen, yet he suffered in the comparison. She had thought Cerwin manly and mature. Now, after she had watched Brashen for an evening, Cerwin appeared a callow youth. The comparison annoyed her. It made her conquest less of a triumph. He caught her two hands, then dared to kiss each of her palms before releasing them.
'You must not,' she murmured to him. 'You know I am promised to another.'
'I will never allow him to have you,' he vowed.
She shook her head. 'It is too late. The tidings your brother brought us tonight have made me see that.' She looked aside from him to stare wide-eyed into the night forest. 'I have no choice but to fulfill my fate. My father's life depends on it.'
He surged to his feet. 'What are you saying?' His voice was a low cry. 'What news came… my brother brought it? Your father's life… I don't understand.'
For an instant her voice tightened with real tears. 'Pirates have captured our family ship. Brashen was kind enough to bring us word of it. We fear my father and brother may already be dead, but if they are not, if any chance remains… oh, Cerwin, somehow we must find the money to ransom them. And yet, how can we? Humbling as it is, I know you are aware of our financial difficulties. Once word gets out that our ship has been taken, our creditors will close in like sharks.' She lifted her hands to her face. 'I do not know how we will feed ourselves, let alone find money to ransom my father. I fear I will be wed off to the Rain Wilder immediately. As much as that distresses me, I know it is what I must do. Reyn is a generous man. He will help us to get my father back. If marrying him is what it will take… I do not mind… so much.' Her voice cracked on these final words. She swayed, genuinely overcome by her cruel fate.
He caught her in his arms. 'You poor, brave child. Can you imagine that I would allow you to go to a loveless marriage, even for the sake of your father?'
She whispered against his chest. 'The choice is not ours, Cerwin. I will offer myself to Reyn. He has both the wealth and power to help me. That will be what I think of when… that time comes when… I must accommodate him.' She hid her face against his shirt as if ashamed to speak of such things.
Cerwin clutched her upper arms more tightly. 'Never,' he promised her. 'That time will never come.' He took a breath. 'I do not claim to be as wealthy as a Rain Wilder. But all I have, and all I ever will have, I put at your service.' He held her a little away so he could look down into her face. 'Did you think I would do less than that?'
She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. 'I did not think you could,' she admitted. 'Your father is still the Trader of your family. Poor Brashen is proof that he runs his household with a firm hand. I know what your heart bids you to do, but, in reality-' she shook her head sadly– 'there may be little you can actually command.'
'Poor Brashen!' He snorted disdainfully, distracted from her real problem. 'My brother brought about his own misfortunes. Do not pity him. Your other words are true, and I do not deny them. I cannot put the entire Trell fortune at your disposal, but-'
'As if I would ask that! Oh, Cerwin, what must you think of me? That I come to you at night, at risk to my reputation, to ask for money?' She turned aside from him in a swirl of cloak that briefly revealed the white cotton nightgown she wore beneath it. She heard Delo's in-drawn gasp. She scuttled out of the gazebo to stand beside Malta.
'You are practically naked!' she scolded her. 'Malta, how could you!'
There. If Cerwin had been too dense to notice it before, he knew it now. Malta drew herself up with dignity. 'I had no choice. I had but one chance to slip out of the house to meet you, and I took it. I don't regret it. Cerwin has been gentleman enough to ignore it and not shame me. It is not as if I chose to come to him this way. Cannot you understand that my father's life is at stake, Delo? This is not an ordinary time, and the ordinary rules do not apply.' She set her hands pleadingly over her heart.
She watched Cerwin's reaction from the corner of her eye. He was staring at her with horrified admiration. His eyes traveled her body as if he could see through her cloak. 'Delo,' he said brusquely, 'it is of no importance. You are such a child, to make much of it. Please. Allow me to speak to Malta privately.'
'Cerwin!' Delo protested in outrage.
He had made her angry, calling her a child. Malta did not want that. An angry Delo might gossip too much. Malta stretched out a languid hand to her. 'I know you are only trying to protect me. I love you for it. Nevertheless, I am sure that your brother would never do me harm.' She met Delo's eyes. 'You see, I know your heart, and that tells me much of his. You are honorable people. I do not fear to be alone with him.'
Eyes shining, Delo stepped back and away from them. 'Oh, Malta. You see so much.' Obviously moved, she retreated once more to the gazebo. Malta looked back at Cerwin. She gathered her cloak in tightly to cover herself, well aware that doing so accented the smallness of her waist and the fullness of her hips. Then she looked up at him with a shy smile.
'Cerwin.' She said his name, then gave a sigh. 'It shames me that I must speak so plainly, but my need forces me to it. I do not ask all that you have and all you will ever possess. Whatever you can offer me, discreetly and comfortably, I shall gratefully accept. But more important to me would be for your family to join forces with mine. Tomorrow night there is to be a Traders' Council meeting. I shall be there. Please come. If you can move your father to attend and speak out for us, it would help us greatly. The loss of our ship and my father is not solely my family's loss. It affects all Bingtown Traders. If these cut-throat pirates do not fear to capture a liveship, what will they not take? If they do not fear to hold prisoner a Bingtown Trader and his son, who is safe?' Malta's voice had grown righteously impassioned. Her hands darted out to seize Cerwin's hands. 'If your family could unite with mine in this-' she dropped her voice '-perhaps my grandmother would reconsider Reyn's courtship. Perhaps she might see there are… better matches.'
