Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“Yes, sir.” Again, the deference to authority.
Some of the men go to do Leith’s bidding. He takes me by the elbow, and leads me inside. It’s dark out, but under the light of the full moon, I can see this is a massive wooden lodge, surrounded by chalets. We’re definitely in the mountains of the north. I’m surprised by the chalets, though. Everyone in Inverness says these particular mountains are uninhabited.
Did we go further than I thought?
“Be quiet,” he instructs as we walk up stone steps. If I could laugh, I would. How funny to tell a mute woman to be quiet.
Even though it’s dark, I can see that this place is beautiful. A huge porch surrounded by a wooden fence wraps around the huge house. Everything’s rustic but well-kept. There’s a wreath made of greens with red berries on the front door, and a bristly doormat to wipe our feet on right in front of the door. Though most of the house is dark, a few yellowish lights shine in upstairs windows.
I glance quickly behind me, curious what the view from the porch is. My jaw drops open in surprise. We’re nestled right in the heart of the mountains, nothing but trees and snow-capped mountains as far as the eye can see. I can’t wait to see this when it’s light out. If I’m allowed to, that is.
Where will he bring me?
Do they have an old-fashioned… dungeon or something? Castles and ruins are in these lands...
What will he do to me now that he has me alone?
We enter the house, just as a young, pretty girl comes trotting down the spiral staircase from the story above. She’s got to be in her late teens to early twenties, though there’s a hardness about her eyes that places her a bit older than I initially suspected. She’s blonde, with high cheek bones and vivid blue eyes, and she nearly trips on the stairs when she sees me.
“Oh my, Leith,” she says when she sees me. She rolls her eyes heavenward. “What on earth have you brought home from the market this time?”
“Enough, Islan,” Leith says. Does this man have a single thread of humor in his body? “Where are Mum and Dad?”
“I’m not sure. Sleeping, maybe.” She tips her head to the side. “Shall I fetch them?” She pinches her fingers together. “They may be a wee bit buggered to be woken, but if you want me to, I will, and be sure to tell them you sent me.”
He grunts. “No.”
She looks curiously at me, her eyes scanning over my clothes. My cheeks flame with embarrassment. Then her gaze falls to Bailey, and she claps her hands together.
“Oh, how sweet! You brought a puppy!”
“He’s no fucking puppy.”
Her eyes dance at me. There’s an instant connection, I know it, but it might be my too-vivid imagination.
“This one will be trained as a guard dog, so don’t get attached to him.”
Wait. What? I hate that I can’t speak, for I want to cry out to Bailey when she takes him from Tate, bending to hold onto his collar. He isn’t theirs. He’s mine.
I yank my arm away from Leith and reach for Bailey, but my hands are bound and it’s a futile attempt, for two things happen at once. Islan quickly whisks Bailey out of my sight, and Leith bends, scoops me up, and hoists me straight into the air without a word or the barest hint at effort. He heads for the spiral staircase Islan just descended.
I’m overwhelmed with every observation I can make, the first our nearness. He’s strong and muscular, as he carries me with speed and effortless ease up the stairs. I try to pull away from him. This can’t be intimate, but damn it feels intimate. I’d imagine this would be nice if the man were my lover and not someone cold and detached, but warm and loving.
If I’m honest, it’s nice now. It’s the most focused attention I’ve gotten from a person of the opposite sex in years. He smells like the woods, clean and fresh, a mix of snow-capped mountains and pine.
I won’t let myself look too closely at him, not now. He still wears the mask from the graveyard, so I have no idea what he looks like. It’s a ski mask or something, the same kind one might wear to ski the slopes of the Alps. Why hasn’t he removed it yet?
Am I never to see his face?
Maybe they’ll kill me before I do.
For some odd reason, I think, I need to see his face before I die.
It seems he’s decided that if I’m to be silent, he will as well. We reach the top of the spiral staircase to a landing, and a few paces away there’s another staircase, this one a standard one, that leads to a third floor.