Czytaj książkę: «The Virgin's Debt»

Chapter One

Scotland, 1540

They were going to kill her anyway, so she let her contempt show.

Katrina McLeod glared at the three men in front of her. Like apostles of a pagan god, they sat behind the table of roughly hewn pine, their faces frozen in pious outrage. Behind her, she could hear the rustle of skirts as the two women ordered to witness her interrogation shifted restlessly on their feet.

‘Can you see the devil?’ asked Jonathan Crawford, the leader of the court.

‘Aye.’ Katrina gave the man a firm nod. ‘I can see the devil clearly.’

‘What does he look like?’

‘He is tall and gaunt, dressed in a grey doublet and a thick black coat with a patch over one elbow.’ She directed an unblinking stare at Crawford as she described his appearance.

The man’s narrow face twisted with fury. He lurched forward, arms outstretched, as though wanting to strangle her with his bare hands. Katrina recoiled. For an instant, the mental wall she had erected around her fear shattered, and images of what awaited her broke through.

They would burn her on the stake. Flames would lick at her feet, and then grow into a roaring inferno that consumed her. How long did it take to die by fire? Did your flesh scorch or melt? Could she tolerate the pain, or would she in her last moments lose her sanity and enter eternity in the grip of madness?

At the rear of the room, the door opened and shut with a slam. Footsteps thudded across the floor in an odd rhythm of clomp and drag. A cold draft swirled around Katrina’s bare feet, fluttering the hem of the long white linen robe she’d been ordered to change into for the trial.

In front of her, Jonathan Crawford surged to his feet. ‘Baron Rothmore.’

‘It’s no longer Baron Rothmore. Just Rothmore.’

The deep voice drew goose bumps on her skin. Katrina whirled. A sound of surprise caught in her throat as she saw the newcomer. Lean, broad shouldered and no more than medium height, he was dressed like a working man, in dark breeches and a plain white shirt under a black coat. But despite the simplicity of his garments, they were made from the finest of fabrics, and on his feet he wore tall boots in gleaming black leather.

Drawn by her startled cry, the stranger gave Katrina a sharp look before abruptly glancing away. The expression on his face hardened. An instant later, his eyes returned to linger on her, although she got the impression that he regarded her with reluctance.

‘What is this all about?’ he asked, his manner gruff. ‘Why has my presence been requested?’

‘It is Baron Rothmore we sent for,’ Crawford informed him.

‘My cousin is the Baron now and he is busy,’ the man said. ‘You’ve got to deal with me or manage without.’

‘We need the Baron’s authority to condemn Katrina MacLelland as a witch.’

Katrina flinched. She’d misled the villagers about her name, and chose not to correct it now. If she suddenly claimed to be of noble birth, no one would believe her. She would be branded a liar, which would only make matters worse.

‘A witch?’ The man turned to Katrina. ‘Is that what they think you are?’

Her gaze collided with his, and the room faded away. His eyes were a clear golden-brown, like those of an eagle, and in them she detected a suffering that made her want to reach out and lay her hand against his stubble-shadowed cheek.

The stranger had the rugged Highland looks, with sharp angles and planes to his features, softened by a sensual wide mouth. Thick locks of brown hair fell to his shoulders, shiny and untangled. Everything about his appearance spoke of an odd mix of a commoner and a nobleman.

‘That is what they say,’ Katrina told him in a low voice. ‘That I’m a witch.’

‘I beg you not to address the prisoner,’ Crawford cried.

The newcomer shifted his attention to the three men behind the pine table. ‘I’ll address whomever I wish,’ he declared bluntly. ‘Why is this woman accused of witchcraft?’

‘She cast a spell on my brother. Despite his God-fearing nature, he has become besotted. A week ago, he offered to marry this penniless slut who appeared from nowhere a month ago. Out of torment, the woman rejected him, and last night she put a spell on him and made him forget God’s commandments. She almost tricked him into fornication.’

Katrina’s hands clenched into fists as she recalled how Kenneth Crawford had accosted her at the cemetery last night. People had seen her fleeing past the church. Her torn clothing, together with the fact that the incident took place on sacred ground, had triggered the accusations of an alliance with the powers of darkness.

‘I see.’ Rothmore rubbed his fingers along his jaw in a thoughtful gesture. ‘Has there been a physical investigation for marks of the Devil on her body? Has her skin been pricked with a witch-needle to see if she bleeds?’

‘Not yet.’ Crawford’s eyes narrowed. ‘We haven’t progressed that far.’

‘Let’s not waste any more time.’ Rothmore gestured at the two witnesses.

The women stepped forward. Plain cloth caps covered their tightly pinned hair, and shapeless brown garments hid the contours of their bodies. Their faces remained carefully empty of expression. Only their eyes seemed alive, and in them Katrina detected a flicker of pity that gave her some consolation.

‘Strip her naked,’ Crawford ordered.

The women glanced at Rothmore for confirmation.

He shook his head. ‘Just lower the robe down to her waist.’

Katrina closed her eyes in an attempt to hide her shame. She stood in the centre of the room, her body rigid as the women undid the buttons on her white linen shift and pushed the fabric down her shoulders, releasing her arms from the sleeves and bunching the folds around her waist.

‘Are you cold?’ The question came in the deep voice that made her skin tingle.

‘Yes,’ Katrina murmured, without opening her eyes.

