The Love List Read Free

Your father may be a fool, but he did well with you.  Not many girls are taught to see the greater picture.”
    Brynne took a short step back.  The picture she was beginning to see here was not a pretty one.
    But Marstoke was still speaking, almost to himself now, it seemed.  “Oh, and I shall show you worlds upon worlds that you have never seen, never dreamed existed.  You must go through the forge first, of course.”  He lifted his drink again.  She could see his fingers tightening around the glass.  “Only through fire and flames are great weapons made—and you shall be the most splendid of my creations.  Such grand scheming, I foresee, and it sets me aflame.”  His breath hitched.  “And in the meantime . . . ” He paused, and Brynne saw the effort he made to pull back into his usual detachment.  “No, no.  It’s too soon for that.”
    “For what?” she asked, suddenly afraid.  The hubbub—and safety—of the ballroom felt very far away.
    But he had raised his glass high.  “Or is it?” he asked.  For a long moment, he stood, staring at the liquor as if it held the answer to his question.  His voice had gone distant, his eyes unfocused.  It was clear that he was not addressing her. 
    “It would be different, would it not?” he mused.  “And delicious.  What if the innocent did know—this one time—what her future held?”  His gaze pierced her, unseeing.  “What would she feel, standing in the church, at the altar, knowing that she was selling her soul?”  His breath began to come a little faster.  “Yes,” he breathed.  “This is the culmination of all that came before.  It deserves something special.  I like the notion.  Both of us, side by side before God, fully aware of what lies in store for her.”
    He blinked and suddenly focused on her.  Brynne’s heartbeat ratcheted. 
    “Very well,” he said briskly.  “We shall make adjustments.”  He moved away from her, stopping to stand next to a padded leather chair.  “The first thing you must know is that your father is as thoroughly mine as you are.” 
    She frowned.  “Excuse me?”
    He shot her an unpleasant grin.  “It was simple enough.  I have swallowed his past sins for him and showed him the path to the shining future he craves.”
    She shook her head, took a step backwards.  “You speak in riddles.  What are you talking about?”
    “Only one irrefutable fact—you are a caged bird, my dear, with nowhere to fly.  And the second thing you must learn is that you are not to question, but only to obey.”  He beckoned, pointing to the spot in front of the chair.  “Come here.”
    She stared.  He met her gaze easily, his own gone dark.  She couldn’t see what he meant to do and she couldn’t coax her voice above a whisper.  “I’m returning to Lady Tillney now.”  She turned to flee for the door.
    He was on her before she’d taken more than a couple of steps, his cruel fingers biting into her arm.  “You will obey the first time, every time,” he exhaled harshly in her ear.  Dragging her to the spot he’d indicated, he let her loose and positioned himself between her and the chair.  “Take down your bodice and remove your stays,” he ordered.  “I wish to see what I’ve purchased.”
    Brynne gasped and stepped back.  “If you meant to scare me, my lord, then you’ve done so.  I wish to return to my chaperone.”
    His arm was a blur of motion, the slap a cruel shock that came from nowhere.  The force of it sent Brynne stumbling.  She nearly fell to her knees.
    “You will do as you are told.”  The ugly exhilaration was back, alive in the shine of his eyes.
    Brynne cradled her aching jaw with one hand and fisted the other.  An odd sense of unreality drifted over her.  Surely this was not happening.  “You’ve gone mad,” she whispered.
    Marstoke smiled.
    It woke her up, that smile.  She was gone before he reached for her.  His first swipe missed, but he was