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 t
o 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.
Ram came toward the fire just as a page handed Tina a steaming chalice. “My lady, here is the secret brew ye bade Mr. Burque prepare,” he piped. A look of alarm crossed Ram’s face, and he knocked the chalice from her hand into the fireplace “Flaming vixen!”
She stared at him in disbelief, her cheeks suffused with embarrassment. Colin immediately retrieved her chalice, while Gavin slipped a protective arm about her shoulders. “‘Twas only hippocras!” she said with stiff lips. “I hate you,” she breathed.
Ram felt the sympathetic looks the two men gave her like a twist in the gut. “Seek yer room,” he ordered.
Like a prideful cat she threw him a look of utter contempt from her golden eyes, then walked from the hall like a queen.
Gavin clenched his fists, holding himself back from smashing his brother in the face. Finally he said, “I think I’d better be on ma way; the weather isn’t likely tae clear even if I wait ‘til mornin’.”
Tina went straight to the kitchens, where Mr. Burque warmed more hippocras for her. She took it upstairs, but perversely the last place she wished to go was her room. As she passed Colin’s chamber, she remembered all the sketches he’d made of her that he’d refused to show her, and her curiosity got the better of her. She was in a reckless mood, and invading Colin’s sanctuary was a challenge she couldn’t resist.
His chamber was exceedingly untidy, a thing she would never have imagined. There were easels, canvases, paints, and charcoal everywhere. There were stacks and stacks of sketches, some piled neatly and some scattered about until the floor was littered with his creations. As she bent to look at them, she saw they were all of naked women. Her eyes widened. Drawings of naked women did not exactly shock her—it was just that there were sketches of nothing else. She lifted a stack in the corner, yellow with age, and gasped as she recognized the unmistakable face of Damaris. “Omigod, if she posed for Colin—if she was unfaithful with Alexander’s own brother, no wonder he killed her.” She must show Ada. She slipped one of the drawings from the pile, blushed at the erotic pose, and quickly rolled it up. She was almost at the door when a painting sitting on an easel caught her eye. She drew closer, not quite believing that she stared herself in the face.
She lay stark naked in the purple heather, her arms stretched out to some imaginary lover, her face just as it must be when Ram was about to take her. The full, high creamy breasts were hers exactly, the flaming glory of her hair unmistakable, the fiery triangle of curls arched to lure her lover. Anyone who saw it would stake their life that she had posed for it. She fled from the room before the walls closed in on her. The smell of linseed in her nostrils made her want to retch.
Damaris’s chamber had been fitted with a new door, but there was no lock on it, and Tina felt vulnerable. She sat down on shaky legs and spread the sketch of Damaris across the bed.
Damaris arose from the window seat to see what Tina examined. Shock at what she saw almost felled her. “Oh, no!” she gasped. “Alexander spoke the truth!” The quarrel she had had with her beloved husband over fifteen long years ago was as vivid as if it had happened yesterday. She remembered every accusation, every angry word, the ugliness, the betrayal, the hurt, the pain, the tears, the lingering death, the screams, the silence. Damaris returned to the window seat oblivious to her present surroundings. She was drifting back, lost in a reverie.
Tina went to the fireplace for another look at the portrait of her beautiful aunt. Her fingers traced the delicate features, the lovely blond tendrils of hair, the sweet vulnerable mouth She somehow felt the young woman’s innocence through the contact of her fingers upon the haunting face. Tina’s mind flew back down the years. In her mind’s eye she saw Damaris out upon the moors with Colin, just as she herself had been. She distantly heard their words, their laughter, and she knew the girl had posed innocently, unaware of the dark longings of the man who was sketching her. Tina jumped as Ada spoke to her: “Oh, Ada—I didn’t hear you come in.”
She saw Tina pale and trembling. “Are you all right?”
“Yes … no—oh Ada, whatever do you make of this sketch I found in Colin’s chamber?”
A look of comprehension came into Ada’s face as she looked at the erotic drawing. “Damaris and Colin were lovers,” she breathed.
“No! No, they were not!” Tina said sharply.
