Catherine Coulter's Regency Historical Romances by Catherine Coulter

Author:Catherine Coulter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2012-08-02T04:00:00+00:00

Arabella maintained a wary silence until they reached the top of the stairs. She tried to pull away from him but could not. She said between her teeth, “Let me go. I want to go to my bedchamber now.”

He tightened his arm around her waist. “Of course, you mean to say our bedchamber. That, my dear, was exactly where I was taking you.”

“No, damn you, no.” She managed to wrench away from him. She sped down the corridor to her room and flung the door wide. She stopped dead in her tracks. A sense of unreality seized her. All the furniture was swathed in ghostly holland covers. Her favorite pictures were gone, her personal belongings nowhere to be seen. The room was stripped of her presence. It was as if she had never spent a moment in this bedchamber, never existed. With a gulp of panic she raced to the armoire and pulled at the ivory knobs. All her gowns, cloaks, and bonnets were gone; even her slippers, lined in a colorful row, had vanished. She turned slowly and saw the earl standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.

“What have you done? Where are all my clothes, my pictures, my brushes? Damn you, answer me!”

The earl straightened and said matter-of-factly, “I decided your room was not big enough for both of us. Thus, during dinner I had your belongings removed to the earl’s bedchamber. If Evesham Abbey’s ghostly visitors return, we will simply have to accustom ourselves to them. Now, come, wife, your husband awaits his pleasure.”

Arabella slipped her hand into the pocket of her gown, closing her fingers over the smooth ivory handle of her small pistol. When she had seen it next to her jewel box before dinner, she had wondered at herself for not remembering it earlier. Ironically, her father’s gift would protect her now from the man he had so carefully chosen for her. There had to be irony in that somewhere. She drew up now to her full height. “Were you intending another rape tonight?”

He shrugged indifferently. “It was not rape. I used cream to ease you. It is not my fault you fought me. However, it will be as you wish it. I will use no cream on you tonight. If your lover is to enjoy you by day, I see no reason why I should not be equally indulged at night.

“Besides, I am not yet bored with you. Did you forget that I told you that your breasts were lovely? I didn’t examine you all that closely last night. Tonight, I intend to explore every inch of you. Surely you would enjoy a man’s attention focused entirely on you.”

She flinched at his words, seeing him staring down at her last night. He believed he could do anything to her, order her to obey him in all things. He thought she was a slut. He thought she had betrayed him. Well, she wasn’t and she hadn’t. She also had a pistol. Never again would he force her.

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