The Heiress Read Free Page A

her feet and leaned his head against her knee, closing his eyes in pleasure as she stroked his hair.
    â€œI never saw any woman who could compare with you in beauty,” he said softly.
    â€œIs that not a vain thing for you to say as we are twins?”
    He kissed her hand. “I am old and ugly and scarred, whereas you are untouched by time.”
    â€œUntouched is true,” she said, trying to make a joke about her virginity.
    But Jamie did not smile. Instead, he put his hand up before her face.
    â€œIt is no use,” she said, smiling sweetly, catching his hand. “I cannot see lighted twigs before my face. There is no sight for me, and no man wants a blind wife. For all the use I am to the world, it would have been better had I died at birth.”
    The violence with which Jamie arose startled her. “Oh, Jamie, I am sorry. I did not mean—It was thoughtless of me. Please, come sit down again. Let me touch you. Please.”
    He sat down again, but his heart was pounding. Pounding with guilt. He and his sister were twins, but Jamie had been quite a bit bigger than his sister and so had taken hours to be born. When Berengaria was finally allowed out, the umbilical cord was found to be wrapped around her neck, and it was soon discovered that she was blind. The midwife said it was Jamie’s fault for taking so long to be born, so all his life Jamie had lived with the guilt of what he’d done to his beautiful sister.
    And all their lives he had been close to her, never once losing patience with her or tiring of her company. He helped her in everything, encouraging her to climb trees, to walk miles into the hills, even to ride a horse alone.
    Only their brother, Edward, thought Jamie less than a saint for helping his blind sister. Whenever anyone remarked on how good Jamie was to give up time with his rowdy boyhood companions to take his blind sister berry picking, their older brother would say, “He stole her sight, didn’t he? Why shouldn’t he do what he can to give it back to her?”
    Jamie took a deep breath. “So no one told me what Edward was doing out of pride?” he said, coming back to the present. Guilt still weighed him down. Guilt over leaving his sister who needed him so much, guilt for what had happened after he left.
    â€œYou must cease this flagellation of yourself,” Berengaria said, pulling Jamie’s thick black hair with both her hands, making his head come back so he looked up at her. It was difficult to believe that those perfect, lushly lashed blue eyesof hers could not see.
    â€œIf you give me a look of pity, I shall snatch you bald,” she said, pulling harder.
    â€œOw!” He laughed as she released his hair, then he pulled one of her hands to his chest and kissed it. “I cannot help the guilt I feel. I knew what Father and Edward were like.”
    â€œYes,” Berengaria said with a grimace. “Father never took his nose out of a book if he could help it, and Edward was a pig. There wasn’t a village girl over the age of ten who was safe from him. He died young because the devil liked him so well he wanted him near him forever.”
    In spite of himself, Jamie laughed. “How very much I have missed you these months.”
    â€œYears, my dear brother. Years.”
    â€œWhy do women always remember the most inconsequential of details?”
    She tweaked his ear and made him yelp. “Now stop telling me of your women and tell me of this task you have taken on.”
    â€œHow kind you are. How you make escorting a rich heiress across the country sound like a knight’s holy quest.”
    â€œIt is if
you
are involved. How Edward and you could be brothers bewilders me.”
    â€œAs he was born five months after our parents’ marriage, I sometimes wonder who his father was,” Jamie said with great cynicism.
    Had anyone else said this, Berengaria would have defended her dear mother, whose