The Cowboy Who Strolled Into Town (74 page)

Ashley stared up at him dumbfounded. The way he said her name was soft, sensual and brutal all at once and she knew if he picked her up now and threw her up against a wall or on the bed, she would not be able to resist the passion that was consuming her even now.

‘Come, let us eat breakfast together,’ Tristan said and held out his hand. Ashley ignored his hand and walked unsteadily down the remainder of the stairway, aware that Tristan’s eyes were fixed on her hips and rounded buttocks.

‘You are as beautifully formed behind as in front,’ Tristan observed maddeningly, his voice husky with unconcealed desire.

They breakfasted on warm bannocks and cream with fruit and mugs of coffee. Ashley ate in silence, and Tristan made no move to speak, except to urge her to eat more.

‘Could I go back to the farmhouse today?’ Ashley ventured to ask, ‘I need my belongings.’

‘No!’ Tristan was firm and Ashley’s heart plummeted. ‘Your belongings have been fetched from the farmhouse and you have no more need to return there.’

‘I want to go back to England.’

‘Really? And what do you have there?’ Tristan asked.

‘A familiar and safe environment to live in.’

‘Alone?’

‘Yes. Alone. But I also have friends with whom I lived after mama died.’

Ashley was looking down at her plate and didn’t see the sympathy in her captor’s eyes. When she raised her eyes to his once more, however, his expression was veiled.

‘I will let you go when I am certain you will be safe. Besides, wasn’t it your mother’s wish that you should return to her home country and claim what is rightfully yours?’

Ashley bit her lip. ‘And what is rightfully mine? Obviously whatever it is, it will be withheld from me as my biological father seems to want nothing whatsoever to do with me.’

‘He is, even as we speak, receiving counsel on his next course of action.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I am a clan chief. I make it my business to know.’

‘You have spies?’

‘I can’t reveal the methods I employ to keep an eye on other clans.’

Tristan reached out and placed his hand on hers. ‘Do you feel unwanted because your father didn’t marry your mother when he found out about you?’

Ashley shook her head. ‘No. I feel betrayed by my mother. I do not approve of the fact that she tricked my father into marrying her …and that he left us when he found out I wasn’t his.’

‘We all do what we have to do to protect the ones we love,’ Tristan said. ‘Your mother needed respectability for you. She wouldn’t have wanted you to be called illegitimate.’

‘That doesn’t in any way detract from the fact that I am illegitimate,’ Ashley said softly. She turned to Tristan, removing her hand from under his. ‘Isn’t that fact enough to make you think you can keep me here against my will and use me any way you like? You see, nobody fears a bastard; nobody respects one.’

Ashley rose from the table and ran out of the room, visibly upset. Tristan watched her leave, torn between the desire to let her go and the need to have her stay. There was something about this woman that struck a chord within him, and he marvelled at how she unwittingly brought out his softer side. Yet he was clan chief and he could display no vulnerability, so he followed Ashley, reaching her in a few swift strides, and caught her roughly by the arm. ‘You will stay as long as you have to. Not because I do not respect you, but because you are unsafe if you leave right now.’

‘This is just another competition for you – Kincaid against Mackenzie.’

‘Maybe,’ Tristan murmured, releasing her arm.

Ashley was making her way back up the steps when she heard the muskets going off outside. She turned around, white as a sheet, and saw Tristan reach for his claymore.

‘Have they managed to get past the guards?’ Ashley asked.

Tristan gave a low, hollow laugh. ‘Not likely. Have you looked outside Ashley Mackenzie?’

‘No, I can’t see past the courtyard on the side from my window.’

‘Come here,’ Tristan beckoned, and she followed him up a very narrow winding stairway to the castle battlements from where Ashley saw men from different clans guarding Lennox Castle.

‘We have signed a treaty to protect each other against both external and internal attack. The Mackenzie clan was the only one to refuse to join us.’

‘I see,’ Ashley said.

Tristan gave her a long meaningful look. ‘But this morning I have found the perfect way to get your father to sign a peace treaty with me.’ Tristan ran his fingers down the length of his claymore as he spoke and Ashley was overcome by trepidation.

