Read Online Tempted by Virginia Henley - Free Book Online Page B

arm. “Let me help you,” she offered as a rush of sympathy swept over her. This man was not nearly so dark as the others. He had a square, honest, clean-cut face, and his manners set him apart as being more civilized. She was curious to know what had ruined his once-magnificentphysique, but she had more breeding and sensitivity than to even stare at him.
    “I’ve brought ye some broth an’ bread. ‘Tis rough fare, unfit fer a lady, but we’re a household o’ men without womenfolk, save fer servin’ and kitchen wenches.”
    “Thank you. It smells good,” she offered. “If there are no women here, whose chamber is this? The lady in the portrait?” she asked, indicating a painting above the fireplace.
    “My brother Alexander’s bride, Damaris. She’s deceased,” he said shortly, and limped toward the door.
    Tina almost choked on her broth. “Don’t burn yerself,” he warned before he closed the heavy door.
    Tina sprang up to examine the lovely face in the portrait. Her fingers reached up to trace the fine lace of what must have been her wedding gown. “Aunt Damaris,” she whispered, “how unearthly fair you were.” A lump came into her throat as she noticed how young and innocent the girl must have been.
    From a shadowed corner of the room, the spirit of Damaris focused on the young woman with flaming hair and whispered, “Sweet Mary, you must be my niece, Valentina Kennedy!” She hovered between Tina and her own portrait, more agitated than she had been for fifteen years. “Begone! Begone from this place,” she cried, then she was filled with a great sadness because she knew she could not communicate with the living, breathing Valentina.
    “What did the degenerate Douglas do to you?” asked Tina, overwhelmed with pity.
    “Don’t you know Alexander poisoned me? My own husband whom I loved more than life? He accused me of lying with his brother Colin. He struck me.” Damaris’s hand went up to her cheek, still feeling the blow after fifteen long years.
    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 movedacross 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