Her Every Pleasure by Gaelen Foley

Author:Gaelen Foley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical
Publisher: Ballantine
Published: 2010-09-27T22:00:00+00:00

While the whole castle made its final preparations for the grand affair, Gabriel poured his energies into drilling the squad of Greek bodyguards mercilessly with all his new procedures.

There was more to his ruthlessness than polishing their performance, however. He was purposely driving them to the edge of their endurance to find out who might crack, which one might show signs of weakness.

He had told Sophia he preferred not to use them at all the night of the gala, replacing them with British soldiers instead, but she refused to let him cut them out, for in her view, they would be humiliated.

Gabriel realized that the slight would indeed alert the Greeks that they were under suspicion, so he conceded with a shrug, still irked by Sophia’s refusal to heed his doubts about the men. Damn it, he was only trying to protect her. The stubborn royal’s insistence on having her old friends around her that night meant that Gabriel could do naught but design a second layer of security ringing the royal target and her retinue of bodyguards.

He did not communicate his suspicions of the Greek men to the dozen British soldiers he borrowed from the garrison, but the latter would be in position to watch the bodyguards and the princess.

At last, the long-awaited night arrived.

Gabriel, in full dress uniform, was patrolling the grand, gilded ballroom that Griff had led him through on that first day of his arrival.

On that sunny afternoon, the ballroom had been empty, its vast parquet floors agleam, but tonight, it was thronged with important guests, and full of noise—chattering voices and the clink of glasses and dessert plates, all vying with the robust rhythms of the Greek music especially procured for the occasion.

Strolling on through the sumptuous staterooms of the castle’s main floor, he observed all with tense watchfulness, checking in with his men in each room, making sure there was no sign of trouble.

All was running smoothly.

The rococo reception rooms within the stark medieval castle had been dressed up to resemble a scene taken from some Hellenistic vase, a frolicking day in the life of Classical Antiquity.

The columns everywhere were decorated with vines. Tall, burning braziers reminiscent of ancient Greece warded off the autumn chill for all the poor servants who had been made to don white togas for the occasion, both males and females, with leafy wreaths around their heads. A dozen jolly Bacchuses and young Ganymedes kept the wine flowing.

Footmen in charge of directing the guests toward the various entertainments wore large, eerie, expressionless masks painted gold, like those of the ancient Greek theater, long togas flowing over their bodies like so many wandering Aristotles.

In one room, Gabriel saw the portly Regent laughing at the display of Olympian sports in the center of the large, stately chamber. Lady Alexa had also claimed a front-row seat and was watching the greased male wrestlers throw each other around for the entertainment of the highborn.

How very risqué, Gabriel thought dryly, but when it came to

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