Tina shook her head.
“Why don’t you have a piece of fruit?” Ada urged.
Tina selected a pear and took a few bites. “I should be grateful. I suppose my evening was an unqualified success. I was finally presented to the king, who read the letter in exchange for my allowing him to paw me.”
Ada could hear the disquiet in her voice.
“Ada, I’m so afraid Henry wants me—and what Henry wants, Henry gets. He strutted before me like a bull in heat. He put on a display of wrestling and sweated like a Pig.”
“Which is it, bull or pig?” Ada smiled, hoping to lighten her mood.
“I think he can be convinced that Ramsey isn’t Lord Vengeance, but he isn’t about to let a powerful Douglas out of his clutches.”
“Oh, darling, you’ve done wonders. At least you’ve removed the threat of the noose from about Ram’s neck.”
“Perhaps.” Tina sighed. “The trouble is, if I call the tune, I have to be prepared to pay the piper.”
Ada shrugged philosophically. “It’s a man’s world, love. All favors must be paid for, but in my experience you never miss a slice off a cut loaf.” Ada gave her a warning. “Ram would kill you if he found out, so never let him know.”
“He would hate me forever,” said Tina sadly. “I would hate myself forever.”
“If you’re clever, he’ll never know,” Ada insisted
But I’ll know, thought Tina.
“Let me hang up your gown,” said Ada, helping her remove the black and silver dress. Then she pushed a stool beneath Tina’s feet so she could rest before the fire.
As Tina gazed into the flames, she fell into a reverie. She could see Ram with the children of Ochiltree. His tenderness had quite undone her. More than anything, she longed to give him a child of his own to love. Gradually her eyes closed, and her head fell to the chair arm as sleep claimed her. Ada left her before the fire, clad only in her black shift, and sought her trundle bed in the dressing room.
Tina opened her eyes and blinked. Someone was knocking on the chamber door. With her hand upon the latch, she asked, “Who is there?”
“‘Tis I, my dear, Lord Howard. We had no chance to speak privately with the eyes of the king and court upon us.”
Tina needed a favor from this man, and Providence had sent him. There was no way she was going to refuse him admittance because she was clad only in her shift. She wondered what hour it was and how long she had been asleep. She lifted the latch and looked about for a bedgown, but Ada must have retired without laying one out for her.
“Please excuse my state of undress, Lord Howard. I must beg a favor from you.”
He raised her hand to his lips in a gallant gesture. “My dear, I will do anything that is within my power. You know full well how fond I am of you.”
A small warning bell went off in Tina’s head, so she put distance between them before she asked her favor. “Fear for Lord Douglas brought me all the way from Scotland. I am sick with worry for him. Please write me a pass so that I may visit him in the tower. The king assured me you would help me, dearest Lord Howard.”
“It gives me the deepest pleasure to give you what you ask, Lady Valentina. In return, I know you will be more than generous with me.”
Tina caught her breath. Dear God, here was another expecting sexual favors! Was this always the currency between men and women? Howard closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms. His mouth covered hers insistently, and he pressed her close so that she would know how hard her softly curved body made him.
Tina pulled her mouth from his. “My lord, the pass!” When he had written the paper she wanted, she planned to tell him her brother was asleep in the next room.
Keeping hold of her hand, he moved to the desk and picked up a quill. He smiled at her. “You are no longer the green little virgin I knew in Edinburgh.” He folded the paper and tucked it playfully between her breasts. “Come, give me all your sweetness now.” One arm went about her back, the other under her knees as he swept her up into his arms and carried her to the bed.
He was so much stronger than she, fear washed over her. She sobbed, “Lord Howard, how dare you force me against my will! My brother will kill you for this, sir!”
A panel of golden oak slid open to reveal the massive figure of Henry Tudor in an ermine bedrobe. Howard’s mouth fell open. He knew immediately he had made a stupid tactical blunder. Flaming Tina had been in a state of undress because she was expecting the king! She occupied these rooms beneath Henry’s only because there was a secret, inner staircase connecting the two apartments.
