Rules of Surrender (Gov 1) by Christina Dodd

Author:Christina Dodd [Dodd, Christina]
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2010-09-26T06:13:27.299000+00:00

tell him. Then, maybe, he’d leave her alone to do her job.

Yanking her arm out of his grasp, she settled back on the seat, her arms crossed over her belly and her

mouth unsmiling. ”What do you want to know? Everything? Or just the information about my ignominious

departure from Porterbridge Hall?“

He leaned forward as if he still feared she would bolt. ”Everything, I would think.“

She looked down at her fingers, and absentmindedly straightened their clawlike curve. ”I was an only

child. I was very spoiled. I had a nursery, a nanny, a governess and many toys all to myself. The

corridors of Porterbridge Hall were mine to run through. The lands were mine to ride my pony across.“

Her youth had truly been a golden time, and the only way she could talk about those years was in a

monotone, shutting herself off from the memories by sheer determination. Because when she allowed

herself to remember… She would not remember. ”Papa and Mama were killed by a lightning bolt when I

was eleven.“

Wynter tried to take her hand, but she flinched away from him. ”You want to know. You can know. Just

don’t touch me.“

He didn’t like that, she could see. His wide brow puckered and the skin around his scar turned white.

But as she suspected, he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize this engaging gossip, or at least not until she

had told every last juicy morsel.

She held his gaze until he nodded and sat back, then she continued, ”The land wasn’t mine anymore.

The manor wasn’t mine anymore. My uncle and his family moved in, and there were so many of them.

They said I didn’t need the nursery, I wasn’t a baby, and they placed their infants in the cradle where I’d

rocked my dolls. The older ones invaded the playroom. My uncle said he didn’t need to buy toys,

because I had so many. My nanny resigned, and my governess. Uncle didn’t want to pay them more for

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caring for and teaching all his children than they had been paid for just me. I had to share my bedchamber

with two of my cousins. One wet the bed. They fought. There was no place I could go to be alone, and

no one cared for me.“ That sounded like self-pity, so she added in explanation, ”Why would they? They

didn’t even care for each other.“

Wynter stripped off his gloves and tossed them aside. ”What did you do?“

”Do?“

”Did you throw tantrums? Did you demand your toys back?“

”No. Of course not. I was so bewildered… I look back and I think, poor child. So confused. Just on

the brink of womanhood and no one—“ She snapped her mouth shut. She didn’t want to give him insight

into the troubled girl she had been. He would enjoy it too much, this retelling of her pain. They all enjoyed

it, all the seekers after scandal.

”You were frightened.“

His soft tone and kind eyes couldn’t fool her. This was an inquisition of the most brutal kind. ”Of

every-thing,“ she agreed harshly. ”I think that annoyed the whole family. They’d shout, stomp around,

kick each other and fight.

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