A Captive Heart (10 page)

Tamsin
smiled. Aunt Phoebe was well schooled. Their royal guest would not be betrayed by any casual word to this importunate visitor, Tamsin thought thankfully as she breathed a sigh of relief. She must also behave in a like pleasant manner towards him. Her Aunt would find it strange indeed if Tamsin set out to make him feel unwelcome. When they had Charles Stuart’s presence there to protect she must not behave in an unfriendly manner towards Adam.

Tamsin
held the parcel which she knew contained her father’s clothing. Her thoughts were racing pell-mell through her head. How could she keep her feelings for him secret from those around her? She dare not betray what she was thinking to anyone. Martha especially, who would be watching them both from now on.

D
id Adam already know that they had the heir to the throne staying under Treganna’s roof? It seemed that he had made it his business as Cromwell’s agent to spy on them. Had he already traced Prince Charles and his companions on the road there? Her presence there could surely not be the only reason surely for him to call at Treganna.

‘This is Philip Carey’s son, Adam, gentlemen. And a friend of my niece Tamsin,’ Aunt Phoebe introduced the young man to Oliver Lambton, and his friend, Lord Ellison. They looked him over carefully as he drank down a glass of wine with much pleasure in the parlour. ‘It would be a pleasure if you would dine here with us this evening and perhaps stay for a day or so longer. I think Tamsin would be vastly pleased with your company.’

Adam
, his eyes now wholly on Tamsin, smiled and said brightly ‘I promised to return something to your niece, Lady Phoebe. This has brought me here today. But I would be most delighted to stay a while longer in your company.’

Tamsin
intervened quickly, ‘I think that Master Carey cannot stay long. He has business to deal with further up country. Have you not, sir?’

Adam
reading the warning she held in her eyes smiled back at Tamsin, ‘Miss Trevenian is correct. I have indeed much to do up country, in Leicester, my lady. However, a day or so spent here in these beautiful surroundings I remember so well from childhood and in such good company will give me the opportunity to rest before I set off. I am sure I shall find it most agreeable.’

‘Have you heard that Charles Stuart has a price on his head of five thousand, Master Carey?’

He
looked suitably grave, nodded and said, ‘I have indeed, Lady Phoebe. I have heard only recently that her Majesty the Queen has attempted to leave the country for France. She has suffered much sickness after the loss of her husband in January and the recent birth of her daughter. Perhaps you have already heard. She too has been threatened with execution.’

Aunt
Phoebe, looking suitably alarmed, said, ‘Oh, dear me, sir! Things cannot be going at all well then for our cause. What’s to do? Shall we never see peace here again in our time, gentlemen?’

‘I
heard that your father, Sir Philip, was injured at Lansdown Hill, sir,’ Lord Lambton smiling intercepted the topic. ‘I trust that he fares better now. I was much perturbed to hear of it.’

‘As was I, sir. But he has since well recovered I’m glad to report.’

It
was obvious to Tamsin that Lord Lambton didn’t want his hostess to betray anything further in their conversation. He was right to be cautious, Tamsin thought. They had a viper in their midst waiting to strike if they did but know it. Adam’s bright green eyes as they met hers were cool and enigmatic; they betrayed little of his personal thoughts. Tamsin wished him anywhere else but there.

C
ould he read her thoughts as her cheeks were heightened with colour, she wondered, as their eyes met? Had he surmised already that these gentlemen were attempting to hide the whereabouts of their king’s eldest son? Or was she thinking only the worst of him?

Adam
smiled. ‘I will then accept your invitation with much pleasure, Lady Phoebe. My good mare can also do with a well deserved rest this night in your stables.’

‘She
shall go to the stables forthwith, Master Carey. You must partake of some refreshment and then if you like Tamsin shall take you for a turn around our gardens. They are especially beautiful this year as you can see for yourself. She would enjoy some young company I’m sure.’ Lady Phoebe tapped Tamsin’s arm lightly with her lace fan.

Tamsin
blushed but said nothing. She had little choice but to make him feel welcome. Although her aunt’s so obvious attempt at match making embarrassed Tamsin, it appeared to please Adam. Tamsin had little choice but to accept his presence there gracefully. She dare not invite his suspicions further.

It
was a most difficult position that she found herself placed in. There were now not one but two young men who wished to sleep in comparative safety under the Treganna roof that night.

After
Adam drank down another glass of wine with a dish of good cheese and fresh baked bread to accompany it, he took up her offer of a turn around the gardens with alacrity and a ready smile.

‘It
would give me great pleasure to take a turn with you in your beautiful gardens here, Tamsin, if Lady Phoebe will excuse us for a while. I would like to hear how your father is? I hope he is good health.’

Tamsin quickly vanquished his pleasure as they strolled through the rose covered walk in the small walled garden where they could walk unseen in the warm sunshine.

‘I
have little to say to you, sir. Except to ask you to make your stay here a short one, Master Carey. You must surely know that you put yourself in danger in this Royalist household. I shall warn Martha and Reuben to say nothing to the others but I cannot promise you that Martha will keep her silence for ever.’

She was determined to show no sign of weakening in her behaviour towards him. If he thought he could play havoc with her emotions he was much mistaken.

He
smiled and stayed silent for a while then shook his head and questioned her with amusement in his eyes. ‘Pray what troubles you, Tamsin? One would think that you did not wish me to see me as much as I have wished to see you?’ he said as they walked slowly round the enclosed kitchen garden and then out into the beautiful knot herb garden which her aunt had nurtured as her special treasure.

This
quiet place was not overlooked and offered them some good measure of privacy, he thought, studying her troubled face. Once again he wished he could kiss the fear and sadness away that he saw present in her eyes.

