Page 102 of Tempted
“He’s dead,” said Colin. “I found him an hour since.”
Ram bit his lip. “Thank ye, Colin. It’s my fault. I knew he was mad. I should have seen that he was locked up.”
“Don’t blame yerself, man. We are all of us tae blame.”
Mr. Burque arrived as Colin departed. This time he brought honey. “Honey has magical properties,” he told Ram. “It can heal a wound without a scar on the outside. Let’s see if it soothes the inside.”
Ram dipped the tiny spoon and held it to her lips. Tina licked it slowly, and miraculously it caused no pain to her throat when she swallowed it. The two men looked at each other with renewed hope. Mr. Burque warned, “Give it to her sparingly—too much will take her breath and choke her.” Ram nodded his understanding. For the next three hours he patiently fed her one tiny spoon of honey every ten minutes. Finally she fell into an exhausted sleep, still clinging to his hand.
He had a lot more hope now that she would survive this nightmare, but as the immediacy of the situation receded, his mind had time to wander. Would she ever believe that he had not poisoned her? This would put an end to the hand-fasting. She’d never marry him now, never stay at Castle Dangerous after this. He tried to push the unwelcome thoughts away. All that mattered was that she survived. He ran a hand through his hair. Perhaps it had been Mad Malcolm who had poisoned Damaris and not Alex after all. Malcolm had had the freedom of the castle in those days, before the drinking bouts had condemned him to his bed. Perhaps he had even pushed Alexander from the parapets. Ram shuddered. If Alex had watched helplessly as Damaris died of poison, no wonder his spirit still roamed about the castle. Alex would stay until he was avenged.
He knew that he himself would have avenged Tina’s suffering if it took all of eternity. Fate had stepped in and done the dirty work for him. Malcolm was dead. His mind roamed to the king. James must have suffered the tortures of Hell when his beloved Margaret Drummond was poisoned. Ram crossed himself and gave up thanks that Tina’s life had been spared. He closed his eyes and drifted to the edge of sleep.
Something awakened him. He sat up with a jolt. “Tina!” he cried, springing from the bed to catch her in his arms as she collapsed. Her nightrobe was covered with blood. His worst fears had come to pass: She was miscarrying their babe!
Ada and Nell hovered in the background for the next twenty-four hours, fetching fresh linen, changing the bed, bringing food to Lord Douglas, which they took away untouched.
Ramsay did all the nursing, all the bathing, all the comforting within his power. Most of the time they were hand-clasped, and gradually it seemed he infused his strength into her. Her lifeblood stopped draining away, her fever abated, and the pain finally stopped racking her body. Tina’s mental anguish, however, did not abate. When she saw the silvery trace of tears upon Ram’s cheeks, her heart constricted. This was her punishment for threatening to abort his child. He would never again ask her to wed him— where was the need? She could not bear to see accusation in his eyes, and she turned to face the wall.
“Tina,” he whispered.
“Leave me,” she begged.
Damaris occupied the window seat in her own chamber. Slowly the spirit of Alexander manifested before her, surrounded by a strong, brilliant light. He would be denied no longer. “Damaris, we must talk. The things I told ye almost sixteen years ago were the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. Are ye ready tae believe me?” he demanded.
Damaris stood slowly and reached out a delicate hand to him. “Yes, Alex, I am ready to believe you.”
He enfolded her in his arms. “Never for one instant have I stopped loving ye.” He kissed her teardrops away, then sat down on the window seat and drew her into his lap.
They talked for hours. The years between seemed to fall away until they became as close as they had been on the day the pledged lovers had claimed each other. Damaris mourned the loss of Tina’s babe as if it were her own. “I thought Ram and Tina would have the child that was denied us.”
Alexander’s arm tightened about her. “Things ha’ gone so wrong between them. Let’s pledge tae stay wi’ them till they acknowledge that they love each other.”
“We cannot leave her yet in any case—the danger is too strong.”
“I feel so damned impotent. If only I could communicate wi’ the living. I could set this mess tae fights an’ justice would be done.”
Damaris laid her hand upon his clenched fist and quoted from the Bible: “The mills of God grind slow, but they grind exceeding small.’”
Ram bathed and shaved for the first time in close to a week and joined the men in the hall to break his fast. Colin had quietly seen to the burial of Malcolm, and Ram was most grateful for his aid. Within the hour, Jock, his first lieutenant, rode in from where he had been awaiting Ram aboard the Revenge. “I scented trouble of some sort,” he explained, “and just couldn’t sit there at the mouth of the Doon.”
“There was trouble, all right, but it was personal,” Ram said. “We won’t be able to leave here for a few more days.” He gave no other explanation, and Jock, knowing him so well, expected none. Ram dispatched a message to Angus thanking him for the use of his ships and men and told him that he would not be in residence at Castle Douglas in the borders this winter. He did not commit to paper where he would be, leaving that up to Archibald’s canny common sense.
Before the afternoon shadows had grown long, three separate messengers rode in with letters for Black Ram Douglas. He called his men-at-arms together to give them the grim news. “It seems the English are raiding deeper and deeper into Scotland. I have messages from three different lairds who were raided over the last two days. Fisherton on the coast, and Ochiltree and Cumnock, which are too far inland for my liking.”
Jock’s fears were confirmed. “We saw the beacon lights and suspected raiders, but I had yer orders tae stay hidden.”
“Ye did right tae stay put. If the bastards are raiding this far into Scotland I’ll have tae leave at least a score here tae defend Douglas. Who volunteers?”
Those who responded were mostly men who had women or wives at Douglas. Ram made a mental note to warn the Kennedys. He cursed the circumstances that chained him at the moment. Once he was aboard the Revenge, he’d soon put a stop to the bloody raids.
His heart was in his mouth as he climbed the stairs to his chamber. He hadn’t seen her for hours and prayed that she was still on the mend. An obscene curse dropped from his lips when he entered his chamber and found all traces of Tina gone. She must indeed be feeling recovered if she had taken it upon herself to vacate the master bedchamber in favor of Damaris’s room. He threw open the door to find her sitting in the window seat. His heart lifted that she no longer lay abed close to death, but his brows drew together with a hurt look. “So ye no longer need me,” he flung at her.
Tina searched his face anxiously for the least telltale sign of condemnation for losing their baby. She saw none and thought he masked his hatred well.
Ram wasted no time arguing but placed one firm arm about her, the other beneath her knees, and carried her back to their chamber. He knew she had no strength to fight him. He turned back the covers of the freshly made bed and set her down. “We have tae talk.” They said the words in unison.
His eyes softened as they looked at her. “I think that’s the first time we have ever agreed about anything,” he said with a catch in his throat.
