Page 14 of Tempted
When she rode out, Tina had no conscious destination in mind—she simply needed to free herself from the suffocating walls of Doon. She rode on and on, following a direct path eastward, never looking back, never slowing her pace. She was blind to the field of bluebells through which she cantered. She was oblivious to the intoxicating scent that wafted upon the breeze. She was deaf to the screaming peewits and the baaing sheep. Tina’s mind was obsessed with the plight of her brother. It blotted out all else.
Gradually it came to her where she was heading, and she drew rein and looked about apprehensively. She had followed the River Ayr, and though she had never ridden this far upriver before, she knew it led straight to Douglas. She rode past burned and blackened fields, saw village people rebuilding two burned huts, then rode out of the village toward the castle, which sat apart, alone and brooding
She knew she must somehow get inside, yet she knew it would be futile to simply try to ride in. She would get no farther than the guard on the drawbridge. Her thoughts flashed about, quick as mercury. She pushed her fear away from her and thought of Davie. The only certain way of gaining entrance to Castle Dangerous was if a Douglas took her inside. A plan came to her whose very audacity made her tremble. She would stage a riding accident—her own accident. She was a helpless woman, young and beautiful, surely the men of Douglas would come to her rescue. She concentrated solely on making her fall look like a genuine accident. She tangled her reins in a gorse thicket, loosened the girth strap so that her saddle slipped, then lay down upon the ground, gathering her purple velvet cloak about her body and flinging out her arm as if she had tried to save herself Then she screamed at the top of her voice, closed her eyes and waited
Almost immediately she began to wish she had not done this reckless thing. The rainstorm that had held off all morning dropped from the low sky in torrents She lay still as the deluge soaked through to her skin, making her shiver uncontrollably. Tina knew it wasn’t just the cold that was making her shiver. Now that she had done this impulsive, reckless thing, she had nothing to do but lie there and imagine what might happen to her in Douglas hands.
If she had been witness to the scene earlier, when Ramsay Douglas had returned to find his cattle lifted and his hay and oat crops burned, she would have fled for her life. He had given his two brothers such a dressing-down that Gavin finally put up his fists and shouted, “I’ll fight ye and be damned if it puts an end tae this harangue!”
Ram Douglas in full spate was not a pretty sight. His pewter-colored eyes glittered like hard diamonds, and his dark face looked as if it were chiseled from granite. They hadn’t expected his return until well after dark. No wonder they called him Hotspur—he must have ridden a hundred and fifty miles without pause. Though he was hardened, the fact that he’d had little rest in the past three days added an extra edge to his vile temper. Next he turned his blistering tongue on the Douglas moss-troopers, denouncing them as lazy, drunken idlers who thought of nothing but their pricks. With a powerful arm he swept their tankards of ale from the table to the floor. “Not bad enough ye let the bastards lift the cattle an’ burn the crops—ye let them escape! I couldha overlooked it if ye’d had a row o’ stinkin’ Hamiltons swingin’ by their necks. I couldha overlooked it if ye’d retrieved the livestock—but ye couldna even find a clear trail! Maybe half rations will clear yer thick heads.” He’d turned on his heel in disgust, his silver spurs striking sparks on the flagstones as he went himself to find the trail. Only his wolfhound Boozer had enough courage to keep him company.
He inspected the burned huts and told the womenfolk to take their bairns to the castle until their homes could be rebuilt. Then he accompanied a small group of his tenant farmers into the fields. “We’ll replant wi’ oats and hope for a second crop. Get seed from the castle stores.”
They gave him a tally of the sheep and cattle missing, and he promised to replace the beasts.
“The sheep had all been sheared o’ their winter wool, but it were stored in the sheds alongside the hay. It went up in smoke,” a tenant told him grimly.
“I’ll send the men-at-arms to repair the houses and replant the fields. They’re on leave from patrolling the borders for a month. I don’t want them idling about wi’ naught tae do save drink and procreate,” he said, grinning.
They watched him go, their hearts filled with gratitude. He had a black reputation for harshness, yet he was always more than fair to his Douglas tenants and their families.