‘Who is firing?’

‘Those are just a few warning shots from the combined army of the clans.’ Tristan took Ashley’s hand and led her down the staircase.

‘Will there be bloodshed?’ Ashley asked shakily.

‘Not if I have my way,’ Tristan smiled.

‘Are the Mackenzies outside?’

‘They are approaching. And I will be there to meet them. With my bride –to- be.’

CHAPTER IV

‘I don’t understand!’ Ashley exclaimed dragging her hand from Tristan’s grasp. ‘What do you mean?’

Tristan eyed her nonchalantly. ‘I am going to take you out there to meet your father and your clan. They will come in war and we are ready to fight. But I am tired of seeing bodies on the moors and blood soaking the heather. I will tell your father that we have decided to wed…and then he will not ask for war.’

‘You cannot take me against my will!’ Ashley spat out defiantly though she knew that each time she repeated those words the fire in Tristan’s eyes grew brighter and her position weakened.

‘Please let me go, I beg you!’ she pleaded, ‘I cannot give myself to you like this.’

But Tristan was not listening. The guards had fired more warning shots from their muskets.

‘The Mackenzie clan is here!’ Tristan said, and threw open the door. He looked like a majestic god of the mountains, carrying his claymore, with one hand on the musket in his belt.

The Kincaid clan was ready to meet the Mackenzies as they arrived. Behind them the other clans arranged themselves – the Buchanan clan, the Darrochs, Galloways and Guthries, resplendent in their tartan kilts and glengarries, all of them bearing arms – broadswords, claymores and muskets.

Tristan swung Ashley onto a horse and climbed on behind her, taking the reins. He rode to the front of the ranks and faced Lydell Mackenzie.

‘What brings you here?’ Tristan asked, one arm firmly around Ashley, whose thoughts were running riot.

‘You have my daughter!’ Lydell roared.

‘A child you weren’t too keen to accept yesterday,’ Tristan reminded him.

‘She is my blood. I have come to claim her,’ Lydell replied.

‘There is something you need to know,’ Tristan said, but Ashley interrupted him without warning.

‘I am a Mackenzie and I was sent here by my late mother to claim my birthright as your daughter!’ She said, her eyes reflecting the fire in her hair. ‘I will fulfill my later mother’s wishes and go with you.’

Tristan’s grip on her waist tightened. ‘What are you doing? What are you saying?’ He asked through clenched teeth.

Ashley ignored him and continued to address Lydell. ‘ But only if you promise that you will live in peace with the Kincaids and all the other clans present here today.’

‘And why should I make a promise to someone I barely know?’

‘Because if you don’t then you will be killed… by all these men behind me. And I do not wish to see bloodshed or to be the cause of it.’

‘I will make no promises!’ Lydell shouted, ‘But if Tristan Kincaid does not release you to your rightful family, then I will continue to fight him and all the other clans here.’

Ashley struggled on the horse. ‘Let me go. Let me go with them, please.’

‘Why?’

‘Because they will let me return to England.’

The Mackenzie clansmen had been spoiling for a fight and they were bored with the negotiations. One of them fired his musket, and that was enough to incite the Kincaids to fury. They charged forward, Tristan holding Ashley and wielding his claymore.  Ashley heard the clang of steel on steel and the sound of muskets going off. Acrid smoke and dust filled the air. Tristan led the combined armies against the Mackenzie clan and there would have been bloodshed but for the fact that Lydell made a sensible decision and retreated.

Ashley struggled, got free of Tristan and slid off his horse. She ran into the sea of horses, and was scooped up into the saddle of a Mackenzie horseman.  The horseman whipped about to throw Tristan a triumphant look, and Ashley saw a flicker of disappointment cloud Tristan’s brow. For a split second she felt regret, but her spirits rose again as the horse gathered speed and galloped across the moors.

‘I have your daughter!’ The horseman shouted to Lydell.

‘To Dunnotar, then!’ Lydell shouted back.

They sped on toward Dunnotar Castle, catching up with Lydell, and rode into the gates as the sun began to go down.

