Tempted by Virginia Henley Read Free Book Online

for the beacon fires used as an alarm system for invasion and suchlike. Tina headed toward Muirkirk, a plain stretching between the counties of Ayr and Lanark, as this was likely the closest Beltane revel. As she topped the ridge, she saw half a dozen riders coming from the opposite direction and recognized they were Hamiltons from their bright blue tartan.
    She quickly brought one leg over her saddle so that theirleader would not know she had been riding astride and hoped her velvet skirts would cover the fact that there was no side-saddle.
    “Valentina!” Patrick Hamilton was both pleased and concerned to find her abroad this night. He dismounted immediately and came to her side. His men stayed back to give them some small privacy. Patrick Hamilton was dark and dashing, his tall slim back straight as a ramrod with the pride of clan in his bearing. He placed a possessive hand upon her knee. “I carina believe yer out without a groom, mistress. ‘Tis Providence brought ye ma way.”
    The tip of her riding boot rested almost touching his hand upon her other knee. She let him know she could kick his hand away if she so chose. The last light was fading fast and wasn’t sufficient for him to see her golden eyes, but where it touched her magnificent hair, it set it aflame. Patrick felt a strong desire to pull her down to him and ravish the mouth that teased so temptingly.
    “I assume you are riding to visit the admiral,” she said “If you come to Doon for dinner on Friday evening, I’ll get Mr. Burque to prepare your favorite, Patrick.”
    “Thanks, Tina, I’d be delighted. Ye know my destination, but I dinna know yours.”
    “You’re right,” she said laughing
    Just as Patrick was about to reach for the maddening creature, Heath topped the ridge. Patrick frowned at her escort’s good looks and wide shoulders. “Ye ha’ a groom after all,” he said, sounding most disappointed.
    “Good night, Patrick, I must be off. I have a most pressing appointment.”
    Hamilton had ridden five miles with Valentina Kennedy filling his senses before he remembered that it was Beltane, but as soon as the dark suspicion crossed his mind, he dismissed it. “She wouldna dare,” he assured himself.
    The Kennedys had laid their plans well the previous night and had even ridden out to the perimeter of theDouglas lands they were about to raid. The Douglas clan was the richest in Scotland, their acreage vast, their herds too numerous to count. Donal and Duncan had conceived the idea and laid it before the other Kennedys when they brought down their winter wool. Without going close to the castle at Douglas, which was nicknamed Castle Dangerous, Donal estimated they could lift about two hundred cattle and four hundred curly-horned sheep from Douglas tenants, and the best part was that the Douglas clan would blame their bitter enemies, the Hamiltons, who lived not ten miles away in the same county, Lanark.
    The Kennedys had agreed to divide whatever they were able to steal and leave immediately for their own holdings, which lay in half a dozen different directions. Donal would take his share to Castle Kennedy on Loch Ryan, which he hoped would be his when he married. He would also leave a few on his holding in Kirkcudbright, overlooking Solway Firth It amused him that his peel tower at Kirkcudbright was only ten miles from the massive stronghold known as Castle Douglas.
    Donal had given his men strict orders not to approach the castle, for he wanted no violent affray. This was to be a simple cattle raid under dark of night, and if their luck held, the Douglases wouldn’t even know about it till dawn.
    All went according to plan, with the Kennedys content to let Donal give the orders. All except David who had a few ideas of his own. It was Davie Kennedy’s first taste of reiving, though he’d been anticipating the event for years, avidly listening to tales told at clan gatherings. He relished the brutish pleasure of wreaking havoc upon a