Fires of Delight Read Free Page B

is it , she had thought. We are both thoroughbreds. We are the best .
    Afterwards, he had led her out onto a balcony overlooking the North Sea. There, with the aurora borealis blazing in the enchanted winter sky, they clung to each other in the cold wind, and he kissed her for the first time. It had been the beginning of everything, of a love—she was sure—that not even death would be powerful enough to end…
    And Selena believed that she had changed him, not by curbing or taming the seignorial impulses of his matchless nature, but by using her love to evoke the compassion that had lain dormant in his heart until they met.
    Was she wrong?
    Lieutenant Oakley certainly thought so. “How much do you really know about this lover of yours?” he asked sarcastically, smoothing the feathers of a quill pen. “Did he ever tell you that an agent of mine approached him to spy for us?”
    “No, that’s not true!”
    “Yes, it is. It is true, my dear. And do you know how he responded? He said that we could not afford to pay him as much as the Colonials. That was, unfortunately, true. Lord North and His Majesty are men of economy.”
    Selena was about to reply that Royce accepted only expense money for his efforts—even General Washington was paid expense money by the Continental Congress—but then she saw the trap. Admitting such a thing would prove to Oakley that Royce was in the employ of the American revolutionaries. She bit her lip and said nothing.
    “Why did Campbell go to Haiti?” her interrogator persisted. “Will Washington attack New York or along the Chesapeake?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Oakley let the silence linger. He pulled a chubby gold watch from his coat pocket and looked at it. “Time runs short,” he said. “You know, Selena, I had intended to verify your answers by questioning other prisoners before I conversed with you again. I am not a man who enjoys inflicting pain, and until one has a feeling for the habits and intelligence of a witness, torture is inadvisable. The victim will say anything to mislead the interrogator and to avoid agony. That is not good, and the subsequent information is often unreliable. But I think that you are lying through your pretty teeth.”
    He fixed her with his awful stare. “Would you lie with no teeth at all?”
    “I am not lying,” replied Selena, her mouth dry. The muscles in her legs were screaming. She tried hard not to sway.
    “Corporal Bonwit!” Oakley called loudly.
    The door swung open and Bonwit appeared. “At y’ suvvice, sir!”
    “Take the prisoner to the Room of Doom. She has been particularly uncooperative, and events compel me to accelerate the procedure.”
    “No,” gasped Selena, in spite of an effort to maintain her composure.
    “Ah!” Oakley smiled. “You wish to answer my questions, do you?”
    “I know nothing,” Selena said, faltering.
    “Selena, Selena. Is there not a bond between us? We both respond to beauty. Why can we not share a love of truth as well? You cannot elude me, you cannot evade me. I shall pursue you, as it were, down all the corridors of time. Once you feel the bite of the whip, our union shall be consummated. I had wished it to be a bond of understanding, not of pain. But—”
    Oakley let his voice trail off. “So be it,” he said, lifting a hand languidly and letting it fall. “Corporal, ready the prisoner for what she has chosen. I shall join you in a moment.”
    “Why couldn’t y’ ’ave told ’im what ’e wanted t’ know?” whined the corporal, as he led Selena from the room. “I’ll ’ave t’ be there t’ take down your answers, an’ the wails an’ the cries turn m’ bowels all t’ mush.”
    Afraid herself and preparing for the worst, Selena still retained the wit to notice that Bonwit was genuinely upset. He had even forgotten to force the blindfold upon her. They walked in the open air. She saw the low buildings of New York spread out along the harbor, and the great houses along the