Ashley felt a great hollow in her heart as in her mind she replayed the flicker of shock and disappointment that clouded Tristan’s face as she left him; the sudden sadness in his vivid blue eyes. She wished she had at least said goodbye, or thanked him for his hospitality. She slid off the horse and faced Lydell, studying his features with interest. In his face she saw her eyes, her nose, and her determined chin. Only the dimples were absent.

Lydell led her into his home in silence as Ashley’s half brothers and sisters flew out to gape at her. Lydell’s wife came hesitantly up to her, looked coldly into her face and left. Her half siblings were only slightly less frosty, and Ashley soon found herself alone in very large, very cold room. She stared up at the high ceiling and the grey walls, and wondered why she had been so foolish as to reject Tristan’s offer to stay with him indefinitely.

‘So,’ Lydell said, shuffling his feet, ‘you are here, in my home. What more do you want?’

Ashley gazed sadly at him. Is that all he had to say, she wondered.

‘Look,’ Lydell said by way of explanation, ‘I only came to take you away from the Kincaids to preserve my honour. You mean nothing to me, no matter what claims that letter of yours may make. I had no interest in your mother keeping you in her belly and I have absolutely no interest in keeping you here as a reminder of her.’

‘Did you love my mother at all?’ Ashley ventured.

‘I don’t remember her much,’ Lydell said gruffly, and Ashley knew that he was speaking the truth.

‘You may be my firstborn, but you are of no value to me. You cannot come in here and stake claims to a fortune or a position that is not yours. You were born out of wedlock and therefore I cannot claim you as my own.’

‘So you just brought me here to prove a point to the Kincaid clan.’

‘Yes,’ Lydell answered and Ashley swallowed the lump in her throat.

‘Please…could you let me go back to England?’

‘You have leave to go wherever you wish,’ Lydell answered. ‘I have made my point to the Kincaids, as I said earlier, and you are of no more use to me.’

‘Oh,’ Ashley said, growing more despondent with every word he spoke. ‘Is that what you said to my mother after you had had your way with her? That you had no more use for her?’

Lydell gave her a sharp look but said nothing.

‘When can I leave?’ Ashley asked him.

‘Whenever you want,’ Lydell said, shrugging.

‘Will you have me go alone?’

‘Why not? You came here unaccompanied, did you not?’

Ashley bit her lip. ‘Yes, I did indeed. But now it is not safe. The Kincaid clan and others will be on the warpath. I may be in danger.’

‘It is of no consequence to me whatsoever,’ Lydell answered. ‘You may stay the night if you wish and then leave at first light. You cannot stay longer as it would cause dissension within my family and I cannot have that.’

Lydell shouted for a servant who took her to a room at the rear of the castle where she could wash. A meal of cold meat and bread was given to her on a plate reserved for the servants, but Ashley was hungry and mindful of keeping her strength up. She ate slowly, trying to form some plan in her mind, but could think of nothing. She decided to ask Lydell to have her taken by horse to the farmhouse where she had lodged when she arrived for the Games, and then make her way back from there.

The sky darkened and the rain came down in icy sheets. Ashley shivered without any covering, and went to look for someone to ask for a blanket or a shawl. When she emerged from the room, however, she saw there was a servant standing guard outside who bid her go back into her room and stay there, because the Laird was having supper with his family. Ashley felt a pang of regret, the full implication of her status dawning upon her for the first time. She couldn’t fathom the reason why she had behaved with such indifference and ingratitude towards Tristan, except for the fact that he seemed to take her so much for granted and seemed so certain that she would agree to everything he commanded her to do.

She lay down on the hard bed and pulled the meagre bedclothes up around her cold body, but the events of the day and her own heavy heart prevented sleep and instead she lay awake weeping and bemoaning the fate that had taken her mother away and sent her looking for a father who was unaffected by her existence. She fell into an uneasy slumber in which she dreamed she wore bridal clothes and danced with Tristan Kincaid, and woke up to an impenetrable and frightening darkness with not even the light of a single lamp to dispel it. She wished that Tristan would rescue her, and thought longingly of Lennox Castle, chiding herself for the foolish move she had made that morning.

