Read Online Smuggler's Kiss by Marie-Louise Jensen - Free Book Online

of the foot had blistered and then bled.
    ‘Ouch,’ remarked Will, not unkindly. ‘Why didn’t you say?’
    ‘I tried,’ I retorted. ‘Listening isn’t your strong point.’
    ‘There’s far too much to listen to,’ said Will. ‘You never stop complaining. How am I supposed to know when it’s something serious?’
    ‘It’s always serious,’ I replied, peeling off the other stocking and finding the right foot in no better state. ‘You take me to a hideous haunted mansion in the dead of night and make me play at hide and seek in the dark with law officers and frighten me half to death. And you shriek and howl and then pretend it wasn’t really you to frighten me even more!’ Will laughed without remorse. ‘How did you make that officer fall over by the way?’ I asked him.
    ‘A trip line. I’d tied a rope across the lawn earlier and jerked it tight as he reached it.’
    ‘Oh. Well. Not content with all that you drag me for miles and miles across the roughest ground in borrowed boots and never so much as open a gate or lift a bramble out of the way for me!’
    Will laughed again. ‘You do expect a great deal, don’t you? Remember, you’re not a lady any longer. And that was a short walk,’ he added.
    ‘I’ve never walked that far in my life.’
    ‘You aren’t serious?’ he asked, lifting his brows.
    I shrugged. ‘What are carriages and sedan chairs for, if not to avoid walking?’
    ‘But you ride, surely?’
    ‘Not if I can help it.’
    Will shook his head in wonder. ‘You must be the laziest person I’ve ever met,’ he remarked. ‘Do you take no exercise at all?’
    I thought for a moment. ‘Dancing,’ I said with a nod. ‘I enjoy dancing.’
    ‘Well, that’ll be useful to you in your new life,’ said Will with heavy sarcasm.
    ‘Are you really going to keep me prisoner?’ I asked. ‘You dislike me. You wouldn’t miss me if I went. Why don’t you just let me go?’
    ‘You know why.’
    ‘Yes, but I swear I won’t tell. Not a word. I’ll say I lost my memory.’
    ‘You’re very keen to run off all of a sudden. I thought you were tired. And had nowhere to go?’
    I turned my head away, sudden tears starting to my eyes. I was so very tired. And it was true that I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t go back. Unthinkable!
    I was shocked out of my thoughts by Will taking my wrist and tying a rope around it. He tied the other end to his own wrist, and lay down beside me. ‘Best get some rest,’ he said. ‘We can sleep two hours at most then we must move on. We have a much longer walk ahead of us.’
    I turned away from him, humiliated that he felt it necessary to tie me up. I stared into the soft glow of the small fire. It was warming me through slowly, and despite the pain in my feet and my aching limbs, sleep was washing over me.
    The door loomed before me in my dreams as it always did. It was dark and ominous. As I stared at it, it slowly began to swing open towards me. I dreaded what lay behind it. I covered my eyes and screamed.
    ‘Hush, Isabelle,’ said a voice in my ear. A hand was on my arm, warm and reassuring. ‘It’s just a bad dream.’
    I opened my eyes to darkness, broken only by the dim glow of embers in the crumbling hearth. I remembered it was Will beside me, speaking to me. He knew nothing. It was not only a dream. It was grimly, horribly real. I lay feeling wretched until sleep granted me another brief respite.
     
    I awoke to Will shaking me once more, one hand pressed over my mouth. I jumped and struggled, but he hushed and then released me. Sunlight was streaming in through the window and doorway of the hovel and through a hole in the roof. The fire had burned itself to a pile of cold ash. I sat up and yawned, still tired and groggy after such a short sleep.
    ‘There’s someone coming,’ Will whispered. ‘Can you climb out of the back window and hide there?’
    I saw that he’d already untied the rope that had bound me, so I started to pull on my