A Captive Heart Read Free

firing squad.
    He heard someone calling out loud, clear and close. It sounded like a young woman’s voice asking anxiously, ‘Who are you? Why are you hiding in here? Show yourself!’
    Then he knew no more till he recovered his senses at last to see someone holding up a lighted candle which dripped hot wax down on him where he lay.
    ‘So here you are, sir! I heard you. You cried out. What are you doing in here? Are you in pain?’
    Adam looked up to see that it was a young face that gazed down at him with a look of shock in the golden honey brown eyes, but when he tried to answer he found he was unable to.
    Tamsin bent over him and a gasp escaped her when she saw his wounded arm and head. ‘Oh! I fear that are badly injured, sir. You need help! How did you find this cave? You don’t belong here do you?’

 
    Chapter Four
     
    Tamsin knew now this was no strange magical Merman from the sea or a prince like in the fairy tales. This was a real man and possibly the enemy: a stranger who could wish to harm her. He wore a strange military uniform, that of an Ironside trooper, which forewarned her quickly that he was a Roundhead. But he seemed familiar to her.
    What was he doing in here on his own unprotected in the cave? The answer came quickly to her. Of course, he’d escaped capture and death that very day from her father’s Royalist troopers. He had nowhere else to go.
    So how had he known about the existence of the Piper Hole? He must have spent quite some time on the island beforehand, studying it well. Days, perhaps, before fighting commenced on Tresco that morning. He must be a Cromwellian spy!
    Should I leave him alone in this cave now? Leave him to his almost certain fate - death from discovery by my father’s men or death from his wounds and starvation? Her conscience fought with her fear as she saw the signs of suffering in his face. No - no, I cannot do it .
    Tamsin , battening down her fears bravely, held the flickering candle stub high above her head, which revealed to her immediately that the man’s torn blood-stained linen jacket was not that of a trooper but the fine cloth and cut of a gentleman. So what had been his real business here?
    A s she came in closer towards the stranger she gazed long and hard down at him and could see that he was young with a strong, handsome face, and thick dark curling hair. He seemed so familiar to her. Her heart beat all the faster when she saw that there was an ominous dark stain on his torn cream linen shirtsleeve running from his shoulder to his wrist which betrayed that he was indeed badly wounded. His face was deathly pale, drawn in pain, his eyes still closed tight as a groan escaped him again.
    How long had he been lying there? Hours? All day? Perhaps since the early morning battle? Tamsin leant closer over his dark head and the flickering candle threw a golden aura around her copper ringlets falling loose about her shoulders.
    He had heard and felt her movement beside him. His eyes flickered, once, twice, then opened wide when he saw her brown eyes looking down at him.
    ‘Who in God’s name are you? What has brought you in here lad?’ he exclaimed loudly.
    He struggled to raise himself up but he groaned and fell back heavily against the cave wall, leaving a fresh a trail of blood from his injured shoulder.
    ‘What do you want with me, boy?’
    Her heart fluttered wildly as the candlelight shining on his face revealed that his eyes were as vivid a sea green colour as a Merman’s eyes were reputed to be. His hair was thick and dark, curling long into the nape of his neck.
    ‘Are you in much pain, sir?’ she asked him.
    His dark brows frowned back at her and he asked her again hoarsely, ‘And who the devil might you be? Are you a bold fisher lad come to save me or are you perhaps an angel sent down from Heaven?’
    His harsh laughter startled her and the candle shook in her trembling hand, casting long dancing shadows across the cave walls around them.
    She