Meanwhile, in Lennox Castle, Tristan sat thoughtfully at the dining table, staring at his plate of food. He had been so confident of his own plan and was thrown off balance by the turn of events. Most of all he was disturbed by the gaping void that Ashley’s presence had left. He had known her only a few hours and already he felt her absence weight heavily upon him. He had conferred with the Kincaids and all the other clansmen as to their next course of action but there seemed nothing they could do except wait.

‘My Lord,’ a servant addressed him as he entered the room. ‘There is news.’

Tristan pushed his chair back and strode into the Great Hall where a young lad stood patiently in the shadows, waiting for him.

‘What news do you bear?’ Tristan asked him.

‘The lady has not been asked to dine with the family, but eats alone in a back room. She has been told by Lydell Mackenzie that she must leave at first light as her staying would create dissension within his family.’

Tristan’s brow creased. ‘And how does the lady react to this?’

The youth shrugged. ‘She asked for accompaniment to return to England in safety but was granted none. She will be forced to make her way back alone.’

Tristan pressed some money into the young lad’s palm and returned to the dining table where he began to pace restlessly.

CHAPTER V

Ashley stirred and came fully awake. There was some light in her room and she realized that dawn would break soon. She wrapped some of the bedclothes around herself and made her way to a smaller room even further towards the back of the castle. There she went through her morning ablutions and combed her hair back with slightly damp fingers. She could do nothing about a fresh change of clothes, so she returned to her room and sat on the edge of her bed waiting for the sun to come up. But it would seem that the rain only fell thicker and faster and the skies remained dark and brooding.

As the castle came to life, Ashley left her room and looked about for someone who could help her. Only the kitchen staff were awake and they eyed her with hostility, so Ashley slipped out of the castle and began to walk through the rain. She had no course of action charted out, and no plan in mind. She would walk as long as she could, she decided, and hopefully would find her way to the farmhouse, from where she could seek help to make her way back to England, perhaps by stagecoach.

She shivered as they rain fell on and about her. She had taken the bedclothes off the bed and folded them into a covering for her shoulders, but they were soon sodden and clung to her body in an icy mass. The moors were relatively unbroken by trees or rocks and Ashley had no shelter as she walked away from her father’s home. The cold penetrated her skin and found its way into her body, chilling her heart and extinguishing her will. The rain pounded her relentlessly as she wrapped her arms about her, praying for warmth and the will to keep walking. But the highland rain can weaken the strongest will and at that moment Ashley was at her most feeble. While trying to keep steady while descending a slope she slipped on the wet grass and fell, rolling over and over down the incline, and there she lay weeping and defeated. It hadn’t been such a long while ago, she thought, that she was dancing a reel with Tristan and watching him win every game of strength. ‘Oh Tristan!’ she called out through tears, acutely aware that he was the only friend she had in all this wide wilderness and that she had chosen to turn her back on him. She curled herself into a ball to shield herself from the downpour, the smell of wet heather in her nostrils and a prayer on her lips.

When Tristan found her he took her for dead, and wondered if the Mackenzies had killed her and thrown her body out on the moor, but when he placed his ear to her chest, he could, despite the pounding of the rain, hear a faint heartbeat. He lifted her onto his horse and sped back to Lennox Castle, holding her close to his body for warmth.

When Ashley came to she was lying in a warm bed with a fire in the grate. She tossed feverishly and felt gentle hands on her forehead and strong arms lifting her up to pour a bitter medicine down her throat. She wondered vaguely where she was, but had no energy to ponder the subject for longer than a fleeting minute.

Tristan watched her hour after hour and day after day, until one day she stirred and called out to her mother.

Tristan felt a pang at hearing her voice, so faint and weak, calling for someone dear to her who was no more.

‘Where am I?’ Ashley asked, her eyes searching the room and eventually alighting on him.

Tristan leaned towards her, aware of how overcome he was, and anxious not to make a display that would make her think him weak. ‘You’re back in Lennox Castle, I’m afraid.’