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who thought all women were dying to give him anything.
    Axia smiled. “You are indeed ambitious. Is she not already engaged to marry?”
    â€œYes, well … ,” he said and idly removed a little dagger from the sheath at his side. For a moment Axia’s heart leaped to her throat in fear, but then she realized it was an unconscious gesture on his part and she doubted if he was aware he had the weapon in his hand.
    â€œI see,” she said. “On the journey you mean to make her change her mind and declare for you.”
    â€œDo you think I can?” he said, and it was the first honest thing he’d said to her.
    She almost patted his arm in sympathy. “Frances will love you,” she said while laughing inside at her lie. Frances hated anything as splendid as herself. She liked ugly things around her so she would glow more radiantly. “So, you’ve come to marry the Maidenhall heiress? Your family and lands fallen on hard times, have they?”
    His eyes sparkled. “I knew I could trust you. From the moment I saw you standing there, brush in hand, I knew you were a trustworthy person. We shall be great friends, you and I. Do you travel with her?”
    â€œOh yes. Actually, we are cousins.”
    â€œYes,” he said, smiling, “I too have rich cousins.”
    â€œTell me, er, ah … I do not know your name.”
    â€œJames Montgomery, Earl of Dalkeith. A title, but, alas, no land and no gold to go with it. And you are Mistress … ?”
    â€œMaidenhall, of course, but alas, I am only
Axia
Maidenhall.”
    â€œAn unusual name for an unusual lady. Now tell me what I must do to impress her. A gift perhaps. Sonnets to her beauty? A rare fruit? Yellow roses perhaps? Come tell me, set me a quest. Nothing is too difficult to obtain.”
    â€œDaisies,” Axia said without hesitation.
    â€œDaisies? That most humble of flower?”
    â€œYes. Frances does not like anything to compete with her beauty. Roses are competition, whereas daisies are a plain setting for a sparkling gem.”
    â€œYou’re very clever, aren’t you?”
    â€œPeople in my station in life must be in order to survive.”
    He smiled at her. “Yes, we do understand each other.”
    â€œA cloak lined with daisies,” Axia said. “To be wrapped about her shoulders while she stands with her eyes closed. Is that not romantic?”
    â€œYes, very.” He was looking at her in speculation. “Do you tell me the truth?”
    â€œI swear in God’s Holy Name that the Maidenhall heiress loves daisies.”
    â€œAnd why are you willing to help me?”
    She ducked her head shyly. “You will allow me to paint the portraits of all your impoverished family?”
    â€œYes,” he said, smiling. “And I will pay you well. I have atwin sister.”
    Axia kept her eyes lowered so he would not see what she thought of his vanity, assuming she’d betray her own cousin just to paint some characterless beauty. “You honor me, my lord.”
    â€œYou may call me Jamie.” At that he leaned forward as though to kiss her mouth, but she turned her head so he kissed her cheek instead.
    â€œThat is
not
part of the bargain,” she said in what she hoped was a good imitation of Frances warding off her twelfth suitor of that day. “Not yet,” she added, then scurried away from him and back to her easel. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him running across the orchard, very fast for a man of his size.
    Picking up a paintbrush, she held it toward her canvas but could not paint because she was laughing too hard. Wait until tomorrow, she thought, when he saw the truth, that she was the heiress and Frances was only a poor paid companion.
    But in the middle of her laughing, her body changed to shaking. Fear was replacing her laughter. If this James Montgomery could so easily come onto the grounds, so could others, men who hated