The Golden Barbarian Read Online Free Page A

brutal ox of a father, it was Sacha’s concern and not Galen’s. She was not his kinswoman, and he had no reason to feel such a flare of rage at the sight of blood on her gown. His emotion for the waif probably stemmed from his rescue of her from the bog. He would listen to her tale of woe and then send her back to her chamber with a promise to talk to Sacha in the morning.
    He opened the door to the dressing room to find Tess sitting patiently on a chair against the far wall. Lord, she was tiny. Fine-boned and fragile, she looked closer to nine than twelve in her prim, full-skirted white gown. The candle she had set on the low console beside her chair revealed a dusting of golden freckles over her small noseand burnished her wild aureole of curls. Said slept peacefully on a cot opposite Tess, Galen noticed with exasperation. How the devil had she managed not to wake him?
    Galen stepped inside the room. “Said!”
    Said Abdul raised his tousled head, instantly awake. “What is—” He broke off as he saw the child sitting a few yards away. “Who—”
    “That’s not important.” Galen could hardly blame him for being stunned. When Said had retired for the night, the females with whom Galen had been occupied had definitely not been children. “Leave us. I’ll call when I need you.”
    Said nodded dazedly, rolled out of bed, wrapping his blanket around his naked body. In another moment he stumbled past Galen into the bedchamber.
    Tess sat up straighter in the chair as Galen shut the door and leaned back against it. “I have to hurry. Father told my mother she must take more concern in my upbringing, and she may check on me tonight.”
    “Your back?”
    She frowned uncomprehendingly. “What are—Oh, is it bleeding again? I’m glad you told me. I’ll have to soak my gown in cold water when I get back to my chamber.” She shook her head. “No, my mother suspects Pauline of not watching me closely enough.”
    “Your presence here certainly supports that supposition.” His lips tightened. “I’m glad someone cares that you’re not in your bed at this hour.”
    “Of course they care,” she said, surprised. “I have value for them. They have no son, and I must make a great marriage to compensate for my mother’s failing. If anything happened to me, they would have nothing.”
    “I see.” Arranged marriages were also common in his country, but for some reason the idea that this child was treated only as a game piece filled him with anger. “And who are you to marry?”
    “It will be decided later. I should really be affianced by now.” She wrinkled her nose. “But my father hopes I will become more comely later and attract better offers.” Her gaze went to the door of the bedchamber. “Like Lady Camilla. She had many offers before they wed her to Count Evaigne. You must be a great relief to her after fornicating with that old man.”
    He bowed mockingly. “I tried to make the experience memorable. She did not seem disap—” He broke off as he realized he was talking to her as if she were an experienced lady of the court instead of a girl still in the schoolroom. “We should not be talking about the lady’s infidelities.”
    She turned her crystal-gray gaze on him. “Why not? I meant no insult. I know that this is how things are done. First, the marriage, and then a young, strong man to bed. Pauline says that every wife has a lover, sometimes two or—”
    “I’m not interested in what Pauline says,” he said irritably. “Why are you here?”
    She drew a deep breath. “Apollo.”
    Whatever he had expected, it was not this. “The dog?”
    Tess nodded, her small hands clutching the arms of the chair. “I was stupid. Pauline was angry about the gown, and I told her about Apollo arid the bog. She told my mother, and my mother told my father, and—”
    “He beat you.”
    She looked at him, startled. “Why should that bother me? I expected nothing else. No, it was Apollo. My father was angry,