Tempted (32 page)

“Reeling drunk? I haven’t had a drop,” he swore.

“Then your behavior is inexcusable!” she cried angrily, taking full advantage now she had him on the defensive.

“Christ, Firebrand, I can’t win with ye!” She struggled from his arms and slipped on her bedgown. “Have you only just realized that, Douglas? When we get to court, I shall tell the king it is finished between you and me.”

“Aren’t ye forgetting the child?” he asked suspiciously

“Not for a moment. There’s no way I’ll carry a brat of yours I’ll dose myself with smut of rye!”

He towered above her, not daring to raise his hand, for he knew if he did, he might strike her dead. With a murderous rage almost choking him, he went to the door and bellowed, “Ada!”

It was like a battle cry, and within a minute her women came running. In a deceptively quiet voice he said, “We do not go to court. We go to Douglas. Guard her well. If she aborts the child she carries, I won’t be responsible for my actions”

Before he slammed the door, Nell lay in a swoon. “Tina, what in God’s name are you playing at?” Ada demanded.

“I think I’m having a baby,” said Tina.

“And you don’t want it? Tina, I’m ashamed of you! No wonder Lord Douglas is furious.”

“I told him I’d dose myself with smut of rye, but it was just to hurt him.”

“Damn it all, you have a love of havoc! I think it’s time you grew up. If you’d take a look about you, you’d see he keeps you in the lap of luxury.”

Tina saw the silk-covered walls, saw the painted ceiling, and saw the boxes in the corner of the room that held new gowns and furs. “You have no idea what he’s like!” cried Tina. “He rules with an iron fist. He’s not satisfied with anything less than total domination!”

“Don’t you realize he has to take a firm hand with you? You are so willful, you would ride roughshod over a man who was soft with you.”

Tina was stricken that for once Ada was not her champion. She bit her lip and said quietly, “Let’s get Nell on the bed, poor little mouse.”

Ram set such a careful pace on the ride to Douglas, it took five hours before Castle Dangerous came into view. Tina knew he could have made it in under two hours on a hard gallop. He had insisted she wear the sable cloak to keep out the chill autumn winds, and before they were halfway there, she was most thankful for the fur’s warmth.

She had glanced at him only once and saw that his face had that dark, closed, forbidding look that told her a black devil rode upon his shoulder.

The spirit of Damaris hovering at a high window was elated to see Valentina ride in safe and sound. She had not ventured from her chamber in days, but now she glided down to the entrance hall, making sure she left Folly in the room because she could already hear the excited commotion the Boozer was making now Ramsay had returned. Tina was the first one through the door, and the Boozer stood with his paws on her shoulders to lick her face.

“Down!” The grim command that fell from Ram’s lips immediately told Damaris things were not going well between this man and this woman. Damaris stiffened as she sensed Alexander at her shoulder. “Lovers’ quarrel,” he whispered into her ear. Why were men so insensitive? She glided away from him, pretending he wasn’t there. Alexander took absolutely no notice of the snub. He followed her
and pulled a tress of golden hair. Damaris snatched it from his fingers and turned her back upon him. “I dinna ken why ye are so worried for Valentina—she can certainly hold her own against Ram,” he said.

“Even he won’t resort to rape here in the hall. It’s what he’ll do in the privacy of their bedchamber that I’m waiting to see,” she hissed.

“Voyeur,” Alex teased. “Perhaps I’ll watch also. Might give me a few ideas.”

“You need no lewd lessons from Ram Douglas, you devil!”

“Ah, ye do remember, then?” He grinned.

“Why did I ever begin talking to you again?” she asked with exasperation.

“Because ye enjoy the intercourse!” he chortled.

Damaris departed.

Tina said to Ada, “Have the servants take my luggage to Damaris’s chamber.”

Ramsay did not countermand her words He told the steward he had brought sixty Douglas men with him, then went into the dining hall to see which of his Douglas cousins was in residence.

Ada and Tina dined upstairs, then Tina’s bath was prepared for her As she stepped into the tub, she smoothed her hands down her belly. “The child doesn’t show yet— perhaps I am mistaken.”

“How long since your woman’s time?” asked Ada.

Tina hesitated to put it into words, then she lifted a careless shoulder. “To tell you true, I haven’t bled since the hand-fasting.”

“Three months!” Ada counted.

Damaris couldn’t contain her delight. “Oh how marvelous—you must be overjoyed!”

Tina said, “I’m certainly not overjoyed about this child, Ada. I wish to God I hadn’t conceived so quickly.”

