Page 16 of Tempted
Tina picked up a hand-painted porcelain powder bowl and matching toilet articles standing upon the mantel. “These were your things,” Tina said in wonder. She moved across the chamber to touch the heavy, silver-backed hairbrushes and the brocaded bedhangings. “It’s so strange— it’s almost as if I can feel your essence in the room,” Tina said.
“Oh God, I hope so, my dear. Get out, get out while there is still time!”
Tina closed her eyes and lifted the stopper of a crystal perfume bottle to touch her cheek. “They say you were murdered here, but all I can feel is love and warmth. You must have suffered unbearably, and yet I sense only your happiness in this lovely room.”
“I was happy—happier than I’d ever been in my entire life—happier perhaps than a woman has a right to be— before that fateful day. Love is blind. Don’t let the Douglas blind you, Valentina!” Damaris passed an invisible hand over the garments hanging to dry. “Quickly, put on your clothes and depart.”
Tina reached out her hand to touch her undergarments and was amazed to find they were already dry. She unwound the plaid from her body and donned her underclothes. Ada had sewn every stitch of them, and they were exquisite. She fingered the delicate mauve frills embroidered with violets and was willing to wager she had the most beautiful lingerie in Scotland. Lingerie was a French word that Ada had picked up from Mr. Burque.
“Hurry, Valentina!” Damaris placed an urgent hand upon Tina’s shoulder. Tina felt a sudden chill and hurried into her undershift.
When Ram Douglas inspected the youth his brothers had captured, he laughed outright. “Christ, he’s still on mother’s milk. What’s yer name, laddie?” Ram asked the pale young man incarcerated in the dungeon, one floor beneath the hall.
David Kennedy gathered a full gob of spit and aimed it at the Douglas. “Piss off!”
Ram grimaced. “A length o’ hemp about yer throat will choke the spit from it.”
“Hang me an’ be damned tae ye!” flung David.
“Bloody little bantam cock!” Gavin said.
“Bravado—he’s scared shitless,” Ram said, “whistling past the graveyard.”
“I’m scared o’ no fuckin’ Douglas!”
“Then it’s brainless ye are, laddie,” Ram said cheerfully. Then to Gavin, “I’ll give the Hamiltons a chance to ransom him. If they’re tightfisted, I’ll hang him.”
Upstairs, Tina reached beneath the mattress to retrieve her knife when without warning the chamber door opened. She whirled about to face her intruder, her golden eyes flashing annoyance, then fear. “Don’t you knock, sir?”
Ram Douglas slanted a black brow. “In my own castle?”
“Yes, in your own castle, before you enter the chamber of a lady.”
“Lady?” he questioned. “Then ye remember who ye are?”
“N-no.” She again reached for the hated Douglas plaid to cloak her undergarments from his bold, dark eyes. The warm fire had dried her sodden hair, and it fell about her in radiant abundance. Tiny gold-red tendrils framed her face and Ram’s fingers itched to touch the tempting mass. She spoke from nervousness. “I remember I was out riding —I remember a torrential rain—I remember your hands upon me,” she accused.
“Aye, well, that’s something no woman could forget.”
Her temper almost choked her, temporarily blotting out her fear. He thought himself God’s gift to women! He was so deadly dangerous, however, she knew she must not anger him. She bit her lip and managed a faint smile. “I’m sorry, my lord, to intrude like this. As soon as I remember where I live, I will leave. ‘Tis the most maddening thing— my name is on the tip of my tongue, then it escapes and eludes me.”
His eyes ran over her as if he were assessing her fine points. His eyes lifted to her mouth, fell to her breasts now concealed by the plaid, then lifted to her eyes. She bit back a cutting remark, but she might as well have uttered it because his eyes filled with amusement. “If worse comes tae worst and ye never recall yer name, I’ll just keep ye.” He laughed. “Don’t look so outraged, lass. If ye don’t get total recall by tomorrow, I can soon learn who ye are.”
Tina sensed danger immediately. “How?” she asked blankly.
He stepped closer, and his fingers closed over a tempting tress of molten copper. “I’ve seen ye before.”
The statement left her terrified. Where on God’s earth had he seen her? She’d never laid eyes on him before. She’d remember that face for a lifetime. “Wh-where?” she asked warily.
“In a man’s arms,” he said cryptically.
She thought that impossible. “You mistake me, sir.”
“Impossible—I could never mistake ye,” he assured her. More than anything else in the world, he wanted to taste this woman, and since Ram Douglas usually did whatever he wanted, he threaded his fingers into the crackling mass of flaming curls and lifted her mouth to his. A static spark jumped between them, producing a little shock.
“Oh, let me go, sir! I am unused to men,” she gasped breathlessly.
“Ye delude yerself,” he said flatly. “I think yer very used tae men. A husband perhaps—lovers, of a certainty.”
