by Sharon Green
"No 'may' about it," Bryan said with an answering grin, then told Sarah everything that had happened during the last two days. "So you can see how pleased she was that I forced her to marry me," he concluded, having lost his amusement along the way. "She knows her stepfather sold her, and I'm the cad who did the buying in order to get my hands on her inheritance. If I turn my back at the wrong time, she's very likely to try making herself an immediate widow."
"And all this time I thought you preferred petticoats and shy smiles," Sarah said with a small shake of her head. "That girl must be the only one of her kind in the entire world, and you managed to find her. Don't you think it would be safer, not to mention less exhausting, if you told her the truth?"
"I've been tempted to do just that, but I decided against it," Bryan said as he took another sip. "I don't want anything to ruin my plan with Harding, and the thought of telling his stepdaughter what I'm up to makes me uneasy. Once I have the answers I need I'll tell her all about it, and in the meantime I can work at smoothing things over between us. I don't intend spending the rest of my life sleeping with one eye open."
"Jamie tells me the two of you did a lot of that when you were forming the first of your guard companies," Sarah said with a soft laugh. "The two of you went about recruiting adventurers like yourselves, then had to fight them into some semblance of a disciplined group so that people needing the protection and services of armed men would be willing to hire them. He told me how hard you worked to make it happen."
"Your husband worked just as hard as I did, which is why he and I are partners now," Bryan told her, meaning every word. "If you hadn't insisted on pretending to be my housekeeper during this game of stalking, you would now be back in your own house, running it the way you always do and waiting for Jamie to get back. Are you sure - "
"I'm positive," Sarah interrupted, her tone very determined. "We all loved Ross and grieved when he killed himself, and we all want to get our hands on the man responsible for his death. Since you're the one best suited to taking care of the problem your family is letting you pursue the matter alone, but you can't do it all alone. If Jamie were back I would leave it to him to help you, but since he's still away I'm taking his place. And so, Mr. Machlin, your loyal housekeeper would like to know what you intend to do next. Do we leave your bride alone to brood in peace, or do we make an attempt to have her see us as something other than monsters?"
"We don't do any of that," Bryan answered, then drained his glass and put it aside. "She's my wife, so I get to do the honors. Now that I have a better idea of what I want out of this, I may be able to find a way to make her want the same. I hope."
"I think you ought to tell me which of your estates you like the best before you go in there," Sarah mused thoughtfully as he stood. "Just in case we need to know where to send the remains, you understand."
She peeked up at him after saying that, as though trying to judge whether or not it would be wise to run. Rather than disappoint her Bryan gave her the scowl she'd been expecting, then shook his head at her immediate laughter.
"I can see I'd better keep you away from my little bride," he said, the words as dry as a good wine. "If the two of you ever got together, I'd need one of my toughest fighting companies to quiet the resulting riots. When Jamie gets back, I'm going to insist he take you firmly in hand."
"Isn't that funny," Sarah said with a wicked grin, also rising to her feet. "I intend insisting on the same thing myself. Good luck, Bryan, and do be careful. I'm sure I would miss you."
Bryan nodded with a snort of amusement, then headed out of his rooms. His new wife might not be the safest female to associate with, but that just made her better than the others. What he really wanted was to get to know more about her, to find out the little things that made her what she was. And to let her get to know him. Maybe he was the sort of man most girls would fear rather than love, but wouldn't a very special girl learn to see it the other way around? Storybook romances weren't meant for men, he knew, but did that mean he couldn't hope? Maybe, in spite of everything, she would change her mind about him… Even when she found out he was using her for a purpose that had nothing to do with love…
Chapter Five
Rianne continued to sit leaning against the wall, waiting for the wrath of the universe to descend because of her actions. When it didn't immediately happen she was surprised, then became more than surprised.
"I don't believe I'm getting bored," she muttered, looking around at the beautiful room she sat in. "Being held captive is supposed to be terrifying, especially when you've been forced to marry the man. How can I possibly be bored?"
She didn't know how it could be possible, but there was no doubt about the feeling. She wished fervently there was something to do there, even if the something turned out to make more trouble.
"But how much trouble can there actually be? " she asked herself with an exasperated sigh. "He can't kill or seriously harm me until all the property has been transferred by the trustees, and he isn't even interested in rape. That leaves him very little in the way of options. Maybe he'll decide to write nasty letters."
She was laughing softly at the idea when the sound of unlocking came at her door. A polite knock followed the sound, but Rianne didn't respond. As much as she was looking forward to having company for even a little while, she was continuing to operate on the theory that caged animals needn't be polite to their keepers. The pause after the knock wasn't very long, and then it was the brute who entered.
"You can acknowledge a knock on the door, you know," he commented as soon as his searching gaze found her where she sat. "It won't be a commitment to a life of depravity, and since the rest of us do it you won't be the only one who can be pointed to for indulging in scandalous behavior."
"Ah, I see," Rianne replied, forcing herself not to smile at what he'd said. Why did he have to choose now to be funny again…? "I'm supposed to do it the way the rest of you do. All right, I'll go along with that. Is it my turn yet to lock up one of you?"
