Chapter Seventeen

Tamsin

Tamsin sat in her chamber, shivering because there was no firewood to burn. She wrapped a thin fur around her, but it didn't help much.

The ride back from Mull had been uneventful, since her husband spent all his time talking with the guards about what a fine job they'd done retrieving her. They were all lies from her vantage point, but she'd not said a word. He had a way of twisting everything to make himself look like the most powerful man in the world.

The only event that involved her was when he turned and spit in her lap. Tamsin thought she would heave over the side of the ship. The man was vile.

But she would mind her manners because she knew he pushed her, looking for any excuse to beat her. He didn't often beat her in front of others, preferring to do so in private, especially without a valid reason, and he was hoping she would give him that reason, but she refused. She anticipated his hand would be ready to strike her at any indiscretion she committed, so she sat still and acted as though nothing was wrong.

She would wait until they were alone to ask about Alana.

In fact, her mind was already planning the best way to go about learning the location of her daughter. There was one serving lass she trusted, so she thought to ask her where Alana was being held. Asking her husband would be a waste of her time and would probably provoke a litany of lectures and slaps. Raghnall would never reveal the truth unless he had a reason that would benefit himself.

In view of the situation at hand, she had to wait to see how to approach him.

But she vowed to find Alana. She had to know she was hale and safe.

She decided the best thing to do with her time was to make a plan, find a way to get away from Raghnall, uncover where her daughter was being kept, and then concoct a way to get her off the isle.

There were numerous regrets about her trip to the Isle of Mull. She should have asked someone like Eli to teach her how to swim. She wished she'd learned how to use a bow and arrow, though she'd never seen either around Raghnall's home, and she knew he would never have allowed her to bring weaponry along.

Tamsin was all alone on the Isle of Ulva. How would she ever find her way off the isle? And if she found a way for herself, how could she manage to get Alana away when she had no idea where the child was hidden?

Raghnall lived in a type of longhouse much like the Norse lived in. That was what her mother always called these structures. Her mother-in-law wasn't far away, residing in a separate but similar building, but Tamsin didn't know which one. There were three buildings behind their main longhouse. But there were only two ways to locate her daughter.

She would ask Alma, the only serving lass to ever be kind to her, if she knew where Alana was. If the serving lass couldn't help her, then the only alternative was Raghnall.

Knowing that her ultimate goal was to find her daughter, Tamsin accepted the sad fact that since Raghnall had kept her isolated ever since their marriage, she had no friends to help her.

Forcing herself out of her chair, she moved about the chamber, rubbing her arms for warmth. The chamber was cold, even in the early summer months. The sun was never upon her window, the trees behind the house preventing the warmth she needed from the golden orb in the sky.

The door banged open with a force unlike she'd ever seen before, and her husband filled the doorway. "Are you prepared to give me a son? I will plant my seed again, but it is up to you to guarantee that this bairn is a lad. Do you agree, wife?"

She had no other choice but to do what he said, even though she had no idea how to accomplish such a thing. She knew what she had to endure to make a child, but how to make sure it was a boy was something she'd never learned.

"Ready yourself." He stepped out and said, "I will return quickly."

She had no choice in this matter. He was the only path to Alana.