Falling in Love Read Online Free Page A

side.
    “ Gold.”
    He snorted cynically, and grinned in
appreciation.
    Reaching into his pocket, he pulled
out three gold crowns. He held her eye for a moment, and then
opened his hand and let them fall to the floor. They clanked and
rattled and spun off in curving trails, each seeking its own fate.
Her face flushed but she made no move to chase them.
    He smiled at that. Chauncey stood and
watched her for a while.
    The body of Olaf, breathing quietly
and looking strangely peaceful in the sleep of the drunken man, was
dragged out of the room. There was something about her.
    “ Why did he come in
here?”
    Her face was impassive.
    “ He likes me.” Olaf had
been coming around for a few nights now, some big raid up in the
north country had gone well and he was flush with cash, at least
for a few days as the pay of a warrior wasn’t that much.
    A fool and his money were soon parted.
Chauncey knew an opportunity when he saw one.
    “ Ah.”
    With a nod, and with his mouth twisted
up in a curious feeling of jealous impotence, Chauncey turned to
go.
    He stuck his head back in the
door.
    “ You and me—what do you
say we go out some night?”
    “ Sure.”
    “ What? That’s it?” There
was a sharp tang of something that burst into flame in his guts.
“Where would you like to go? Money is no object, I’ll take you
anywhere in town. Some place nice.”
    “ Whatever you want is fine
with me.” He owned her, but then he owned everyone and everything
around here. “Thank you, Mister Chauncey.”
    With his most charming smile, he
nodded politely and tugged at his forelock. That defiance was what
made her. Again, he just stared at her. He could not think of a
single thing to say and finally shrugged. He bowed out at last with
a final word and an inclination of the head.
    “ Adieu, my fair
lady.”
     
     
    Scene Two
     
     
    After several weeks she thought he had
forgotten about it, but that wasn’t Chauncey’s way.
    He was putting some thought into it.
Buying her a dress and delivering it to her room. Sending flowers,
making a mockery of courting her, winking at her, being solicitous
of her comforts, paying her little flatteries in front of every
employee and all the customers, it was all a bad business and her
fear built. It was his way of telling her.
    He was showing her off.
    They had dinner at the finest
restaurant in town, far away in the brilliantly lit uptown area,
Chauncey’s bodyguards relaxed and confident as they stood in an
alcove off to one side. He plied her with compliments and
champagne, and she forced herself to smile, and to be flattered,
and to eat and to drink. She remained polite but aloof.
    After drawing it out for hours,
peering into her eyes and trying to read her every thought and
feeling, he seemed satisfied with her discomfort. Calling for the
check, the boys came and escorted them, not out the front doors as
she expected, but around the back of the kitchen, down several
crooked alleys and then into the back of a barn-like red brick
building. Her fears mounted. They climbed an impossible number of
stairs past smelly male bodies and the reek of beer and
tobacco.
    The light above was bright but the
stairs were dim and her flesh crawled as Chauncey held her hand and
assisted her. She climbed the stairs with ladylike grace, in her
ridiculously high heels and tightly-constricting red silk dress,
her cleavage exposed to leering faces peering down from
above.
    He stood and beckoned
proudly.
    They were in an amphitheatre, square
in plan, with rows and rows of white-painted plank benches plunging
down into a centre well. The noise was horrendous, with hundreds of
people smoking and drinking, all of them speaking at once. The room
was brightly lit, except for the mysterious hole in the middle of
the room, which was dark.
    Chauncey’s boys cleared a way, and he
led her to a small door along a passage on the right side of the
hall.
    “ Private box.” The
boastful tone annoyed Chauncey for a second, and