Read Online Love's Savage Bonds by Jeb - Free Book Online Page B

pity, she thought. Would have made for a nice change
of pace.

Chapter Six
     
     
    The arrival of the coach at the manor
was a ghastly parody of a homecoming. Catherine knew she was being delivered,
not to any safety, but to a fate as cruel as if the front walk were the steps
to the gallows.
     
    As she felt the horse slow, Catherine
sagged against the floor of the coach, defeated. Though her legs were unbound,
the savage bite of the cord that trapped her wrists, and twisted her arms up
behind her back, ensured that she’d never be able to get to her feet unaided.
She had tried to surreptitiously rub Philip’s cravat from where it was tied in
her mouth, but Lefanu had prodded her ribs sharply with the toe of his boot,
and she had sunk back into her agonized captivity. Now, the two men briskly
prepared to dismount the cab, as though having a bound and gagged prisoner in
tow was an everyday practice.
     
    Philip reached for his bound wife, but
Lefanu smoothly interposed his hand, and seized Catherine's upper arm in a
savagely painful grasp.
     
    “I think, Philip, it would be best if I
took charge of Lady Catherine at this point.” Philip blinked bleary eyes, then
shrugged elaborately and stepped from the coach. Behind him, Lefanu forced
Catherine to stand on legs weak with terror, then dragged her forward.
     
    Impelled by Lefanu's steel grip on her
upper arm, Catherine staggered up the walk. She was vaguely aware that there
was the possibility of their being seen, but in her state of utter defeat, she
couldn't even muster the strength to look around, or to attempt to attract
attention to her fate; her ribs still bore painful witness to what an attempt
to defeat the gag would bring her.
     
    Instead, she allowed herself to be
herded up to the large door, which swung open before Philip even had to knock.
     
    “Ah, Mrs. Williams,” Philip greeted the
housekeeper brightly.  Mrs. Williams stood in the doorway, grinning
broadly at Catherine's distress: her onetime rival for Philip’s affections, now
a bedraggled, bound and gagged prisoner. “My wife and I are not to be disturbed
this afternoon:  we are going to be rehearsing a little —ah—holiday
pageant—for the village children.” Catherine tried to make some sense of this,
as he went on. “It is possible that you might hear some noises— perhaps what
might even be taken for cries of pain.” Lefanu gave a sharp tug at Catherine's
bonds to punctuate this. “The servants are to pay no notice. It will be just
myself, my wife... and the Colonel.”
     
    “Very good, sir,” the woman responded
with mock formality, and left to inform the rest of the staff, as Lefanu and
Philip dragged their prisoner to the parlor, closing the door behind them.
     
    Catherine was thoroughly in despair
now—in agony from the bonds, stifled by the mouth-filling gag, her nightdress
in such a state as to leave her feeling half-naked… and in the power of two men
who, she realized, would not hesitate to kill her if she didn't betray her
beloved Charles to them. In fact, she had the sinking feeling that Lefanu was
prepared to kill her anyway, once he’d had his full measure of pleasure from
her pain.
     
    “Have a seat, my dear,” Philip
snickered as he pushed Catherine down, so that she fell heavily on her bound
arms into a chair. She found some reserve of strength to attempt a glare of
defiance at her captors, but she knew they could read the futility in her eyes.
     
    Philip had gone to the sideboard to
pour himself another drink; doubtless, Catherine thought, to further fortify
himself for the vile work ahead. He came back towards her, his gait not
terribly steady, and addressed the Colonel.
     
    “Her gag, Lefanu—should we remove it?”
For all her loathing of her husband, Catherine hoped desperately that his
partner might accede to this request; her mouth felt miserably thick and
sodden, and she didn’t know how much longer she could hold back the tears that
she knew would