by Jo Goodman
"And what are the duke's plans?"
"He wants to me to wed."
"And you don't want to marry."
"It's not that precisely. He's chosen a husband not of my liking."
Salem sighed. He could pity the girl for having a marriage arranged for her, but it was hardly without precedent. It seemed a necessary evil for the female offspring of titled wealthy families. Ashley Lynne's illegitimacy was probably another reason the duke was pressing for the marriage. It was a stigma that considerably shortened the list of suitors. "It's unfortunate you have so little choice in your future, but since there seems to be no love lost between you and your guardian, you may very well be better off away from Linfield House."
Ashley hadn't expected any sympathy so she wasn't disappointed in the captain's pragmatic approach to her problems. "I had already resigned myself to that very thing. But Nigel wants me to marry Bosworth. His lordship is easily eighty and—"
"Eighty?" Salem whispered harshly. "That's absurd!"
"I know, but Bosworth wants me very badly. He's offered Nigel one of his finest horses for me. I can't allow myself to be bartered in such a disgraceful manner."
"You've already told this to the duke?" Salem said with a scowl.
"Yes. I told him I would not marry Bosworth, and he responded crudely, saying I objected to missing the carnal aspects of marriage. Davinia says his lordship is unable to consummate the marriage, you see. I thought of annulment, of course, but Nigel became incensed that I would make him part of such a scandal."
Salem permitted himself a narrow smile at Ashley's prim accents. "Naturally. So you defied him and he threatened you." Even on short acquaintance it was not difficult to determine the bent of the duke's mind.
"Exactly. Nigel promised that I should have the next visitor at Linfield."
"He wanted a stranger to make love to you?" he clarified gruffly.
"Since I have no desire to—fornicate with a stranger, I believe the correct term is 'rape.'"
Salem heard the nearly imperceptible pauses in Ashley's speech and knew it cost her dearly to speak plainly. "So I was neatly maneuvered into being your attacker."
"Yes. I know at first Nigel had been willing to settle for any guest at Linfield to exact my punishment. Then, when I defied him further, he became impatient and sent Davinia to entice someone to the house. I don't know how you were brought here, but tonight's play was the reason."
"I had my own reasons for being here, Miss Lynne," Salem said thoughtfully. "It seems, however, that we have thwarted your guardian's plans for you."
Ashley's shrug was philosophical. "For tonight, perhaps. But it is inevitable that Nigel will have his way. He always does."
"You really believe that, don't you?" he said, appalled at the apparent ease with which she was ready to surrender her future.
"Yes. That is why you must leave Linfield immediately. If you remain, the duke will find some way to bring you around to his thinking. I doubt that he will find it difficult to persuade you. After all, you really saw nothing wrong with Nigel arranging a marriage for me. He has only to convince you there is nothing wrong with the groom being a Methuselah."
Salem shifted uncomfortably and knew the movement was prompted by guilt. He had been matter-of-fact about an arranged marriage, had never considered that, for the woman, it was not unlike being sold at auction. "You're only partially right, Miss Lynne. The duke would have a very hard time making me part of his plan, now that I know what it is."
"It is foolish to underestimate him," Ashley said earnestly. "It will cost you. You may avoid raping me, but if Nigel discovers you deliberately thwarted him, he will find a way to exact his revenge. You must leave as soon as possible."
"And what about you? What happens to you?"
"I go on as I always have."
"Then you'll marry Bosworth?"
"In the end I doubt I shall have any other choice. I tried to starve myself, but Nigel tidily managed an end to that." She ignored the captain's harsh intake of breath. "I suspect I lack the courage to attempt it again. I shall have to hope that Nigel will eventually decide I have been punished enough and find some other way to ensure that I won't annul the marriage. I wish that you would not concern yourself with me. I have found ways to take care of myself for all of my nineteen years and I mean to continue."
Salem's expression was scornful. "I can hardly believe that. I have two little sisters better able to see to themselves. Your attempt to waste away to nothing was not without some success. You are far too thin and look years younger than your age. You are not strong enough to fend for yourself."
