Bondslave (Seven Brides for Seven Bastards #1 ) by Georgia Fox Read Free Book Online

a Norman and for many years his people had driven a burned out path of horror and death across the land. He was a Norman. There was really nothing more to be said.
    Yet he had gathered herbs and plant roots that morning and mixed them into a paste to soothe the smarting cheeks of her bottom. He had even folded up his fleeced mantle so that she had extra padding under her as they rode.
    "Perhaps you know now not to answer me back and call me a pig," he said to her, almost sounding...dare she think it...sorry?
    "Perhaps," had been her deliberately equivocal reply.
    In truth she thought she rather might like to be spanked again.
     
    * * * *
     
    They rode through the main gates of the bailey and were submerged immediately in a noisy crowd of people and beasts. Hens clucked and scattered out of his path, pigs trotted by grunting merrily and a goat, solemnly chewing a large green leaf, watched them pass with unblinking interest. 
    "Since you have no coin, how do you mean to get boots?" his slave had asked.
    "You'll see."
    He dismounted and helped her down. A sudden shout echoed above the general ruckus.
    "Raul! What in the name of all that's holy have you got there?"
    Looking over his shoulder he saw the tall figure striding through the crowd toward him, cloak fanning out like the wings of a giant black crow. Almost a mirror image of himself but dark-eyed and with closely cropped hair.
    "Salvador," he greeted his elder brother with a smile. "I thought you would have this place in order by now."
    "'Tis market day. I let the Saxon rabble have its head on such a day."
    Raul felt his slave girl stiffen as she looked over at his brother. Salvador returned her appraisal, his eyes warming quickly while they roamed with evident appreciation over the golden-haired beauty.
    "Did you bring a present for us, little brother?" he asked in their mother's tongue.
    "No. She's mine," Raul replied coolly, in the language she would understand. "For now."
    Salvador's smile faded, as did the brittle light that had momentarily broken through his dark gaze and transformed his stern D'Anzeray features into something less forbidding. Of all the seven illegitimate sons born to their parents, Salvador looked most like their Norman father, but had the eyes and temper of their gypsy Spaniard mother. It gave him the element of surprise for no one ever knew what he was thinking until that temper exploded on their heads.
    "Well, I suppose I must welcome you into my home, Raul, even with no gift."
    "I won't stay long. I have business in Canterbury. But I need boots."
    Salvador looked down at his brother's bare feet. "You rode here like that?"
    "I did."
    Suddenly they were interrupted by more shouts and three more dark-haired men, two of them in chainmail hauberks, came across the yard to greet the new arrival.
    He turned to his slave and explained in a low voice, "These are my brothers. Some of them."
    She arched a sun-kissed eyebrow. "Only some?"
    "There are two more still with our father in the east."
    "Thank heavens," she murmured drily and, so he thought, quite inexplicably.
    Tightening his hold on her arm, he led his slave inside Salvador's newly built fortress.
     
    * * * *
     
    The brothers teased Raul about his lost boots. They wanted to know how he came to misplace them, and she decided to speak up, even though he had not given her permission. She would save him from their needling.
    "I took them from him and threw them in the fire," she said proudly. "We had a quarrel last night."
    They stared at her and one of them— the one she now knew was named Dominigo— laughed uproariously. "And he did not toss you in the flames after them?"
    "No. But he has punished me for it." She glanced at Raul and caught his frown before he had the sense to go along with her story.
    "Yes," he muttered, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "I punished my slave girl, of course."
    "Did you give her a good spanking, brother?"
    "I managed, Dom. I don't think she'll burn my boots