Night Fire Read Free Page A

“Good night, Etienne. Good night, my lord.”
    Another night of freedom, she thought, and her steps speeded up. She wanted the safety of her bedchamber. She scarce looked at the closed adjoining door that gave into Paisley’s bedchamber. “Dorcas,” she called, pitching her voice just right, for her maid was growing deaf. She even smiled at the old woman when she came into her bedchamber.
    Within fifteen minutes Arielle was in her nightgown, her hair brushed out, and into her bed. She wanted to lie there and simply savor her continued reprieve, but she fell quickly asleep. An hour later, a light shone into her eyes and she felt someone shaking her shoulder. Paisley’s voice said. “Time for you to do as I tell you, my dear. Out of your bed now.”
    She drew away, unable to help herself. “No,” she whispered. “Oh, no.”
    â€œDo as I tell you, you little slut, else I’ll flay the hide off you. And then I will have your maid fetched. I leave you to yourself for a few days and look at your insolence.”
    Arielle rose immediately and reached for her dressing gown.
    â€œNo, you will have no need of it,” he said and jerked the dressing gown out of her hands and threw it across the room. “Come with me.”
    Numbly, she followed her husband through the adjoining door into his bedchamber. He was fully clothed. What did he want of her? Did he want her to disrobe him? She’d done it many times before, doing it very slowly, caressing him as she removed an article of clothing, her every motion a ritual he’d taught her. She closed her eyes for a moment and willed herself to obey. Even if she’d learned nothing else during the past two years, she had certainly learned that she had no choice at all when it came to Paisley’s demands.
    â€œIs she not lovely?”
    Arielle came to an abrupt halt. There, standing in front of the fireplace, his body silhouetted by the leaping orange flames, was Etienne. He was in a dressing gown, his feet bare.
    â€œYes,” he said in his strongly accented English. “She is exquisite.”
    Paisley laughed. “Well, my dear? Can you guess what it is I wish you to do?”
    She turned to him, and her eyes were filled with understanding and hatred, for him and for herself. “No,” she whispered. “No, you cannot, please—”
    â€œI can do whatever I wish, Arielle. You have failed me. You must bear me an heir. Since Etienne is my son, though his mother was a trollop of little count, I will let him get you with child. He would do it for me even though he were to find you displeasing, which he doesn’t. Tonight, my dear girl, I wish you to show him what I have taught you. I wish him to see your accomplishments. And since you have so few outside the bedchamber, well, I encourage you, my dear, to do your best. You will pleasure Etienne; yes, indeed you shall.”
    â€œNo.”
    She was running when he tripped her, still fighting him when he ripped the nightgown off her, still struggling when he pulled her upright back against him and said, “Well, Etienne, does her body please you, or do you find her too thin?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œShe is quite beautiful,” said Etienne. “But I have never raped a woman. I do not wish to rape her.”
    Paisley laughed, his arms squeezing beneath her ribs until she couldn’t breathe.
    â€œYou won’t have to rape her. Tonight she will pleasure you. And tomorrow night, my boy, she will be perfectly calm and willing, and I will hold her whilst you take her. She is a virgin, you know.” He laughed again.
    â€œA girl doesn’t necessarily become pregnant with but one encounter,” said Etienne.
    â€œNo, you will take her until she is with child. You will be amply rewarded, my boy. Oh, yes, indeed you will.”
    She was sobbing, tears rolling down her cheeks, her nose running, her hair in tangled confusion about