She huffed a trifle haughtily. "I took care of you this evening. Those are my teethmarks in your shoulder." Her bold words brought back those moments in the captain's bed, and Ashley could not quite meet his eyes.
"Hardly," Salem assured her tersely. "These little marks and your puny attempts to free yourself meant nothing. I could have had you if I had wanted you. And if the duke finds someone else for you—which he most probably will—then you are unlikely to escape a second time."
"Are you deliberately being cruel?" Ashley asked, her voice brittle. She blinked but could not hide the wet sheen in her eyes when she faced Salem again. "I am familiar with precious little beyond Linfield, yet you seem to think I have a place to escape to. I tell you, there is nothing, no one. Do you think I haven't considered leaving? What would that serve? I would most likely find myself in the kind of place I'm not supposed to know about, giving my virginity to someone even more insensitive than you!" She caught her breath on a sob and continued, finding in Salem the perfect target for her long-repressed anger. "And how dare you laugh at me! I succeeded in discouraging you from raping me, and it is of no consequence that you didn't want me. You stupid Colonial savage! Think that I wish you to want me? I'd sooner scratch out my eyes than see you or any of your ilk look at me with desire!" Tears blinded her now, and she knuckled them away, furious with herself for this particular weakness. "And don't speak to me of your sisters. It doesn't matter if they could handle the unwanted advances of a Hercules. They have someone to look out for them. I have to look out for myself!" Her lips trembled but she held her head up as she finished chastising the captain. "It is unfair of you to criticize me."
Stunned for a moment by the bitter force of her outrage, Salem was slow to throw on his robe and move to Ashley's side. Her bravado dissolved immediately, and she sobbed jerkily into the curve of her arm. He reached out to touch her. When she did not flinch from his hand on her bare shoulder, or the gentle stroke he gave her dark hair, he tossed caution aside and lifted her into his lap.
At first he thought it odd that she could revile him so heatedly, hating his presence, then cling to him so tightly, finding comfort in his casual embrace. But on second thought, as he brought her head to the satin collar of his dressing gown, he realized her actions were a true measure of her complete aloneness. She had so few choices she was willing to accept solace from the man who caused her distress. Belatedly he understood her relationship with her guardian was much the same. She could honestly despise the duke for his shabby treatment of her, but she was right to assume she would not be much better off on her own without funds.
Salem wondered what he could offer that would make a difference to her life. He thought of calling the duke out but dismissed it as a poor solution. What, after all, would it gain either of them? Idly he stroked the trembling girl in his arms. He supposed there was little chance of persuading her to leave with him. It seemed unlikely the duke would allow her to go freely as long as he had use of her.
"If you agreed to marry me I could take you away from here, possibly with your guardian's sanction." The words were out even as Salem was considering them. Once stated, the idea seemed to have more merit. His embrace tightened around Ashley, and he thought with some detachment that if she added a little flesh to her frame, she would not be an uncomfortable handful. Her breasts had not seemed to suffer from her hunge
r strike, for they felt remarkably full and warm against Salem's chest. He already admired her spirited self-defense, and he could not deny that he was intrigued by her almost reckless resolve. She had risked much by simply warning him of her guardian's purpose. Yet had anyone ever needed him as much as this young woman?
Gently Salem took Ashley by the chin and forced her head upward. The expression that met his was bewildered, even a little shocked, but Salem saw that it did nothing to detract from the delicate beauty of Ashley's face. Crying had flushed her complexion rather than blotched it. Her eyes, slightly swollen in a way that made them look even larger, were edged with darkly spiked lashes that added a hint of mystery as she lowered them to avoid Salem's narrow gaze.
Supremely unaware of her appearance at the moment or the affect it was having on the captain, Ashley reached for a corner of her sheet and indelicately blew her nose.
Salem would have faced walking the plank rather than admit to anyone it was precisely at that moment he fell in love with Ashley Lynne. He could hardly believe it, but he knew it was so. Knew it for certain by the way everything inside him gave a curious lurch and, instead of settling, fluttered about with no regard for his well-being. He was so staggered by his realization that Ashley's setdown had little impact.
