Read Online Sarah's Playmates by Virginia Wade - Free Book Online

throbbed unpleasantly, the feeling centered near my
wrist. I prayed it wasn’t broken.
    “Millie!”
    “I’m here. Can you stand?”
    “Y-yes.”
    “Let’s find a way out.” Her hands were on my
shoulders. “Up with you.”
    “I’m not wearing shoes.”
    “I’m not either. It doesn’t matter.”
    “Shit!” spat Isabelle. “Shit! Shit!
Shit!”
    “Are you hurt?” I asked.
    “Shit on all of this! Goddamn shit on a
stick!”
    “I think she’s fine,” I muttered. Once the
smoke had cleared, it was easier to see, but fires burned in
another part of the train.
    “Let’s get out on the end,” said Millie.
“We’ve separated from the other car.”
    I stepped on something sharp. “Ouch!”
    “Be careful. There’s glass everywhere.”
    “Those Goddamned Indians did this!” hissed
Isabelle. “They crashed the train! Now we’ll be kidnapped and
raped.”
    “Let’s deal with one thing at a time,” said
Millie. She grabbed me. “Lord, girl. Your face is a mess.”
    “Glass got me.” She held my arm. “Ouch!”
    “Is it broken?”
    “I don’t know.” I sounded miserable.
    We made our way towards the opening in the
back of the car, as strange whoops and shrieks froze my blood.
Hollow sounding thunks and pomphs pinged around us, as arrows
lodged in the wood.
    “Oh, great. The goddamned Indians,” muttered
Isabelle.
    We managed to climb down from the wreckage.
Rocks dug into the bottoms of my feet. Gazing towards the front
portion of the train, I knew I would never forget this disaster.
The cars had landed haphazardly on their sides; some had piled up
on one another. Plumes of smoke filled the sky, with intermittent
fireballs blazing with red and yellow flames. It looked like a
scene from Dante’s Inferno . There were bodies scattered
around us; some had burned, while others had fallen victim to
arrows lodged in their chests, protruding grotesquely. This was
indeed hell.
    Something viselike grabbed the back of my
head, tangling in my hair, and forcing my gaze upwards. In those
breathless and unbelievable seconds, I saw the face of a man, his
dark eyes flashing with hunger, lust, and triumph. I had just met
the devil. I was in his clutches…and then I saw nothing, as my
overwrought senses succumbed to merciful blackness.
     
     

Chapter Ten
     
     
     
    I don’t know how long I had been slung over
the backside of a horse, but when I began to realize my situation,
it was still the dead of night, and I was most assuredly in the
clutches of a devil Indian. I wore my nightgown and nothing else,
my hair falling in my face. The sound of female crying forced my
head up. Millie sat on the next horse; her rider was fearsome to
behold, wearing only a breechcloth and fringed leggings. My
kidnapper wore the same type of leather over his legs. There were
no stirrups and no saddles, only rope for a bridal.
    I struggled to move, because I ached in this
position. Sensing that I had woken, my kidnapper reached for me
with impossible strength, dragging me to him. I straddled the
horse, the abundance of material on my nightgown allowing for this,
but now the bottom portion of my legs were bare. I was able to see
what was happening around me. Isabelle and Millie were on other
horses, in the clutches of dark skinned and determined Indians.
Glancing back, I caught sight of smoke, the evidence of the train
wreck we had left behind.
    Then I made the mistake of looking at the man
who held me. My long, blonde hair lashed us both, yet his was
equally long and braided on each side. His face was clean-shaven,
his cheekbones implausibly high, his nose gracefully straight, and
those eyes…
    …oh, dear…
    They seemed to burn through me, leaving a
scorching hole on the other side of my head. I’d never been this
close to a man before, and I could feel the heat of his naked chest
through the sheer cotton gown. His arms tightened around me, and I
grimaced. My arm throbbed, reminding me of the horrors of the train
wreck and