love at first sight, it seems to have
happened for you and for him. I’m truly happy for you and your baby. I think
he’ll take care of both of you--you lucky heifer.”
Adrienne
hugged her sister as they walked. “It will happen for you, too, Ebony. I’m
sure of it.”
“Hmm. So
far, I haven’t been so lucky.” She couldn’t bear telling her sister of the
nightly visits to the king. She’d long since become numb to her situation.
She never thought a person could get used to forced sex, but given enough
time….
They
reached the end of the corridor leading to the gardens in the lower level of
the palace, and Ebony felt a little better already. The gardens were her one
escape from the confines of her elegant prison. She pushed open the heavy door
and started to walk into the atrium that served as an entryway to the gardens.
She
stopped in her tracks and Adrienne almost bumped into her.
Near the
small center fountain of the marble atrium, a young, slender blonde woman lay
crumpled on the polished stone floor. Over her stooped a guardsman dressed in
a long, heavy black coat, and he seemed to be examining her closely.
Ebony
reacted instinctively. “Adrienne! Get out of here!” she hissed. “Go and get
help! Get Captain Zeta!”
Adrienne
hesitated. “What--what’s going on?” she asked, staring at the fallen woman.
“Go! Now! ”
And to Ebony’s relief Adrienne turned and left the atrium without another word--but
she let the heavy door slam behind her.
That made
the guard look up. At least, she assumed he was a guard, given his long black
coat and the familiar silver gun strapped to his waist. Then she recognized
the woman lying on the floor. It was Cassie, a pale and slender blonde, one of
her sisters from the harem.
“What
happened?” she said, hurrying over to the fallen woman. The man gave her a
startled look and then straightened up when she knelt down beside Cassie’s
motionless form. Ebony touched the young woman’s neck to feel for a pulse, and
found that though her heart beat slowly she was indeed alive.
Just
beyond the atrium, the fresh green scent of the gardens blew in through the
open doors--but Ebony could see nothing past the mammoth man blocking the
entrance. She did not recognize him; though he was just as tall and bronzed as
the other men, his long hair was black with a slight sheen of silver, and he
had very large brown eyes. He studied her more closely, and far more openly,
than any palace guard should have done.
But the
palace was enormous and there were no doubt hundreds of guards that she had
never seen. She threw this one an angry look. “Don’t just stand there,
dumbass! Aren’t you a guard? Go get a doctor!” she snapped.
But
instead of moving past her, the man grabbed Ebony by one arm and hauled her to
her feet. Before she had a chance to scream or fight, a strange-smelling cloth
was pressed to her nose and mouth.
A wave of
dizziness swam through her head, making her eyes roll around in their sockets.
The atrium spun out of control...and Ebony closed her eyes as blackness
swallowed her whole.
CHAPTER THREE
Ebony
slowly became aware that something terribly wrong had happened.
She was
hit all at once with a sensation of falling, along with a painful throbbing in
her ribs. Blood pounded between her temples and across her forehead. Gradually
she realized that her head was upside down and she was being carried, draped
over some large solid object that moved forward one step at a time. Her
fingers tingled with the pressure of bindings at her wrists, and something
tight stretched around her mouth and the back of her head.
Still
groggy, she peeled her eyelids open with an effort...and found herself in the
dark, lying across someone’s shoulder. Rough, uneven stone floor moved past
her vision in a whir, forcing her