If
only she knew how much he prized these precious few moments he might spend on his own with her. The closer she was to him the harder it became not to take her up in his arms and to ravish her with kisses till she became his alone in this garden with no eyes to see. He knew that these desires that possessed him were not the true faithful love this young girl should receive from him.
But I will court you my beloved until I make you mine in our marriage bed
, he declared silently as he looked into her eyes.

‘Have
you nothing to say to me now that we’re quite alone, Tamsin Trevenian?’ He asked her. ‘Have you not missed me as much as I have you? I swear by all that I hold dear that you have left me bereft and heart sick since we last met.’

She
felt her cheeks burning like fire. Could he read her thoughts?

‘Why
have you come here, Adam?’ Tamsin accused him immediately, anger sparkling in her bright eyes. ‘Do you wish to put your head in the hangman’s noose? You would be hanged at the gibbet at Illogen crossroads like a common highway man if I were to give you away today. There would be no tears shed here for you. I can assure you of that.’

Once
they were uttered she wished she had not used these spiteful words. He was bringing out all her fears into the open.

‘I
could say perhaps that I had a fancy to see you again, dear heart,’ he said as he casually picked a sprig of flowering lavender. ‘Perhaps I could not possibly stay away any longer from you.’ He smiled. ‘Any more than you can wish me entirely out of your life, Tamsin.’

‘Perhaps
you lie. They come so easily to you. It’s part and parcel of your secret life.’ She sighed. ‘You should not be here, sir. You should leave Treganna immediately. You know that I could send word to those in charge at the Helford Fort. You would be taken prisoner.’

‘You
could do all these things if you really wished it,’ he said, ‘but do you really wish to do so?’

‘I have only to tell Edward Whittle about you. What work you do for the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell,’ she continued scathingly. ‘There would be men here instantly to take you prisoner if I so wished. Was the five thousand pounds reward offered for Charles Stuart your suggestion?’

‘It
was not. That was no one else but Oliver Cromwell. Why must you think so badly of me?’

T
hen he threw his head back and his bold laughter rang out and echoed through the walled garden they were standing in as she frowned back at him.

‘Can I tell you what I wish more than anything else in the strange and frightening world that we’re living in now? I wish we alone were in it together and we could make our vows in Treganna Chapel behind those trees with our parents and family blessing to be joined together as man and wife and I could show you how I really honestly feel about you and you alone Tamsin Trevenian.

‘I
love and adore you and I tell you this again - you do not believe me but I shall prove it to you even though you continue to say that you will give me up. But you will not do it. That is not your intention, is it, Tamsin? Or else you would have betrayed me earlier to Lord Lambton and his friend.’

She
shook her head. ‘I don’t know what I believe now. I couldn’t betray you when I first found you. I just want you to leave Treganna as soon as possible. Then and only then I can try to forget you.’ She couldn’t truthfully answer him lest she betrayed that she was attempting to hide the presence of the young heir to the throne.

He
wasn’t going to make it easy for her. How could she tell him what her true feelings for him were. She didn’t know, she was so mixed up. He had told her he wanted her to marry him. He had proposed to her in so many words and because she knew he meant more to her than he should she lied to hide her true feelings from him.

‘Is
there something else that you wish to keep hidden from my eyes?’

She
gasped and was dismayed, had he read her mind so easily?

H
e continued in the same vein. ‘My father has wisely not spoken to anyone outside the family about my sins so I am safe for the moment. And I think that you will not betray me here and now because it will lead to your own confession of complicity in my escape, Tamsin Trevenian.’ He still teased her with laughter ill concealed in his eyes .

Tamsin
shook her head and stamped her foot into the aromatic green thyme filling up the cracks in the stone pathway beneath their feet.

‘I
cannot believe, sir, that your visit here is entirely innocent. Tell me now what is really your business here at Treganna?’

He
shook his head. ‘I came here to return those garments that your father loaned me most kindly. Without them and your help I doubt I could have made my escape so easily.’

‘Lies
trip off your tongue so easily, sir.’

He smiled back at her equably and shrugged. ’Believe what you will young lady. I am here as your Aunt’s guest. And I mean no harm to the Trevenians.’

‘You
returned my father’s clothes but you have another good reason for coming here. I am sure of it. Perhaps you would like to tell me what it is?’

He
shrugged and mischief danced a jig in his green eyes as he listened to her homily with the smile still on his handsome face. Would nothing she said ever disturb him?

‘I
am keeping nothing from you,’ he said. ‘You have my word on it, dear heart.’

She blushed. She still could not control her feelings from him. She was sure that he knew this.

‘Then I warn you here and now, sir, that you’d best keep out of Reuben’s way. He will be watching you. If you mean to bring harm to any of us he would not be content to ignore your presence here. You are our virtually our enemy and you cannot deny this, Adam Carey.’

He
answered her then with a wry smile. ‘If you say so, Tamsin Trevenian. One day after you marry me in the Treganna Chapel you will be given good cause to question what you say to me now.’

She
faced him bravely, her small chin raised stubbornly. Only she knew that her stomach was fluttering and churning with the extreme anxiety she was feeling at this moment. Only she knew that she cared as much at this moment for his safety as she did for Charles Stuart, but he could soon realise that there was more to this fraught encounter than her desire to be rid of him. She must be careful from now onwards how she behaved in his company at Treganna. She must not feed his suspicions.

Let
him believe that she did not care enough about him to save him from danger. She had made no secret of how she regarded him. Let him still believe she wanted him gone from her life entirely. This she told him, ‘I hope I’ll live to remind you that I wish you gone from here and from my life, Adam Carey. Now…’