Page 67 of Tempted
She sank down before him in an acquiescent curtsy, and he raised her and took her hands to his lips before he departed. She gazed after him. After a good night’s rest, she’d be more than a match for him. She was learning how to handle him. Tomorrow night, with Mr. Burque’s tempting dishes laid before him, she would see who would do the seducing.
Down in the great entrance hall she found Ada talking with the castle steward, while Nell sat atop one of her ten trunks. “To which chamber shall I tell the servants to take your trunks?” Ada asked.
“Why, the master bedchamber, of course.” She glanced at the Douglas steward and said, “I am the mistress here.”
Ada rolled her eyes heavenward, knowing she’d get scant help from that direction.
Tina asked the steward to show her about the castle, and she complimented him on its general upkeep, since she could see that a firmer hand was on the tiller here than at the castle they had just left.
In the kitchens the male chef was having an altercation with Mr. Burque, and it had unfortunately degenerated into personal insults. The thick-tongued Scot had already hurled degenerate, queer, and prancin’ pansy at the Frenchman, who had a much more subtle revenge in mind. The chef’s first assistant was his wife, a dark, plump little woman with rosy cheeks. She couldn’t keep her eyes from Mr. Burque. Admittedly he was bonnier than any lass, but the way his eyes had caressed her curves and winked at her over her husband’s head indicated clearly he had a taste for the opposite sex. The next time the Frenchman lowered his eyelid, she winked back. A feeling of excitement was bubbling inside of her When Mr. Burque kissed her hand, she went all wobbly inside. Her husband would never suspect her of knocking it off with the pretty laddie.
The steward told Tina the chefs name was Burns, and she hoped it wasn’t too apt. “Mr. Burns,” she said firmly, “name-calling will not keep your position secure. Only the quality of the dishes you prepare can do that. The superior chef will naturally hold the position of superiority in the castle kitchens. Instead of frittering your time away hurling epithets, I suggest you channel your energy into the evening meal. If my palate is pleased, who knows? I may even keep you on in the kitchens.”
When she walked off, Mr. Burns looked baffled and needed Mrs. Burns to interpret. “If she dinna like what ye cook, she’ll stick it up yer kilt,” she told him graphically.
Tina asked the steward to select especially nice rooms for Ada and Nell, then took herself off to the stables. She reprimanded her groom for not checking Indigo’s shoes before their journey to the borders, but he insisted the mare’s horseshoes were all firmly intact and showed Tina that it was so. Mildly surprised, she wondered if Ram Douglas had taken her up before him for her sake or for his own, and she smiled her secret smile.
She wandered around the outbuildings, saw the vast dairy-still room, the forge, the men-at-arms’ quarters built into the thick curtain wall, and the washhouse, where all the castle linens were washed. There were storage sheds for the sheared wool from the thousands of Douglas sheep, and a tannery where cowhides and deerhides were cured before they were shipped away across the Channel.
The afternoon shadows lengthened on what had been a glorious summer day, and she wandered toward the banks of the River Dee which lay to the west of Castle Douglas. She was startled by a man, naked to the waist, standing in the river where a great pool had formed. He turned when he heard her approach, and she saw that it was Ramsay Douglas and that he was fishing. She hoped he didn’t think she had followed him or that she had been looking for him. “I didn’t mean to disturb you, Douglas.”
He thought, Ye disturb me whether ye are near or far, and even when I sleep—I’ve begun tae dream of ye. He said, “Come, I’ll teach ye how tae fish. ‘Tis the most pleasant, soothing thing a man can do.”
“I’m a woman,” she said, coming to the very edge of the river.
“I’ve noticed,” he said. “Ye likely wouldn’t be good at it. Women don’t care for hooking worms and such.”
Tina enjoyed doing men’s things. It gave her a perverse pleasure. “I’ll try anything once,” she called.
He waded to the bank. “More than once, I hope,” he said low, and she took his meaning and blushed. “Ye can take my rod and sit on the bank. I’ll fashion myself another,” he said, wading from the water and reaching for his knife. He had soon selected and cut a straight branch, then attached a fine piece of black cord.
“Where’s your worm?” she asked.
He shook his head. “They prefer flies. They come tae the surface of this still pool, where the insects hover over the water’s surface, then snap—they jump right out to catch the fly.”
He held out the end of the black cord, and she was amazed that his deft fingers had fashioned what looked exactly like a dragonfly. “I’ll teach ye how to fish.”
She shook her head. “No, I’ll watch you, and once I learn the secret, I’ll be as good at it as you.”
His dark eyes held hers for a long time “There’s a secret to everything… I’ve always known that, but most people don’t Yer a perceptive lass Perhaps we have more in common than we know.”
Her cheeks warmed again. Bugger the brute, she thought—he enjoys keeping me in a perpetual blush.
He waded out to the middle of the pool and cast his line so that the dragonfly flitted across the surface of the water, then quietly and patiently he did it over and over again Tina turned her back upon him while she removed her shoes and stockings. If he thought she would sit on the riverbank like a ninny, he could think again. She hesitated, but only for a split-second, before she removed her gown entirely. Then she kilted up her petticoat and waded into the river.
Ram glanced up in astonishment when he heard the splash of water. He opened his mouth to comment, but she quickly placed her finger to her lips, demanding silence. She was taking this business of fishing most seriously. He had thought her excessively vain in her elegant gowns, but now he saw Tina Kennedy had another side to her. She was a hoyden, a tomboy, ready for any dare. He could clearly see she’d be off and running at any madcap suggestion, and that explained her unearned reputation. He found it difficult to withdraw his eyes from her exquisite undergarments. The smart gray riding habit had hidden the sauciest scarlet petticoat and corselette, from which the swell of her breasts now rose temptingly.
With difficulty he concentrated upon casting his lure. The pool’s dark surface was rippled by the rings of a rising fish; then suddenly a streak of silver flashed from the water, then took off until all his line was used up. “I have to play him and try tae get him upstream where the rocks make the water shallow before he slips the hook!” he shouted. Ramsay succeeded in getting the fish to swim up among the stones, but suddenly it was off the line, and he was after it in a flash.
“I’ll help you,” Tina cried, lunging after the silvery creature with gusto. She fell full-length into the water, but the slippery thing slid out of her hands with mercurial magic
Ramsay at last captured it, swooped it from the water, and held it aloft triumphantly.
“It’s a salmon!” she cried happily.
“Of course it’s a bloody salmon—did ye imagine I was after sticklebacks?” When he realized how bedraggled and muddied she was, he apologized. “We’d better get ye back tae the castle before ye catch cold”
“Like hell!” she cried mutinously. “Not until I’ve bagged my salmon.”
