Once a Princess Read Free

mistress, and she hadn’t known him so well then as she did now.
    She had thought he was going to kill her, with the way he had come after her as soon as he noticed her, dragging her to the bed in the next room, throwingher down on it. But all he had been interested in was expending his passion by the means their relationship allowed him.
    It had not been a pleasant experience, certainly, with her fear making her stiff and unresponsive, but she was too experienced for it to be traumatic either. In fact, the only reason she had cried when it was over was because she was so relieved that that was all he meant to do to her. But he didn’t know that. He thought he had actually hurt her, and she let him think so, for his guilt could be measured in gold, and was, by the magnificent gifts he had showered on her to make amends.
    She no longer feared him, even when he looked like this, as if he would strangle the first person he could get his hands on. In fact she stood up from her bath in full sight of him, deliberately prodding the passion he was in the grips of, to the one she was more familiar with. And it worked. He came toward her, and without a word, yanked her into his arms and carried her naked and dripping into the other room.
    Alicia laughed, but only to herself. She wasn’t stupid. There was a magnificent sapphire necklace that she had been after him for the last month to buy her and now he would, if she could just manage to squeeze out a few tears when he was done with her. An easy task for one as accomplished as she.

Chapter 2
    Natchez, Mississippi
    â€œTanya, you lazy slut, where’s my breakfast!”
    In the narrow hall, the girl with the heavy tray of food stopped short, cringing at that bellow. Wilbert Dobbs had the kind of voice that carried, and his did with regularity, right out his open window to their neighbors up and down the street. It was embarrassing, or used to be, to go out and hear the snickers, and worse, the mimics, but then her neighbors weren’t the kind who might feel sympathy or pity over the verbal abuse that came her way each day. And after so many years of the same, one became less embarrassed, almost immune.
    But it wasn’t as bad as it used to be, not since Dobbs’ illness had made him dependent on her. That thought made Tanya smile suddenly, which lit up her face and brought a rare sparkle to her pale green eyes. She still wasn’t used to her change in circumstances. Verbal abuse was all Dobbs could give her, now that he was bedridden and could no longer beat her. She’d seen to that the very day he took to his bed, whenshe’d burned the stick that had been his constant companion for more years than she could remember.
    She cringed again, recalling that stick. Her circumstances might have improved beyond her wildest dreams, but some twenty years of misery was not easy to forget.
    She took the tray in to him now, dropping it on the table next to his bed, unmindful of the noise it made.
    â€œWhat the hell took you so long, missy?”
    â€œThe beer delivery arrived early.”
    He grunted, which meant he accepted that excuse, when the truth was she’d decided to eat her own breakfast first for a change, before she brought up his.
    â€œAnd what was the take last night?” he wanted to know.
    â€œI haven’t tallied it yet.”
    â€œI’ll want an accounting—”
    â€œAfter I’m done cleaning up last night’s mess.”
    He flushed red at her answer. She flushed some herself at her audacity. She would never have spoken to him like that six months ago, and they both knew it. She would have rushed to do his bidding, forsaking any other chore, and she certainly wouldn’t have interrupted him.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she offered out of habit. “But I’m doing two jobs now, both yours and mine, and there never seems to be enough time in the day to do it all. We really need to