Damaris was stunned. “Tina, how can you possibly feel this way? My tragedy wasn’t just that I died, but that I died
before I had time to have a child. If I had left behind a son or a daughter who I could watch grow up, my demise wouldn’t even matter. The longing and yearning for a child that you know can never be almost devours your soul. For over fifteen years I’ve hungered, and now you will have the child I could not have.”

Tina looked up and blinked back tears. “The damndest part is, I already love it.”

Damaris closed her eyes and let out a long sigh.

Ada held out the towel she had warmed at the fire. “Of course you do, and one day you’ll be damned thankful his father is so much man.”

As Tina sank into the soft bed she said, “I’m weary. I wish Mr. Burque were here. I have a craving for hippocras, and he has a secret recipe for the stuff.”

Dawn saw the return of Gavin Douglas deeply tanned from his sojourn aboard the
Caprice
, now renamed the
Revenge

“Ye didn’t anchor at Leith, I trust?” asked Ram.

“Give me credit fer some brains! She’s well hidden at Bo’Ness. We just had tae ride directly south.”

“Henry Tudor has offered a reward of a thousand pounds per annum for the capture of Lord Vengeance.”

“Christ, I’ll turn him in myself!” laughed Gavin.

Ram said dryly, “My exact words tae the king. Joking aside, if yer captured, they’ll hang ye for piracy. Yer every bit as much Lord Vengeance as I am.”

“The English vessels stay well out in the North Sea, but we sank a couple skulking on the far side of the Isle of May.”

“When ye raid, stay clear of Berwick,” Ram warned. “The English have troops garrisoned there.”

Gavin’s mouth became hard. “Coldstream and Kelso have been devastated. All the fine autumn harvests are now just charred fields.”

“Did ye replace their winter fodder?” Ram asked.

“Aye, we went clear down tae the Tyne and raided all along its fertile banks.” He grinned.

“Did Drummond captain one of Angus’s ships?”

Gavin nodded. “Ian also, an’ Jamie’s almost ready tae command a ship. It seems tae come naturally.”

“Douglas blood is in reality salt water,” Ram confided.

“What about our little brother Cameron? Dinna ye think it’s time ye let him out of leadin’ strings?”

“He’s got all the responsibility he can handle at the moment. I left him in the borders in charge of a score of mosstroopers.”

Gavin whistled, feeling slightly envious. Ram guessed his thoughts. “Be satisfied, man—ye can’t do both.”

“You seem to manage it,” Gavin said dryly.

Tina found that if she lay quietly for half an hour after she awoke, the nausea receded. When she surveyed herself in the mirror, she realized that pregnancy had given her radiance. Her hair crackled with a life of its own, curling madly about a face that fairly glowed with good health. Her breasts were definitely larger, giving her body a ripe, sensual allure.

When her thoughts strayed to Ram Douglas, she knew she enjoyed their personality clashes, their shouting matches, and their blazing quarrels as much as she enjoyed their sexual jousts. He was a worthy enemy. She did not regret anything that had passed between them—not one word, not one look

She dismissed Ram from her thoughts, eager to take the lap desk she had brought up to Mad Malcolm.

Jenna had just bathed him, and he was in a feisty mood, but when Malcolm saw Valentina and the present she had brought him, his eyes lit with pleasure. He waited with a suppressed air of secrecy until Jenna departed, then pulled his writing sheets from beneath the mattress and laid them out on the desk top.

Tina was pleasantly surprised that the room was not littered
with wine and whisky decanters, and for once Malcolm was not reeling drunk. She showed him the clever mechanism that revealed the secret drawer, and he grasped its workings immediately “Yer the answer tae a prayer, lass” He carefully placed some pages he had selected into the secret drawer, and when he pressed the ornate carving, they were concealed as if they had disappeared into thin air “I’m almost finished the grisly history of Castle Dangerous,” he confided “Has
he
returned?”

“Who?” asked Tina.

“The poisoner?” he said low. “Alex! No, not Alex—I get them mixed up. The other dark one.”

“Do ye mean me, Malcolm?” asked Gavin, coming in and hearing his last sentence

“Ram?” asked Malcolm, peering up at him suspiciously

“Now I am insulted,” laughed Gavin “Ram’s the ugly one”

Tina bestowed a dazzling smile upon the handsome young Douglas “How thoughtful of you to visit him”

“What rubbish! I was looking for you, lass I’m only here for a day”

The old man chuckled “Women ha’ been the downfall o’ every Douglas since the first earl’s wife ran off wi’ her groom It’s all in my history, ye ken,” he said, tapping the desk.

Tina knew Gavin was most likely looking for Jenna if he was here for only a day. “You’ve just missed her I think she went down to the hall” They left Malcolm to his writing, and as they descended the stairs, Gavin said, “I wager ye canna read Ramsay as easily as ye read me.”