“Tina, don’t be naive—the evidence speaks for itself,” Ada said.
“You are wrong,” Tina insisted. “He’s done a nude painting of me that is far more erotic than this! His room is filled with drawings of naked women.”
“Colin?” asked Ada with disbelief. “He must be as twisted as his body. What if Ram sees it?”
“If Ram sees it, he will be convinced I posed for it. He will think me whore. He once said all Kennedy women are whores.”
“You must get the painting and destroy it. Come, we’ll go to his chamber now.” The two women hurried to the west wing of the castle, but Colin’s door was locked fast. Ada lifted her fist to bang upon it, but Tina grabbed her arm and pulled her away. She whispered, “I don’t want a confrontation with him, Ada. I’d die if anyone saw the painting. It must be done in secret. I’ll get it tomorrow, when he leaves his chamber.” Ada nodded, and they slipped quietly back to Damaris’s room.
In the morning when Ada reported that Colin had gone down to the hall for breakfast, Tina hurried to his chamber. She was appalled to find the painting gone from the easel. In its place stood a half-finished painting of her in the gown she had worn that day, her hair blowing prettily in the breeze of the moors. Though she searched frantically, she could find no trace of the nude portrait. She was certain of only one thing: She had not imagined the erotic painting.
A finger of apprehension touched her. There was something indefinably sinister in the very air today. Castle Dangerous … Castle Dangerous. A shudder ran down her spine as the two ominous words repeated themselves in her brain. When she told Ada the painting had been replaced by a respectable one and that the nude had disappeared, Ada seemed to look at her oddly, as if she had been letting her imagination run away with her.
Tina could not throw off her mood of apprehension. It was as if the day had a foreshadowing of disaster. What if Ramsay had already seen the painting? He might deny
the child she carried was even his. He had spoken to her so cruelly in the stables. What were his words? “I’m not concerned with yer miserable carcass.” Nay, she told herself, if he’d seen the painting, he would have said more than that. He would have slapped her senseless She hoped and prayed he would leave today. She needed time to locate the damning portrait and learn more about Colin. She decided to go down and talk to Gavin. Perhaps he knew something of Colin’s dark side. When she learned that Gavin was long gone, however, she felt almost afraid.
Today the downpour had eased to a drizzle as fine as mist. Ram set the men to sharpening their weapons and repairing the harnesses. He knew he must leave on the morrow, yet he wondered how he could leave Tina when things were so bad between them. He had been a fool to knock the hippocras from her hand. If he loved her, he must trust her. It was as simple as that. In the borders at Castle Douglas, things had been so good between them. He remembered the night the Gypsies came and how they had made love. He wanted it to be that way again between them. How had the rift happened? They were like strangers, not even communicating anymore. It was ridiculous and could not be allowed to continue.
He should be the happiest man on earth now that he had filled her with his child. Tonight he would set things right between them. He would love her and give her the emeralds. He closed his eyes as his shaft filled. Just thinking of her aroused him. He allowed himself the indulgence of remembering how she felt when he was buried deep inside her, and he went weak at the knees. They had been so hot, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. He could taste her mouth and her other lips between her lovely legs, and she had tasted him, making his gut melt. He stood in the bailey gazing up at her window, oblivious to the soaking drizzle that penetrated every layer of his clothing.
Tina felt utterly forlorn. Perhaps she should go to Ram and tell him what Colin had done. Suddenly she didn’t want him to think badly of her She wanted to be special in his eyes. She wanted him to love her! Why, why did she want him to love her? They were sworn enemies. She had vowed to take revenge for the insults he’d offered the Kennedys. But that wasn’t me, she told herself, that was a spoiled, willful girl. I’m a woman now, with a woman’s maturity, a woman’s needs. Soon I’ll be a mother, responsible for a child, his child. Dear God, how had things come to such a pass? He had loved her, loved her enough to want to marry her, and she’d scorned him and run off. Even then he’d given her another chance, brought her back. She had killed any love he’d had for her when she had repudiated his child. Now he had a disgust of her and likely wanted to be rid of her.