"I cannot credit anyone could be so lacking in sensibilities," she said heatedly. "Therefore, it must please you to tease me. First you point out what a simpleton I am, that I cannot manage my own affairs, and that you do not want me. Then you propose marriage! It would be another marriage like the one I will have with Bosworth. Better the devil I do know!"
Had Ashley not been more concerned with keeping covered as she began to remove herself from Salem's lap, she would have noticed his preoccupied manner. When his fingers tightened about her waist and restrained her from leaving she snapped at him. "Odious man! Take your hands off me."
"Shhh!"
"What?" Distracted by the captain's swift urgency, she was immediately still. But she could not discern any reason for the sudden tension that lined his face. "What are you doing?" He did not reply, and Ashley saw that his attention was only vaguely on her. His head was tilted to one side as if he had heard something. "What is it?"
"Trust me."
That was all the warning Ashley had before Salem's mouth crushed hers. Too startled to struggle, Ashley merely held herself rigid, allowing his lips to tug at hers, his tongue to outline and moisten the edge of her mouth. When Salem's tongue sought more intimacy, Ashley pulled back sharply. She thought she caught a hint of pain in the silvery eyes that briefly caressed her face before she was harshly forced closer, and her mouth was again subject to the bruising pressure of Salem's mouth. Her fingers sought purchase at his shoulders but grasped only the slippery folds of his robe. Her attempts to push him away were in vain. Frustrated, she began to kick at his legs, an action that was hampered by her sheet.
Still, it had some effect, for she heard Salem grunt as he released her mouth. Then she was being lifted awkwardly from the chair. Instantly she was aware his destination was the bed, and she went wild in his arms, flailing at him with her arms and legs, begging him to let her go with a voice that was patently terrified.
"Stop it! You're just like I thought you were! A savage! A barbarian from the Colonies! Put me down! Let me go!" She was unaware that her sheet had slipped to the floor until Salem dropped her on the bed. The sudden rush of cool air about her brought her up short. She scrambled to cover herself while Salem slipped out of his robe and blew out the lamp. The room's return to near darkness gave Ashley the courage to glance in the captain's direction. She had no idea the firelight was adequate for Salem to see the wariness and hurt in her expression before he lifted the covers long enough to slip in beside her. Ashley had no chance to see the grieved cast of his face as he did so.
"No, you said you didn't want me!" she reminded him, a frightened sob forcing itself past the tightness in her throat. She struggled blindly as Salem's hands came down on her shoulders, pressing her down to the mattress. "Please let me go. You don't have to do this. I'll tell Nigel you had your way with me." She shifted her head to one side just in time to avoid Salem's mouth on her own. His lips brushed against her cheek. She gasped when she felt his tongue trace the curve of her ear. "That's vile!" She gritted her teeth. "You're vile. Let me up! I trusted you! Do you hear me? I trusted you!"
"Trust me now," he whispered. His mouth searched for hers and, finding it, covered it completely.
Ashley wasn't sure she heard him correctly, and then it didn't seem to matter as he moved, his tension-filled body sliding along hers, fitting itself to the contours of her own. She rebelled with a violence that surprised them both, bucking and kicking, eliciting a number of pained curses from Salem that might have pleased her had she been able to pause to enjoy her small victories. It was apparent to her that she would get no quarter from the captain, and in her own manner she cursed him for it.
"You great Yankee bastard! Your mother is a bloody harlot, and your father is a whoremonger!" She was pleased when that gave him sufficient pause and she could squirm from beneath him. Almost immediately she was hauled against his chest, her breasts very nearly crushed by the pressure one of his arms exerted at her back.
"What a surprising worldly vocabulary you possess for a chit who says she knows naught of life beyond Linfield," he responded tightly. "I have an urge to discover what other things you know. I believe you have been playing me false."
