A Captive Heart Read Free Page B

fazed by his scornful, arrogant manner, however young and simple he might believe her to be. She must not show her fear to him. She would ease his pain as best she could, if he would only allow it. But she knew that she should tell her father and soon. He would not allow a wounded man to die. He was their enemy but badly needed their help.
    ‘ You have not told me your name; you can at least tell me this.’
    He laughed softly his green eyes studying her face closely. ‘My lady, on such a very short acquaintance if you should choose to do so you may call me Adam,’ he said then added quickly. ‘There is a lead musket ball that has dwelt far too long for comfort in my left shoulder, I think. And I stupidly fell from my horse afterwards.’
    He studied her face again and even more carefully this time. There was a look of sympathy now in her lustrous honey brown eyes that replaced the look of alarm he had first seen mirrored in them. Would she remember him soon too? He thought it possible now she knew his first name.
    ‘ Then we must do something about it immediately, Adam,’ she said with a sweetly, curving smile that warmed the bitter cold chills out of his body, and speedily uplifted his heart and set it beating.
    ‘You can do little else than report me, Tamsin Trevenian,’ he said with a grave smile.
    ‘I should do so, but for the moment until I can do something about your injury you must trust me. I will find someone to get the shot from your shoulder. I cannot promise more than that, sir.’
    Trust her! I can do little else. For the moment. Adam thought to himself. This brave young girl who believed he was the enemy and the devil incarnate no less. He saw her leave the cave swiftly now, her mind made up. He couldn’t go with her. So what had she decided to do about him?
    What else could he do now but to leave his fate entirely in her tender hands. He had no other choice. His position for the moment was desperate; he knew she may well reveal his presence to her father. It could lead to his instant capture and trial in the Star Chamber held at St Mary’s Castle and almost certainly execution as a spy. If death didn’t come before then.
    He knew only too well that the searing pain in his shoulder meant that the musket shot was doing its worst and without its swift removal it could soon lead to his death. Without food and assistance from her he could and would most certainly die alone in the cave.
    He could do nothing else but accept her help, if she was willing to give it. Though he had no wish to force Tamsin Trevenian to do something she abhorred or it could put her life into grave danger for not obeying the rules of war.
    He’d recognised her immediately - hers was a face that he’d known from their happy childhood days when they had played together as small children at Treganna. He had teased her often because she’d wished only to be a boy like him, like her dear cousin Jago and his younger brother Benedict. How he wished now that those good days could come back for them all.
    Perhaps in another happier time they would have spent their days out together riding and he would tell her how much he adored her for every precious moment he spent in her company.
    Adam knew he had fallen in love with her since the moment he first saw her bending over him with the lighted candle wax in her trembling hand, moved by the great concern he saw in her beautiful golden brown eyes. She hadn’t recognised him as quickly as he would have liked, even though her father had been and was still his father’s best childhood friend.
    He had used his knowledge of the Piper Hole to save himself but it could also now prove to be his undoing and hers too. She would have little choice if they were discovered there together but to surrender him to her father. The unexpected arrival of so young a girl in the cave was like a gift from heaven itself for him at first. But was she as naive and innocent as she first appeared to be? She could