Page 132 of Tempted
“All is lost. Our army went down in defeat, Tina. The king is dead. Every earl who fought with him is dead. There are mountains of dead lying on Flodden field!”
“No!” Tina snarled.
“Yes, love. The Scots went down in defeat, I’m sorry to say. It was total annihilation.” He smoothed back her wild red tresses with a gentle hand.
“No! Don’t touch me!” she screamed.
He swung her into strong arms and carried her toward the castle. “Angus is less than an hour behind me. I met up with him at dawn. He’s devastated.”
Heath carried Tina into the hall. “Whisky,” he ordered the first servant he saw. He propped her on the wooden settle and held the raw liquor to her lips just as Ada arrived on the scene. Tina knocked the whisky to the floor, her golden eyes blazing with anger. She tried to struggle to her feet, but Heath held her down with one strong arm. He repeated what he knew to Ada: “I came straight from the battlefield. The Gypsies made camp at Kelso, not ten miles from Flodden. Archibald Kennedy, Earl of Cassillis, is dead. I don’t know about our father, Tina.”
“No! Let me go!” she cried.
“Tina, where are you going?” Heath asked wearily.
“Hush lass, hush,” he soothed. “There hasn’t been time to identify all yet, but the list is already long. The king is confirmed, and Crawford. So is Argyll, Lennox, Montrose, and even Bothwell.” His voice cracked. “Early reports say a hundred Kennedys—two hundred Douglas.”
“No!” Tina eluded him and stood defiantly, hands dug into her hips, tossing her disheveled hair back over her shoulders. “The king may very well be dead, and Lennox and Montrose and Cassillis and Crawford, and even Both-well and Argyll, but Black Ram Douglas is not dead, so do not repeat your foul lies to me!”
Ada was white and shaking. She exchanged meaningful glances with Heath. Both of them knew Tina was about to give them more trouble than she’d ever dished out in her life. “Are you packed and ready? We will leave today rather than tomorrow.”
Ada again looked at Heath. “We were leaving for Edinburgh tomorrow. Perhaps it would be best if she joined the court.”
Tina looked at Ada as if she had lost her reason. “I’m not going to court now, you fool, I’m going to England, to Flodden.”
“Stop it, Tina!” Heath said severely. “You cannot go there. The carnage is unbelievable. ‘Tis like a massive slaughterhouse of bodies and body parts.”
“You don’t understand,” Tina said fiercely. “Ram and I were married before he left at the beginning of August. I’m Lady Douglas. I must find my husband.”
Heath was heartsore for his beloved young sister. “Tina, I will go and search for his body. If I am lucky enough to find him, I’ll bring him home to you.”
“Thank you, Heath, but that won’t be necessary. I am going myself.”
Heath was alarmed. He knew what Tina was like when she got something fixed in her head. He knew he would have to physically restrain her and was contemplating getting her drunk when Angus and his small Douglas escort clattered into the bailey.
Heath said to Ada, “I hope you have an adequate supply of whisky on hand. It’s the first thing Angus will call for.”
Ada sent a servant to fetch a barrel, and as Archibald Douglas entered the hall, the first word out of his mouth was “Whisky!” Angus flung off his gauntlets and sank wearily into a chair.
Tina came to him and laid her hand upon his shoulder. It seemed to her he had aged a dozen years since the last time she had spoken with him. “I’m so sorry, Angus, that the king is dead.”
He lifted his eyes to hers, thinking her the bravest lass alive to be comforting him when she needed comfort herself. “I feel the loss o’ Ramsay far more keenly than I do the loss o’ the king,” he admitted.
“Ram isn’t dead, Angus. We were wed before he left. I’m going to find him and bring him home.”
Angus searched her face, then his eyes sought Heath’s. Heath gave a helpless shrug.
“There is no need fer that, Valentina. My men will find him. We are on our way now tae gather our dead, as is every other clan in Scotland. The hearts o’ Douglas heroes are always buried beneath the altar in the chapel.”
Tina pressed her hands over her ears. “Stop it! You all look at me as if I am deranged, but I know he is alive! Ram and I are not just man and wife—we are bonded, we are one! Don’t you think I would know if he were dead?” she cried. “Go and gather your dead, Angus! My brother tells me there are over a hundred Kennedys and two hundred Douglases. I will never allow England to keep him. I found him there once before against all odds, and I shall find him again. You seek the dead, and I shall seek the living. Excuse me—I must see if Mr. Burque is ready.”
Heath and Ada and Angus looked bleakly after Tina’s determined figure. “It is a sort o’ temporary madness that keeps us sane, if ye understand me,” explained Angus.
“I understand,” said Heath quietly. “She will never let go until she sees for herself how impossible it is to find one man among ten thousand corpses. I’ll go with her. She will need me when she sees and smells Flodden.”
Ada said quietly, “I too will go”
Angus sighed. “So be it We’ll go together.”