She heard the odd halting footsteps again, and the clanking of an iron poker against the hearth as someone stirred the dying embers. Another log landed in the fire with a thud, and tendrils of acrid smoke began to drift around the room.

The women finished the task of disrobing her and stepped aside. Katrina opened her eyes. Holding her head high, she focused on the picture of the Christ on the cross that hung on the wall above the heads of her tormentors. Her mouth tightened with bitterness. By now, she’d lost all illusions of the glory of martyrdom.

The stares of the four men felt like hands on her skin, three greedy and lecherous, one gentle and reverent. Disturbed by her acute awareness of the stranger, Katrina stole a glance to her left. The flames had leaped to life, crackling as they grew. Rothmore stood between her and the fireplace, legs braced, arms crossed over his chest, his body a dark silhouette against the glow.

Fire.

Horror welled up anew inside Katrina at the prospect of how she might burn on the stake. The humiliation of being exposed in front of a group of leering men added to her helpless rage at the injustice, and tears that she had managed to control all day trickled down her cheeks. She felt a light touch on her arm, and when she turned to look, she saw the older of the two women give her a small comforting nod. Then the woman cast a frightened glance toward the pine table and resumed her blank expression.

‘Have you inspected her long enough?’ Rothmore asked, anger edging his voice.

A chorus of subdued replies rose behind the pine table.

‘Stand up,’ Rothmore ordered.

‘What?’ Crawford sent him a puzzled frown.

‘On your feet.’ Rothmore crossed the room, this time moving in front of Katrina, and she saw the pronounced limp that caused the uneven cadence of his boots against the floor.

Chairs scraped over the timber planks as the three men shuffled to their feet.

‘Look at your groin.’ Rothmore proceeded past them and gestured at their bulging codpieces. ‘Hard as an iron pike, every one of you.’ With a rueful twist to his lips, he glanced down. ‘And I’m no different. That’s how God created men. We lust after women, and when a woman is as beautiful as this one, a man can lose his reason. There is no witchcraft involved, only the basics of physical science and human behaviour.’

Willoughby, a slight man in his thirties who had from the start been the least eager to condemn Katrina to her death, cleared his throat. ‘Are you telling us that the reaction of Kenneth Crawford to this woman might have been natural and not the result of witchcraft?’

‘Completely natural.’ Rothmore flung up his hands. ‘If I suspected a woman of being a witch every time one gets me into this state, I’d be forced to conclude that the entire female sex has made a pact with the Devil.’ He nodded at the three men. ‘It is the virility of a man that drives his arousal. If a man does not react to beauty, there must be something wrong with him. I’m glad to see that you’re all in full health.’

Katrina’s eyes grew wide as she watched Rothmore’s performance. The man had the audacity to pander to the male pride of her tormentors. If a small ray of hope hadn’t risen in her heart that she might be allowed to continue her time on earth, she’d have intervened and contradicted the nonsense the man was spouting. But instead, she stood still and observed his oratory skills, almost forgetting her half-naked state.

‘Where will she go if we release her?’ Willoughby asked. ‘She’s been staying in the cottage her grandfather used to rent, but the new tenants will arrive next week.’

‘I want her to leave the village,’ Crawford said. ‘My brother is a good man. I won’t have him corrupted by feminine tricks, even if there is no witchcraft involved.’

‘I could take her with me,’ Rothmore suggested. ‘I no longer live at Rothmore Castle. I have set up household on a farm at the north end of the estate, and I need servants.’

Dazed, Katrina listened as she was declared innocent and the witch trial was formally concluded. She was allowed to cover herself, and the two female witnesses departed, casting relieved smiles in her direction.

‘Where are your clothes and shoes?’ Rothmore asked.

‘I don’t know,’ she replied. ‘They took them and gave me this robe to wear.’

‘The garments were thought tainted by the Devil’s touch,’ Willoughby explained. ‘They were taken away and burned.’

‘Get me a blanket,’ Rothmore ordered.

When the three men lingered, he scowled at them. ‘Leave. Now. All of you. Find me a blanket and leave it in the vestibule.’

As soon as they were gone, he turned to Katrina. ‘I already have a housekeeper and two maids, but I need a woman to see to my personal needs. If you want the position, I’ll take you with me. If not, I’ll leave you in the next village, and you can find your own way from there.’

Panic seized Katrina as the meaning of his words sank in. Her gaze darted over the man standing before her, took in the handsome features and the physical handicap that he couldn’t hide. She recalled the dark shadows of suffering she’d glimpsed at in his eyes, and a wave of sympathy swept over her.

He had shown her kindness, had saved her life.

The need to repay the gift by easing his pain swelled in her heart.

Beneath her silent scrutiny, the stranger’s mouth twisted into a bitter smile. ‘I’m not going to change however long you keep staring at me. I’m only half a man, and always will be.’ He shuffled his weight on his infirm leg. ‘Well, what’s it to be? Are you accepting my offer or not?’

Katrina flinched. His angry tone told her more clearly than eloquent words might have done that Rothmore needed affection, the comfort of a woman’s touch. She expelled a long sigh as the choice took shape in her mind. She had fled her father’s estate to avoid an unwanted marriage to a man she despised. Being burned on the stake would have been too high a price to pay for her freedom, but becoming another man’s mistress was not.

‘Yes,’ Katrina said. ‘I’ll come with you.’