Read Online My Lady Captive by Shirl Anders - Free Book Online

Everyone! We will
dance!”

    Chapter Eight

    Wyndham lived every emasculating moment of
being carried from the ballroom to Alexei’s suite by the guards. He
was not the man he used to be, nor would he ever be again. Was
he even man enough to help Orèlan to escape their desperate
fate, he wondered, as the pain from his leg washed over him in
waves? Drummond or Harrison should have come. Not him. He should
not have been as arrogant and foolish when he refused the
Archangels help. His witless masculine pride had gotten in his way.
And now, because he could not accept his disability, he had gotten
Orèlan into more danger.
    He could only be thankful that he had managed
to keep Alexei from taking Orèlan away from him. He'd known that if
he let Alexei see his disability, it would distract Alexei. Deep
inside himself, where he had no wish to admit it, he knew Alexei’s
feelings for him. Now, he'd used those feelings to his advantage
again. Did that make him any worse than Alexei?
    He was nearly incoherent with the pain, but
he knew as Alexei’s guards carried him between them that another
guard was guiding Orèlan forward. Toward Alexei’s suite. The
portent of that did not escape him, he only wished that the pain
would let go long enough so that he could think clearly. When the
guards set him down on the opulently displayed bed in Alexei’s
master suite, he could do no more than let his head fall back. He
had wrenched his bad leg, twisting it when he had fallen making the
desperate play to distract Alexei and keep Orèlan by his side. That
coupled with the strain he'd already placed on the injured limb,
left it feeling as bad as when the injury had first felled him at
Waterloo. He'd not been this debilitated because of it since those
first few months of recuperation two years ago.
    “Orèlan,” he rasped hoarsely. Christ, he
had failed.
    “Wyndham my love, I am here,” Orèlan
whispered.
    He winced at Orèlan’s words of love, if he
could have, he would have shouted the denial of his worthiness. He
felt her grasping his hand, bringing it to her soft lips, as he
rasped. “Do not let him take you away from me.”
    “Never!” she exclaimed as he felt her tears
on his knuckles. “Wyndham, you never told me you were this hurt,”
she whispered, as he felt her lips kissing his hand again. “You
make me very angry for not telling me this. I had plans to punish
you and now I cannot.” Christ, if he could have laughed, he would
have roared. “But I will never leave you, my golden puma.
Never-never.” Wyndham tightened his grip on Orèlan’s hand.
“Wyndham, please tell me what to do to help you with this terrible
pain,” she asked tearfully.
    “Nothing,” he hissed as a particularly sharp
jolt of pain lanced through his leg, making his body arch with
tension. “ Whiskey, ” he groaned. “Christ! The bottle!”
    “Si, si, Wyndham!” Orèlan exclaimed as she
pried Wyndham’s fingers from around her hand. Once loose, he
clenched his fingers into a fist by his side as she hurriedly
turned to find some whiskey. She had put her gown back on beneath
all three of the guards stares, before she'd come to Wyndham’s
side. Now she was glad for the small comfort as her gaze landed on
Alexei standing by a side bar with his hand on a bottle of dark
liquor.
    She knew that it was the whiskey as she
lifted her chin and walked toward Alexei. No one could have missed
Wyndham’s anguished pleas for whiskey. She also understood there
was now no one standing between Alexei and Wyndham but herself. Her
strong golden puma needed her strength now as never before. She
needed it also to stand against Alexei for her own sake. This time
she could not be foolish because of her fears. She must never be
that foolish again. It was because of her that Wyndham lay helpless
in Alexei’s bedchamber. Now, she must defend them both in anyway
that she could.
    The shade of concern that she could see in
Alexei’s eyes, and then his first words to