Once a Princess Read Free Page B

The Seraglio. Getting a couple of bruises before the fighters realized she was interfering was pretty common, too, but last night had been an exception, since she had been tired and out of sorts, and in no mood to reason first.
    Normally she drew no notice, for she’d learned at an early age how to mask delicacy and fine features with severity, drabness, and a gauntness that could be achieved by using theatrical makeup, if not by actual exhaustion. She was a fixture of the place, sometimes serving customers when Aggie was harried because April was performing, sometimes working behind the bar when Jeremiah didn’t show up for work. She was always there, ready to attend to whatever was necessary—even breaking up fights, she, not even five and a half feet tall, with her hair severely pulled back and bundled at her nape, wearing a serviceable black skirt, unadorned and unbustled, andone of Dobbs’ old gray shirts that reached her knees. The shirts were belted to accommodate the wicked-looking knife she’d been wearing at her hip ever since Dobbs had taken ill, a longer-bladed weapon than the knife she’d carried in her right boot for as long as she could remember.
    She’d brought both into play last night, slashing in a wide circle that effectively separated the two antagonists. She hadn’t had to say a single word after that. The planter’s son, who was a regular and well aware that she didn’t palm her weapons unless she was prepared to use them, apologized for the disturbance and resumed his seat. The sailor, there for the first time, was too surprised to offer any more trouble, and Jeremiah, late into the fray but handy just the same, escorted him to the door.
    But despite the ease with which she’d ended the fracas, Tanya’s nerves had still been on edge for the remainder of the night, and such extreme tension was debilitating. That was why she’d gone straight to bed as soon as she’d locked up. She could accept violence against herself more easily than she could accept having to dole it out, because receiving it had been a matter of course her whole life. Inflicting some of her own went against her grain. Yet she didn’t hesitate to do so when it was necessary, and it had been necessary a number of times over the years, and more often in just the past six months.
    In spite of everything she did to appear unappealing to The Seraglio’s customers, a drunk sometimes didn’t see too well, and all it took was the sight of a skirt to make one think he’d found an availablefemale. She’d had her share of pinches and pawing, for the most part ended with a sharp word or a well-placed cuff to the side of the head. If a man was drunk enough to have blurred vision, he was drunk enough for her to handle. It was those times when she was caught alone outside the common room by men not so drunk, in either the storeroom or the kitchen, or on her way to the stable out back, or even followed into her room once, that she’d had to get serious about protecting herself. But those attempts were made by men who’d known her for a long time, weren’t fooled by her normal appearance, and now thought to take advantage of Dobbs’ incapacity.
    The only good thing she could say about Dobbs was that when he’d been hale and hearty, he’d been a potent discouragement to anyone who wanted to lay his hands on her. Once, he’d nearly beaten to death one of his own friends who had tried to kiss her, and that kind of news spread fast. Not that he had been protecting her virtue then or in other instances. He simply hated fornication with a passion and wouldn’t stand for it under his roof. If Aggie and April wanted to accommodate customers in that way, and both of them often did, they made private arrangements. More recently they sneaked off to the stables whenever things slowed down. Dobbs’ reaction wasn’t normal, certainly, but it was