A Measured Risk by Natasha Blackthorne

Author:Natasha Blackthorne [Blackthorne, Natasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Amazon: B008IGP1NO
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing
Published: 2012-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

The vehicle was placed behind the cottage. It had been waiting for her, waiting to terrorise her today. She hadn’t seen it when she’d arrived.

It was Anne’s fifth day at the cottage. Cool morning showers had given way to a warmer late afternoon with more ominous looking clouds looming on the horizon. The interior was too humid, too hot. It was also dark. Jon said it must be that way. Her knuckles were numb from gripping the edge of seat.

Which was ridiculous. There were no horses attached to this carriage. It wasn’t going anywhere. But it didn’t matter. Just being inside it made her feel as though she would soon cast up her accounts.

Her stomach kept lurching, each lurch increasing the urge to give in to the nausea.

“Oh, I feel ill. I shall be ill,” she said.

“No, you won’t. Just breathe slowly and deeply. Concentrate only on your breathing.”

She did as he bade and the edge of illness did ebb. But not nearly enough. “Can we leave now?”

“We’ve been here but barely five minutes. Another five.” He touched her hand, somehow, in the darkness. “Give me your hands.”

Was he going to bind her again? She jerked them back and held them to herself.

“Anne, give me your hands.”

“I don’t want to be bound.”

His shocked exhalation sounded unnaturally loud. “I am not going to bind you. Not here.”

Relief washed over her.

“Give them to me.” His deep, firm tones comforted her.

She let go of the seat’s edge and let him take her hands.

He pulled her across the seat. She came up against his solid, strong body. He was drawing her arms around himself. He placed his hand on the small of her back.

The rocking motion of being pulled to him seemed to continue. It made her feel groundless there in the dark, floating free with the carriage as it had turned over…

”I’ve got you.” He pressed her closer. “You’re completely safe here with me.”

His scent filled her nostrils, his strength surrounded her. Of course she was safe. How silly he must think her to be.

He ran a caressing hand up and down her back.

“Tell me about your Season,” he said.

“My Season?” Her stomach churned but with less intensity.

“Yes, your first Season. Were you excited about meeting the queen?”

“I was terrified by every moment of my first Season. I was only sixteen.”

“And a very sheltered sixteen at that.” His voice was so understanding. Just the way it could be sometimes…it melted the last of her resistance to open up to him.

“Yes.” Her stomach lurched but with less intensity. “I had been secluded in Ireland in the countryside. The shock of coming to London was traumatic.”

“But you had your abigail and your mother, correct?”

“Oh, Mama. Goodness. She had never had time to notice me before, but she suddenly dictated my every move. She declared me plump as a plum pudding and then they starved me as well. When I met the queen, I was about ready to faint from hunger. Oh, and those hoop skirts are a terrible invention.

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