Henry’s mouth pursed tightly. “Is this the way you use a lady to whom I have promised aid and protection?” he thundered in outrage.
Tina was alarmed at the compromising situation in which she found herself. Henry Tudor was so unpredictable, he could order them both to the tower on a whim.
“I am shocked at your licentious behavior, Surrey. No gentleman of my court forces himself upon a lady. Can you not see the child is distraught?” he demanded. “I take great pains to set the moral tone of my court, and then something like this happens to destroy it!”
Tina could hardly believe her ears Henry Tudor was the biggest hypocrite she’d ever heard, yet he actually seemed to believe his own prim words at this moment “Leave us, and report to me in the morning. I begin to question my decision to put you in charge of the military.”
Surrey bowed stiffly. “I shall leave at once, Your Majesty. I assure you, my interest in Lady Kennedy is a fatherly one.”
By now Ada was awake and listening at the other door. She heard Lord Howard depart and knew Tina was now alone with the king. There was nothing she could do. It would be more than her life was worth to intervene between a king and his pleasure. Tina Kennedy was all woman. She would know how to handle Henry Tudor.
Valentina saw the king through a blur of tears. Her lips trembled uncontrollably and Henry sat down and gathered her into his lap. “There, there, sweeting—you are safe now,” he said, patting her in a bluff, paternal manner. He dandled her upon his great knee, as if she were a child who had fallen and skinned her elbow. “Come, poppet, dry your eyes.” He fumbled for a handkerchief, and at last produced it like a rabbit from a hat. “There!” He dabbed gently at her face.
“Orris root,” said Tina, blinking at him owlishly, between hiccups.
“That’s right, sweeting. What a clever girl you are. Mmm, you smell of freesia, a most delicate perfume.”
Tina was amazed. Apparently Henry was in a mood to play “daddy and little girl.” He gave her two quick buzzes on the lips. “There, my kisses have made it all better,” he said.
She was terrified for what might come next, so she looked at him with wide, innocent eyes. “Thank you, sire,” she whispered. “My brother is asleep in the next room. If he had awakened and found Lord Howard here when I was undressed, he would have run his sword through the man.”
The king put his finger to his lips, then to hers. “Hush, sweeting. We don’t want to awaken him. I’ll just tuck you safely into bed and warn you to keep your chamber door locked in future.”
He lifted her and carried her to the bed, but before he put her down upon it, he ran his hand across her breasts in a caress. He put his mouth upon hers and forced it open to admit his tongue. He whispered against her mouth, “Tomorrow evening you will sit with me while we enjoy the Gypsy entertainers. Then you will open your pretty thighs for me, while I give you a loving you will never forget.”
Henry enjoyed the anticipation almost as much as the act. The moment when a lady first saw his great size always delighted him, and even though a lady had had previous sexual encounters, it was like being deflowered a second time. He always managed to draw blood when he stretched a lady’s sheath with his great sword of state.
Chapter 34
When the king had gone, Tina turned her face into her pillow and cried herself to sleep. The strange nightmares began almost immediately. She
stood in a tiny wisp of a shift trying to conceal her breasts with her flaming cloak of hair. Before her stretched an endless line of men. Her father passed her to Patrick Hamilton; he pushed her into James Stewart’s arms, who in turn passed her on to Angus. At the very end of the line, she saw Black Ram Douglas waiting for her.
The only way she could get to Ram was through the other men. Angus passed her to a dark Douglas servant; the servant handed her to the steward; the steward to the chamberlain; the chamberlain pushed her toward the chancellor. Now only two men stood between her and her goal —Lord Howard and Henry Tudor.
