Page 96 of Tempted
“Aren’t ye forgetting the child?” he asked suspiciously
“Not for a moment. There’s no way I’ll carry a brat of yours I’ll dose myself with smut of rye!”
He towered above her, not daring to raise his hand, for he knew if he did, he might strike her dead. With a murderous rage almost choking him, he went to the door and bellowed, “Ada!”
It was like a battle cry, and within a minute her women came running. In a deceptively quiet voice he said, “We do not go to court. We go to Douglas. Guard her well. If she aborts the child she carries, I won’t be responsible for my actions”
Before he slammed the door, Nell lay in a swoon. “Tina, what in God’s name are you playing at?” Ada demanded.
“I think I’m having a baby,” said Tina.
“And you don’t want it? Tina, I’m ashamed of you! No wonder Lord Douglas is furious.”
“I told him I’d dose myself with smut of rye, but it was just to hurt him.”
“Damn it all, you have a love of havoc! I think it’s time you grew up. If you’d take a look about you, you’d see he keeps you in the lap of luxury.”
Tina saw the silk-covered walls, saw the painted ceiling, and saw the boxes in the corner of the room that held new gowns and furs. “You have no idea what he’s like!” cried Tina. “He rules with an iron fist. He’s not satisfied with anything less than total domination!”
“Don’t you realize he has to take a firm hand with you? You are so willful, you would ride roughshod over a man who was soft with you.”
Tina was stricken that for once Ada was not her champion. She bit her lip and said quietly, “Let’s get Nell on the bed, poor little mouse.”
Chapter 28
Ram set such a careful pace on the ride to Douglas, it took five hours before Castle Dangerous came into view. Tina knew he could have made it in under two hours on a hard gallop. He had insisted she wear the sable cloak to keep out the chill autumn winds, and before they were halfway there, she was most thankful for the fur’s warmth.
She had glanced at him only once and saw that his face had that dark, closed, forbidding look that told her a black devil rode upon his shoulder.
The spirit of Damaris hovering at a high window was elated to see Valentina ride in safe and sound. She had not ventured from her chamber in days, but now she glided down to the entrance hall, making sure she left Folly in the room because she could already hear the excited commotion the Boozer was making now Ramsay had returned. Tina was the first one through the door, and the Boozer stood with his paws on her shoulders to lick her face.
“Down!” The grim command that fell from Ram’s lips immediately told Damaris things were not going well between this man and this woman. Damaris stiffened as she sensed Alexander at her shoulder. “Lovers’ quarrel,” he whispered into her ear. Why were men so insensitive? She glided away from him, pretending he wasn’t there. Alexander took absolutely no notice of the snub. He followed her and pulled a tress of golden hair. Damaris snatched it from his fingers and turned her back upon him. “I dinna ken why ye are so worried for Valentina—she can certainly hold her own against Ram,” he said.
“Even he won’t resort to rape here in the hall. It’s what he’ll do in the privacy of their bedchamber that I’m waiting to see,” she hissed.
“Voyeur,” Alex teased. “Perhaps I’ll watch also. Might give me a few ideas.”
“You need no lewd lessons from Ram Douglas, you devil!”
“Ah, ye do remember, then?” He grinned.
“Why did I ever begin talking to you again?” she asked with exasperation.
“Because ye enjoy the intercourse!” he chortled.
Damaris departed.
Tina said to Ada, “Have the servants take my luggage to Damaris’s chamber.”
Ramsay did not countermand her words He told the steward he had brought sixty Douglas men with him, then went into the dining hall to see which of his Douglas cousins was in residence.
Ada and Tina dined upstairs, then Tina’s bath was prepared for her As she stepped into the tub, she smoothed her hands down her belly. “The child doesn’t show yet— perhaps I am mistaken.”
“How long since your woman’s time?” asked Ada.
Tina hesitated to put it into words, then she lifted a careless shoulder. “To tell you true, I haven’t bled since the hand-fasting.”
“Three months!” Ada counted.