“No, I’m aware of only half his foibles,” she said lightly. “I’d appreciate it if you’d ask Jenna to keep the wine and whisky away from Malcolm.”

Ram overheard her “ ‘Tis the only pleasure the poor old sod gets. Let him have his drink,” he said, overruling her.

“Excuse me,” Tina murmured to Gavin Then she deliberately
turned her back upon Ram and remounted the stairs.

Gavin looked at Ram. “Brr—fire an’ ice. I’d ha’ thought ye’d ha’ melted her by now. Why dinna ye give her a bairn? There’s naught mellows a woman like motherhood, they say.”

“Mind yer own damn business,” snapped Ram. A hundred things needed his attention before he could return to the decks of the
Revenge
, which he’d instructed Jock to conceal at the mouth of the River Doon. Though Douglas had close to a hundred stockmen and tenant farmers to look after their herds of cattle and vast flocks of sheep, they took their orders from Ram Douglas regarding the numbers to take to market or to slaughter. Carrying too many animals through the winter could prove most unprofitable when Douglas wealth was measured in land and livestock. There were still many fields to harvest of their clover and oat crops, and the sky threatened a downpour that could last a week once it started.

In the bailey Ram glanced at the clouds and decided to put his men-at-arms into the fields. There was nothing like scything crops to tone the muscles. He saw Tina go into the stables and decided to forbid her to go off on one of her wild rides. He followed her inside and said to the groom saddling Indigo, “The mare won’t be leaving her stall today. She’s with foal.”

Tina swung about, eyes blazing. How dare he trumpet her condition about the stables and allude to her as if she were a broodmare?

As their eyes locked in combat, he thought her the loveliest woman breathing. He’d lay burning for her all night, and all she wanted was to be free of him. He almost pulled her into his arms and lifted her against his heart, before his resolve hardened. He’d made a monumental mistake with this woman, baring his heart to her, allowing her to see how vulnerable she made him.

Suddenly Tina realized he’d been referring to Indigo
and not to her at all She bit back her insolent words The atmosphere of the stables with its scent of hay and horseflesh was arousing to their senses. The lovely mare had been impregnated by his stallion Ruffian, and they were both aware of the analogy Desire raged in him to take her on the spot, and he battled with his emotions to regain iron control over himself.

Tina could feel his powerful arms about her, taste his hot mouth on hers The corners of her lips lifted as she realized her power over him, and she swayed toward him.

He saw her look of triumph and stepped back from her She hesitated, then murmured the double entendre, “I promise to ride with care.”

“I’m not concerned with yer miserable carcass—‘tis the mare I value”

His words cut her to the heart, and she ran from the stables before he saw the tears spring to her eyes.

In the early afternoon, Colin and Mr Burque arrived. Tina was glad Colin was back at Castle Dangerous His lack of temperament was soothing—he somehow acted as a buffer between his lordship and herself.

“Yer prettier than ever,” he said softly “My painting doesna do ye justice”

“Is it finished?” she asked hopefully.

“Not quite I beg ye’ll be patient a wee while longer”

Tina and Ada went down to the kitchens to welcome Mr Burque’s return. Tina was quite amused to see that all the kitchen and scullery maids had appeared on one pretext or another and blushed or giggled whenever the handsome Frenchman glanced in their direction

“Darling Mr Burque, I don’t know how I survived without you,” said Tina, perching on a high kitchen stool.

“Nor I,” drawled Ada with a wink, and it was Mr Burque’s turn to blush

“What do you fancy for dinner, chérie? It will be my pleasure to prepare anything you desire”

“Coq au vin,” said Ada, rolling her eyes and licking her lips.

“Shameless hussy!” Tina said, trying to keep a straight face. “I have a craving for hippocras. Would you give Ada your secret recipe so she can make it for me when you are absent?”

“The recipe is simple; sweet red wine, cloves, lemon rind, ginger, and cinnamon. The secret is one of ritual. It must be heated in a caldron and served in a chalice. I shall make some for you tonight.”

Ram and his men worked against the elements to harvest the fields. A cold wind blew in from the sea, numbing their limbs, but they worked on, knowing that when the wind dropped, the drenching rain would start. The deluge didn’t come until eight o’clock, and by that time they had scythed and gathered in twenty fields. They stacked it in the sheds, managing to keep it dry, but they themselves were soaked to the skin and more than ready for the blazing fire and hot meal awaiting them in the hall.

Colin and Gavin sat with Tina before the fire, listening to her pluck out a hauntingly beautiful Scots lament upon her lute. The hall had been empty except for a handful of servers It quickly filled with dripping-wet men who were frozen to the bone. They jostled and cursed each other heartily and called for whisky.