As she passed from the chancellor’s hands to Lord Howard, she glanced down the line to Hotspur Douglas, and suddenly she realized he was waiting to kill her. If she went to Douglas from the king’s arms, he would destroy her. She cried out in her sleep and opened her eyes, but she was still dreaming. Again there was a line of men. This time each held out a cup from which she must drink. She trusted none of them. With fear almost choking her, she drank from her brother David’s cup, then from Gavin and Cameron Douglas’s cups. Next came the cousins Ian, Drummond, and Jamie, followed by Colin who was even more grotesquely crippled than in real life. Then she knew she must drink from Mad Malcolm’s cup because it was the only way to reach Ram. Finally she reached her goal and lifted Ramsay’s cup to her lips. She drank it calmly, obediently, knowing he had given her poison. She drew her knees up to her belly in her sleep and cried out in agony. She opened her eyes, but she was still dreaming. Heath was there, but somehow he had red hair like her other brothers, and she began to laugh hysterically.
Heath shook her. “Stop, Tina—it’s Heath.”
She looked at him in amazement. “Oh, God—I thought you were part of my nightmare! What are you doing with red hair?”
“It’s a wig. None would believe I’m a Kennedy without red hair. Did you get the pass?”
“Yes, yes, I got it. Where the devil is it?” For a minute or two she couldn’t remember, then she shoved a frantic hand down her shift and drew out the precious paper. Suddenly she started to shiver. “Oh, Heath, I hate this place. It’s a nightmare sleeping or awake. I’ll never, never get to him.”
“Here’s Ada with some hot tea. I want you to dress warmly. We’re going on the river.”
“The river?” she questioned, warming her hands on the cup.
“It looks like this,” Heath said, drawing an imaginary line across the bedcovers. “Here’s the river with the wharf running parallel. We take a barge to this spot on the wharf. We cross Traitor’s Bridge, then Traitor’s Gate leads into St. Thomas’s Tower, which takes you across the moat and immediately on the other side is the Bloody Tower, which is part of the inner curtain wall.”
“Must we go through Traitor’s Gate to get to him?” she asked with a shudder. “I didn’t betray him, even though he believes I did.”
“Tina, pull yourself together. Think of it as another adventure we are about to embark upon.” He shoved a linen napkin at her. “Eat!”
She wrinkled her nose and asked cautiously, “What is it?”
“Christ, you’d think it was a bloody hedgehog I was offering you. It’s oat cakes, plain and simple oat cakes.”
She ate them obediently and finished the hot tea.
“Do you feel better?” asked Ada.
“No,” Tina said in a forlorn voice.
“Don’t tell me all your guts have deserted you,” goaded Heath. “Smile, pinch your cheeks to put some color in them. If Ram sees you like this, he’ll think he’s received a death sentence.”
Tina threw back the covers and sprang from the bed. “Ada, give me something lovely to wear.” What a gutless creature she was! All she had to do was hold her nose and give Henry Tudor access to her body. If she couldn’t charm that gross mountain of flesh into freeing Ram, she wasn’t much of a woman.
Ada brought the peach-colored gown with the pleated bodice and stomacher, and Heath opened the wardrobe and took out the luxurious sable cloak. “Do it with panache,” he murmured, and she threw her arms about him in a rush of love. She was far more attuned to this half-brother than to her full brothers.
Tina was never more thankful in her life for Heath’s support than she was this overcast morning as they stepped from the barge onto the Tower Wharf. A reckless mood had seized her as they sailed down the Thames, but as the White Tower of London loomed before her, her knees turned to butter, and her heart turned over in her breast. She didn’t know which daunted her more: the forbidding fortress, or the thought of facing the accusing eyes of Black Ram Douglas.
She was somehow surprised that the paper signed by Surrey got them through Traitor’s Gate. She was even more amazed when it gained them entrance to the Bloody Tower. The guard took them past three other cells before coming to a stop before the barred door of the fourth. The tower guard in his military uniform gave them specific instructions before he unlocked the door. “I will lock you in with the prisoner. Call out when you wish to leave.”
The Kennedys nodded in agreement, and the turnkey did his job.
When Ramsay saw Valentina he wasn’t sure if he wanted to kiss her or kill her. A great wave of love went out to her for risking her life to save his, but at the same time he wanted to take hold of her and shake some sense into her. She was so reckless, so heedless of her own danger, it terrified him. Just the sight of her confirmed his powerful response to her. His heart was racing wildly, and his blood was singing just being in the same enclosed space together. If this woman believed in him, there was nothing he couldn’t do.