The embers of his fiery temper were considerably banked when he saw with his own eyes that there was no clear trail and that the animal tracks went off in at least six different directions. Then the heavens opened, and he cursed the resulting deluge that would wash away all traces. Why the hell couldn’t this rain have fallen before the raid to wet the oats and keep them from burning?
He was subdued as he turned his stallion’s head toward Douglas and whistled for the Boozer to come to heel. The castle was in sight when suddenly the great wolfhound loped ahead of him to investigate a riderless horse that seemed to be tangled in a thicket.
Tina had never been more afraid in her life when a gigantic, hairy animal leaped upon her limp body Her eyes flew open, and she discerned that it was a ferocious hound twice the size of any she’d ever seen. Immediately she closed her eyes and bit her lips to prevent a scream of terror from escaping. If the creature thought she was dead perhaps it wouldn’t rend her limb from limb. Then she heard a man’s deep voice cursing, and her body shuddered like a leaf in the wind.
“Heel! God’s passion, what the hell have ye found here? Looks like a drowned rat.” The man’s voice was deep and resonant and sent a chilling shiver of fear down her back. She felt herself being lifted as if she weighed no more than a child, then without ceremony he threw her face-down across his saddle.
She risked a quick glimpse and couldn’t believe how high she was off the ground. His horse was as oversized as his hound. She could have cried with chagrin at his cavalier treatment of her as her head hung down and her wet hair trailed down the stallion’s long flanks.
As Ram untangled the reins of her mare, it screamed in fear as the enormous black stallion tried to bite it upon the neck. Ram smote the brute with his fist. “Nay, Ruffian—I’ll admit ‘tis a fancy piece, but ye’ll no’ mount it while I stand here taking a drenching.”
Omigod, the brute is going to let his stallion ruin my mare, she thought wildly, and emitted a groan of despair. When they reached the bailey, Ram Douglas threw the reins of both horses to a groom. “Keep them separated,” he ordered. “I’ll no’ have him waste his valuable seed on a piece o’ cheap horseflesh.”
“Looks like an expensive mount tae me, yer lordship.”
“Did I ask fer yer opinion, man?” Ram asked shortly. He lifted the soggy burden from Ruffian’s back none too gently and carried her through the massive studded doors of the castle. He carried her straight through to the hall where there was a roaring fire and deposited her upon a carved wooden settle.
He pulled off her sodden cloak and threw it to a servant, who spread it over a stool to dry, then the man knelt to remove his master’s thigh-high boots.
Forcing herself to be totally limp with lashes lowered to her cheeks, she felt a strong, callused hand firmly take her chin and lift her face for his perusal. A flicker of recognition showed in Ram’s eyes as the firelight showed him the lass had red hair. He’d seen her before, and he knew exactly where. His heart skipped a beat. When he’d seen her ride in to the Gypsy camp, he’d coveted her. Now here she was delivered up to him!
Tina opened her eyes slowly and put a trembling hand to her head. “Wh-where am I?” she asked. “Is this my home?”
Ram Douglas stared at her fiercely, afraid that she had sustained some terrible hurt in her fall. “This is Douglas Castle,” he said as both his brothers came to investigate.
Tina tried not to shudder at the name, but she couldn’t help it. The only thing she had control over was her face. Her voice was unnaturally high-pitched and jerky from the threat of impending tears. The dark-visaged man who sat beside her was so broad-shouldered, he blotted out the rest of the room He was clearly the figure of authority, and she knew instinctively that this was the man she must convince. She knew she must say something to confirm that she had received a blow to the head and wasn’t in her right senses. She looked helplessly into Ram’s glittering eyes and asked, “Are—are you my father?”
He was nettled at the insult. He found her unbelievably alluring, yet she thought him old. His voice cut through his brothers’ laughter. “Christ, I don’t deny the possibility of by-blows, but I’ll be damned if I couldha fathered a woman grown. What’s yer game?” he demanded.
“Who are ye, lass?” Gavin asked.
She looked at them blankly, and again her hand went to her head as if she were dizzy “I—I don’t know,” she whispered.
Cameron, callous as only the very young can be, asked, “Is she a halfwit?”
“Nay,” said Ram, more kindly now that he realized she had been hurt. “I’ve seen it in battle. She’s lost her memory, but it’ll return if she bides awhile.”
