Elizabeth Lane - My Lord Savage

Swallowing her terror, Rowena forced herself to speak. “Don’t be afraid, Dickon,” she said gently. “I won’t let him hurt you. See, I’ve brought the keys. That’s what he wants.”

Dickon’s eyes flickered in response. His breath gurgled in and out, blocked by the pressure of the chain against his neck. “Let him go.” Rowena spoke slowly and clearly to the savage, holding the key ring just out of easy reach. The Indian made no response.

“I said, let him go!” Rowena’s hand dropped onto the bruised knuckles of the powerful hand that gripped the chain. The light contact sent a shock up her arm, a sensual chill that jolted through her veins. She felt the responding jerk of his hand. It took all her self-control to keep from leaping backward.

“Key! You open!” He rasped the words, shaking a manacled wrist in her face. The motion tightened the chain around Dickon’s neck. The groom gurgled in terror.

“Let him go!” Rowena ordered, punctuating the words with emphatic gestures. “You let him go, or no key. Understand? No key.”

“I…kill.” The chain tightened across Dickon’s throat. “Kill him…kill you.”

Rowena’s knees threatened to buckle beneath her petticoats. She willed herself to stand tall and speak fiercely. “You kill, you die!” she said. “Right here. Right now.”

Thomas moved the torch closer to the cell, shining the light directly in the savage’s eyes. The black pupils contracted sharply. Then slowly the chain slackened against the groom’s throat. The links slithered in the torchlight, and suddenly Dickon was free. He stumbled forward, half paralyzed by fear.

“Go on, Dickon,” Rowena said softly. “You’re all right now. Thomas will let you out.”

Dickon lurched toward the door of the cell. Rowena heard the ancient hinges creak behind her as Thomas opened the door. Then the iron bars closed. She was alone in the cell with the savage.

Her savage, she reminded herself. She had come to save him as well as the hapless groom. Now he stood before her in wretched majesty, his shackled arms extended, his eyes squinting in the torchlight.

How long could she play this game of pretense? And where would it end?

Rowena was about to find out.

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