The Raider (Montgomery/Taggert 9)

Alex exchanged a look of rage with his father, then he grabbed Jess and pulled her into his arms. In spite of the fact that the tea table was between them and cakes and teacups went rolling, Alex kissed Jessica with all the passion he’d been storing inside himself for weeks.

“There!” Alex yelled back at his father as he shoved Jessica back down to her chair. “I may not be able to please you any other way but I can kiss my wife.” With that, he angrily left the room.

Sayer was watching Jessica as she sat there, utterly dazed.

“Go on, go to him,” Sayer said gently.

Slowly, Jessica got up and went to the door. Her eyes didn’t focus as she made her way down the hall and stopped when she heard voices.

Eleanor and Sophy were sitting in Sophy’s room.

Jess closed the door, leaned against it, and took a moment to recover herself. “Alexander is the Raider,” she said in a voice of great strain.

“Yes, dear, he is,” Eleanor said.

Jess sat down. So many thoughts were going through her mind. She was married to the Raider. Slow, weak Alexander was the Raider. “Am I the last one to know?”

“Not the last, I’m sure,” Sophy said.

Jess took a deep breath. “Who else knows?”

Eleanor looked up from her sewing. “Let’s see, there’s Nicholas, Nathaniel, probably Sayer, Sam and—”

“Sam! But he’s only two years old. Why am I the last to know?”

“Alex probably thought you’d harm yourself.”

Jessica sat still for a moment, trying to let this news sink in. How had he managed to keep such a secret? Why hadn’t she guessed? “How did you find out?”

Eleanor smiled. “You can’t keep a secret from a woman who does your laundry. Men seem to think little green elves wash their clothes and put them away. Alex’s never even noticed that I’ve twice washed his Raider clothes and rehid them. I had to dry them hanging inside my night clothes.”

Jess blinked at her sister then turned to Sophy. “And you?”

“I knew him in Italy. He never had a fever.”

“And Nate?” Jess asked Eleanor.

“As far as I can piece together, Sayer sent Nate out to find out who the Raider was. Nate followed Alex—you know how he always manages to be where he’s not supposed to be.”

“I guess that’s why Nate and Sam adore Alex,” Jess said. She had never felt so stupid in her life. “But Sayer always sneers at Alex,” she said, hoping it wasn’t true that she was the only one who didn’t know.

“Alex doesn’t know his father knows, and Mr. Montgomery has never informed him otherwise. I guess he feels that if Alex doesn’t trust him, he doesn’t trust Alex. At least the Montgomery men can keep secrets from each other—if not from their women,” Eleanor laughed.

Trust, Jess thought. That’s what it all came down to: trust.

Her mind was beginning to function once again. She began to remember things.

There had been their wedding night with Alex telling her to get out of his room, then the Raider climbing in her window. There had been Alex telling her the Raider was incompetent, and the Raider getting angry with her for repeating what Alex said. And when the gunpowder had exploded, she had worried about the Raider’s blood on her hands, yet it had been Alex who came to her rescue, an Alex who’d seen her fears and let her suffer rather than tell her the truth. And Alex had arranged for Ethan to marry Abigail.

“How did it begin?” Jess asked. How could Alex have put her through this? The Raider said he loved her; Alex said he loved her; yet both men—no, this one man—had put her through hell.

Sophy and Eleanor together told all they knew about Alex, how he’d become the Raider, how he’d managed to hide it from the town.

“The Raider wouldn’t marry me,” Jess whispered. “I begged him but he refused me. He said Alex ‘couldn’t’ make love to me.”

“What?” Eleanor asked. “I didn’t hear you.”

“Who was the Raider last night when Alex and I were on the hill?” Why hadn’t she seen how strong he was when he’d mounted that wagon horse? All she had done was think how he was endangering his health. “I’ll endanger his health,” she muttered.