Tina’s heart was in her mouth as she carefully looked him over from head to toe to see if he had been permanently injured. He relief that he was all right made her feel faint and lightheaded. She loved him with all her heart and would do anything on earth to gain his freedom. She must make him understand that she had not betrayed him and never imagined in this world Davie would do so, but before she could find the words to pledge her loyalty to him, Heath placed the red wig over Ram’s hair and swung his cloak about Ram’s shoulders. Heath spoke quickly.
“The English have been recruiting like mad. They have garrisons at Coventry, Gloucester, Leicester, Nottingham, Manchester, York, and Newcastle, as well as the two you know of, at Carlisle and Berwick. The ports are bristling with ships, and the press gangs are out in full force to equip them with crews. The army is already between twenty and thirty thousand strong, but here’s the good news. They are going to war with France before they tackle Scotland.”
“Good man!” said Ram with genuine pleasure. “But I can’t let you take my place.”
“It was my brother who betrayed you,” said Heath, “I am honor-bound to do this thing.” He grinned at Ram. “You in turn must take my place. You must entertain the king and court tonight at Greenwich. Are you up to riding the ponies and throwing the knives?”
Tina looked at them aghast. They were taking matters into their own hands and exchanging places. “Ram, no! I can persuade the king to let you go.”
He took hold of her shoulders possessively, his pewter eyes burned into hers. “I’d see ye dead before I’d let ye ask Henry Tudor for favors.”
She could feel the heat from his hands branding her as his woman. “God damn you both, how am I to bear it if you do this thing?” she agonized.
His grip tightened fiercely to reassure her and transfer some of his strength to her. “Hush, vixen.” He touched his lips to her brow tenderly.
Heath said low, “Your job isn’t over yet, Tina. You must go straight to the king, throw a tantrum, and tell him his prisoner is not Ram Douglas.” He grinned at Ram as they gripped each other’s arm in a silent pledge. “Zara awaits you.”
Tina’s eyes flashed their outrage, but Ram threw his arm about her to anchor her to his side and growled, “Call the guard.”
If Tina had been afraid on the way in, she was terrified on the way out, but the warden never looked beyond the red hair.
They stood facing each other
as the oarsman took them back to Greenwich. They did not dare touch except with their eyes. It wrung his heart to see how fragile she looked, especially with the violet smudges beneath her eyes.
Tina bit her lips to prevent a cry of anguish from escaping when the wind blew aside his collar to expose the raw scar the ship’s rope had left upon his neck. There were a thousand things she wanted to tell him, but they all went unsaid. Her throat was closed tight with emotion, and she knew if she tried to utter just one word, she would be undone.
She tried to read what was in his heart, but his face wore a dark, impenetrable mask. One thing was certain—she might be vulnerable, but Ram Douglas was not. He was stronger than steel, harder than granite. Tina fiercely fought back her tears, vowing not to weep before him. Would he think her courageous or heartless? Did it matter what he thought? She realized it mattered more than life or death. If only they could flee together, but they could not. She was held as fast as Heath in his stone cell.
As Ramsay watched the small figure of his woman climb the Greenwich waterstairs, his eyes softened and his gut knotted with apprehension for her. He had left her safe with all the might of Douglas to protect her, yet she had placed herself in jeopardy to save him Now her favorite brother was in the Tower of London. Ram’s face was bleak; he knew she’d pay any price to save the Gypsy.
Instinctively, Tina knew the only thing that would save her was anger. By the time she swept down the corridors of Greenwich Palace, her temper was blazing. She walked a direct path to Henry Tudor’s apartments and stopped only when she reached the royal antechamber. A grenadier guard was posted outside the king’s privy chamber, and the chancellor stood between her and the guard.
“Lady Kennedy, I am afraid His Majesty is occupied this morning.”
She raised her eyebrows and swept him with an icy glance. “He is with Lord Howard, I presume.”
“Yes, my lady. The Earl of Surrey.”
“My business concerns him too.” She brushed past the chancellor and stepped up to the guard.