Ashley sobbed. "I haven't! Oh, please believe me! I haven't played you false! Why won't you listen?" Her breath seemed forced from her lungs as Salem's hands stroked upward from her waist and came to rest at the underside of her breasts. She knew what he was going to do by the harsh whisper of his breath as it moved along her naked throat and shoulders. Her attempt to thrust away merely seemed to give him what he wanted. Tears of mortification slipped past her tightly closed eyes and fell into the black hair fanning her temples as his hot mouth closed over one of her breasts.
"Please don't do this to me," she whispered brokenly. "I can't bear it when you touch me like that."
Just then it seemed to Ashley that he was going to stop forcing his attentions on her, and she knew a moment's elation. Then despair clouded all her senses when Salem resumed, using the rough texture of his tongue to flick the nipple of her other breast. His hands cradled her buttocks and brought her roughly in contact with his thighs. She was too inexperienced to realize Salem was unaroused; she was too dulled by his change toward her to understand what he was trying to tell her by the action.
"Damn you! Fight me! Don't give in to me now!" he said softly, his voice taut. His words carried no further than Ashley's ears. But fight had drained out of her.
She felt his hands slide to the backs of her naked thighs. When Ashley had first found herself in the captain's heated embrace, she had been under the influence of the wine to make her less repelled by his fondling. Now she felt herself surrendering in a different manner. She was withdrawing into herself, chanting a litany she thought she had forgotten in order to escape the violation of her body.
Ashley remained quiet in Salem's arms. She was unmoved, neither repulsed nor responsive to his palms which were warmly caressing the curves of her thighs or his mouth, which rained kisses on her throat and the fragile line of her collarbone. When he touched her breasts again, she neither recoiled nor reacted sensitively to the tender manipulations of his hands.
"Ashley! For God's sake, don't surrender yet!" Salem pleaded softly with her. "Not yet!" Maddened, Salem shook her by the shoulders. "I will have you," he shouted, his voice carrying to every part of the room and beyond. Preparing to make her sit up a moment, his hands slid down her arms and grasped her wrists fiercely. He did not know what he had done to bring Ashley out of her trance, but her response was everything he had been hoping for.
She screamed as soon as his hand closed over her wrist, still tender from where she had bruised and scraped it against her shackle.
Her voice was sharp with pain. "Let me go! You're hurting me!" He let go of one of her wrists—the wrong one. "Oh my God! Are you trying to kill me? Some mercy! You're hurting me!" She pounded his shoulder with her free arm and never realized Salem allowed her the attack, doing nothing to shake off the blows.
Ashley's tormented pleas nearly covered the sound of receding footsteps in the hallway, but Salem, alert to precisely this sound, heard them as loudly as if it were a full regiment in retreat. When the footsteps faded completely he released Ashley's wrist but did not let her escape him.
Instead he rearranged the blankets so that she was effectively covered in a cloth cocoon. Separated from Ashley by a barrier of linen and wool, Salem swung a leg over both of hers, putting an end to her struggling.
He propped himself on one elbow, waiting for his breathing and hers to quiet. Calmly he said, "I am going to light the lamp again. I want to see what is wrong with your arm. Please, don't try to move away. I really didn't want to hurt you, no matter what you think." He managed to light the lamp, all the while keeping a wary eye on his captive.
Ashley was certain she would wake from this nightmare at any moment. It seemed to her the Yankee captain changed personalities as easily as he changed clothes. She flinched from him as he reached for her wounded wrist.
"I won't hurt you," he said gently. "Let me see your hand and then I'll explain what happened."
Almost against her will Ashley felt herself responding to the soft sincerity of Salem's voice. She raised her wrist for his inspection.
He looked at the chaffed and raw flesh covering bones which seemed impossibly delicate. A muscle twitched in his tight jaw. "What happened?"
Ashley was afraid again. Salem McClellan looked like a man who could do murder. Mutely she shook her head.
"God's truth, I don't mean to frighten you, and yet I manage it with an ease that almost makes me believe I am all the things you say." His eyes pleaded with her. "Tell me how you came by this."