"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that," he answered, and Rianne thought she saw amusement in those gray eyes. "As soon as that rule changes I'll be sure to let you know, but until then you'll just have to put up with it. It won't be for too long, so don't let it bother you too much. Now, you've had a very tiring and unpleasant day. Why haven't you eaten and bathed yet, and lain down for a nap?"
"Possibly because I didn't care to do any of those things?" Rianne said, grimly satisfied to have her guess confirmed. She'd be locked up only for a short while, because he intended to murder her! "Yes, that sounds about right, so that must be it. I didn't want to do any of them, so I abstained. If you need a more simplified explanation, please don't hesitate to ask."
"I enjoy conversing with a woman who has the good manners to say 'please,'" he told her with a grin, infuriating Rianne with the way he refused to get angry. "My main problem now, though, is that I can't be mannerly in return. The circumstances are what they are, and for the moment can't be changed."
Rianne was about to demand to know what he was talking about, when a quick knock came at the still-open door. She looked around to see three of the housemen entering with two large buckets of water each, which they carried to the wooden bathtub standing in the far corner of the room. Once they had emptied the buckets into the tub they headed out again, and this time the brute closed the door behind them.
"You'll enjoy that bath more if you take it now, while it's still hot," he said as he turned back to her, his voice still mild. "When you sleep in clothes they grow rank enough to make you sick, and I don't want you getting sick. You have the choice of taking the bath yourself or having me do it, and I don't know which way I'd rather have you choose. Doing it yourself will be better for you, but the other way…"
"You can't possibly expect me to take this seriously," Rianne scoffed when his words trailed off. "You're too old to be trained as a lady's maid, not to mention probably too clumsy. And if you're trying again to sugg
est in a subtle way that you're interested in something other than my inheritance, don't waste my time. Your previous wives might have believed that, but I don't."
"Previous wives?" he asked with brows high, looking honestly bewildered. "What previous wives? I've never been married before."
"Of course you haven't been," Rianne said with a small smile, shifting just a little where she sat. "You earned whatever gold you have through honest toil, and never ever married for it. Well, just keep one thing firmly in mind. When you decide it's time for me to have the same sort of accident I'm sure your previous victims had, don't think I'll be as easy to kill as they were. If you're silly enough to forget that, I might not be the one having the accident."
"Now you're giving me fair warning along with the threat," the brute observed, the amusement in his eyes having increased. "That's a very honorable thing to do, in light of the fact that you've discovered my sinister plans concerning you. I'm truly impressed, but not so much so that I've forgotten the question I put. Are you taking that bath yourself, or do I get to give it to you?"
"You try putting your hands on me, and you'll be in for a fight like you've never had," Rianne growled in answer, feeling warmth in her cheeks from the faint grin the beast wore. He was laughing at her, and after he'd as much as admitted that he did intend to kill her! "I'm not afraid of a lowlife like you, and I never will be!"
"I really do admire your courage," he said mildly as he began to walk toward her, the grin still in place. "I don't want you to be afraid of me, so I'm delighted that you aren't. But none of that changes the fact that you still need a bath."
Rianne tried to get to her feet to keep from being trapped sitting down, but she needn't have bothered. The brute came close and reached down to grab her arms, then hauled her erect with no trouble at all. It continued to startle her that he was able to move her with so little effort, but that didn't stop her from immediately kicking him in the knee. His grip loosened as he hissed with pain, and she lost no time pulling free and running for the door. If she could only get through it and lock it behind her -
"No!" she screamed as two arms closed around her before she'd gone more than a few steps, arms that pulled her back against a large, hard body. The next instant she was being lifted in those arms, and even kicking and struggling with all her strength wasn't helping to free her.
"Yes," the brute disagreed in the same mild way, his words clipped, but not in the least labored. "It pains me to contradict a lady, but sooner that than watch you get sick. Your not having eaten adds to the danger, but that I can't do anything about. This I can."
Rianne had gotten nowhere pushing at his chest, so she raised her fists to beat at his face. But the brute had crossed the room in a very few strides, and just as she raised her hands he dropped her on the bed. Her breath drew in with automatic fear as she fell, but hitting something soft didn't help. Two big hands immediately turned her onto her belly, and then the brute was using his weight to hold her legs down.
"First we'll get rid of these boots," he told her conversationally as she struggled uselessly to squirm loose. "After that we'll see to your clothes, and then you'll be all ready to be given your bath."
"Damn you, let me go!" she screamed as he pulled her boots off, then shifted around to grab her arms again. "Let me go and fight like a man!"
"You've fought that many men that you know how one does it?" he asked as he returned her to her back, then quickly knelt across her. "If you're that much of an expert, please, do go into detail."
"I'm not surprised you need to be told how real men do things," she said through her teeth, panting with the effort to keep her wrists out of his oversized hands. "But telling about it won't help, not with someone like you."
