Loving the Bitter Baron: Sweet and Clean Regency Romance (His Majesty's Hounds Book 11) by Arietta Richmond

Author:Arietta Richmond [Richmond, Arietta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dreamstone Publishing
Published: 2018-02-05T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“Oh! How silly of me. Mills, I wanted to go down into the cellars again today, and we haven’t brought a lantern. Please, go back and fetch one. I will wait here – it’s pleasant to feel a little sun on my face, even if it’s quite cold today.”

“Certainly, Lady Alyse. I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”

Mills turned and went back the way they had come, passing a servant who was sweeping the courtyard. Quite what he was sweeping, Alyse couldn’t tell, for the courtyard looked scrupulously clean to her – but she supposed it only stayed that way if it was swept all the time.

She stood, turning slowly in place, studying the building yet again, her sketch journal firm in her grasp. It was a new one, for she had, just the previous day, used the final page in the previous one, which now lay beside her bed upstairs. New journals were wonderful – the paper crisp and untouched, the edges a little ragged where they had been cut, the whole thing still smelling of the binder’s glue and the scent unique to paper and leather, untouched by ink.

In the sunlit silence of the courtyard, the soft swish of the broom on the cobbles came to her clearly, from behind her. Then it stopped. Almost before she had time to notice, she was grabbed, roughly, from behind. She opened her mouth to speak, to scream, to… she did not know, and, before she could, the chance was taken from her, as a large, dirty hand clamped over her mouth. A strong, sackcloth clad arm wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her sides, and hauling her back against a hard body. The smell of the man made her gag.

Then they were moving.

She squirmed, fighting against his grip, but he was far stronger than her. He made a deep growling noise, and simply kept dragging her along. They went through the door, and rapidly down the shallow stairs towards the cellars. As he turned along the passage, passing side doors, moving towards the door which led into the deepest cellars, she began to struggle again, her mind full of terrified thoughts about what he might want, what he might do to her.

He dragged her onto the steep steps going down into the darkness of the next level, and she kicked at him, twisting desperately.

“Be still, ye little baggage, or I’ll drop ye, and let ye fall all the way down. There’s lots o’ steps, and by the time ye reach the bottom, I’ve no doubt ye’ll be in no condition t’fight me. One way or t’other, I’ll be getting ye t’ the bottom.”

Alyse stilled, horror at his words driving a chill through her. It would seem that he didn’t care if she was hurt – and a fall like that could break bones. If she were to escape, she needed to be whole of body.

His strength was frightening. He just lifted her, with that one arm, and went down, surefooted in the darkness, holding her so that she hung limply against him.

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