"It saddens me that I'm so far beyond helping," he returned with a heavy sigh, then snatched at her wrists. "I guess I'll just have to keep on acting as I always do."
His movement was so fast that Rianne found it impossible to avoid. Before she could even react, his hands were wrapped tightly around her wrists. Granted her wrists were small for a woman her size, but she didn't know how small until the brute put them together and held them with a single hand. It was outrageous that he would be able to do that, and she was furious that pulling with all her strength still didn't free her.
And then Rianne was more than furious. The brute's free hand was unbuttoning her trousers while his body held her relatively still, and with her wrists pinned it wasn't possible to make even a token effort to stop him. It was then Rianne realized that she felt something other than just anger at the thought of this man undressing her. There was a feeling almost of trembling anticipation, a tingling when his fingers brushed her. She thought of the way she'd felt when she'd first seen him; there was nothing left of that now, of course, not when she now knew the truth, but some shadow of it still touched her. He was a cruel beast for making her experience that, heartless even though he couldn't know it was happening. A decent man would have kept his hands to himself…
"You just wait," she whispered hoarsely, totally incapable of speaking in a normal voice. "My life may not continue on for much longer, but before I die I'll pay you back, so help me God, I will."
"That's very kind of you," he answered with a glance and a smile before starting on the buttons of her shirt. "I've always wanted to be undressed by a woman, and now you're volunteering to do it. We'll have to make the time soon, or I'll be too distracted with looking forward to it to pay attention to my everyday duties."
Rianne blew her breath out in exasperation, hating the way nothing she said bothered the man. He apparently loved to twist both her words and their meaning, or simply ignore them altogether. But there must be some way of reaching him, some way to make him sorry he ever came anywhere near her…
"Would you like to tell me what you think you're accomplishing?" she forced out as evenly as possible, trying to ignore the continuing flame in her cheeks. "If you believe stealing my clothes will intimidate me, you're in for a surprise."
"More than one thing about you is turning out to be a surprise," he answered, and suddenly those gray eyes were looking straight down at her. "But that doesn't include your opinion of me. I know just how you feel about me and I wish you didn't, but we are still married. Do you think you might … pretend to be a proper wife, just to see how it feels? You don't have to mean it if you don't want to, and you certainly don't have to do it all the time. Once or twice would probably be enough to start with."
"But I never said I'd be a proper wife," Rianne pointed out, trying hard not to notice that her shirt was completely unbuttoned. "You forced me to agree to marry you, but that was all I agreed to. And since you plan to kill me like the others as soon as you have my inheritance, what difference can it make to you how I act?"
"Although I'm willing to admit I might have been tempted once or twice, my killing you was your idea, not mine," he said, faint annoyance now mixing with the wistfulness on his broad, masculine face. "And I repeat, I have never before been married, so there aren't any 'others.' What kind of trash have they been letting you read? Young girls with vivid imaginations should be kept strictly to the classics."
"Is it my imagination that you'll soon have control of my inheritance?" she countered fiercely, beginning to feel the outrage again. How dare he suggest that the beautiful books she read were trash? "Or possibly I'm dreaming that you walked in and forced me to marry you without even the slightest attempt at courting? Most of the words we exchanged were the sort that often come before duels, but you were so enchanted you refused to be satisfied with anything less than marriage to me? Really, Mr. Machlin, I'm not as innocent as you obviously believe."
"Your biggest problem is that you're a lot more innocent than you believe," he returned, and suddenly his big hand was at her face, gently brushing back strands of loose hair. "Every one of those men chasing after you knew exactly what your nature was like, but they still continued to flock around. If you believe it was nothing more than yo
ur inheritance they were after, you don't know men as well as you think you do. What kept them coming back was picturing their wedding night with you, just as I've been doing. The only difference is, I'm in a position to have that wedding night."
"I - don't believe you," Rianne managed to get out, suddenly so far off balance that she felt as though she were facing him with swords again. "You can't possibly be interested in anything but - "
"Please don't tell me what I can and can't be interested in," he interrupted, those gray eyes now pinning her as thoroughly as the rest of him. "Circumstances have made you my wife, but that doesn't have to be anything like the tragedy you're picturing. If we make the effort to get to know each other, it might not be bad at all. And right now I'd like to claim the first kiss from my bride."
His face came down and his lips touched hers, but not with the sort of brutal demand she'd been expecting. His kiss was gentle but much more unavoidable than it had been the night before, and trying to squirm free didn't get Rianne very far. He kissed her slowly and gently but in a way that refused to allow her refusal, just as though he intended to taste her thoroughly before he stopped. She had never been treated that way before, and it didn't take her long to know she didn't want it to continue.
"Well, at least this time you moved a little," the brute said with a sigh when he finally let the kiss end. "You didn't kiss me back, but you did move. I suppose I'll just have to be patient with you."
"You can be anything you like," Rianne growled, hating the way his words brought a hot flush to her cheeks. "If you're waiting for me to respond to you with enjoyment, you have a long wait ahead. I don't like you, Mr. Machlin, and all the patience in the world won't change that."