Claire Delacroix by Pearl Beyond Price Read Free Book Online Page B

knees were forced between her elbows and tied it to the post, as well. He cast a blanket over her in evident disgust. Then he braced his hands on either side of her shoulders and barked out several terse, incomprehensible commands.
    She had to break free somehow. Kira wriggled defiantly against her bonds, her movements setting the pole wobbling unsteadily. They both glanced up as the tent swayed. Kira stilled, then he glared down at her once more. A short lecture was undoubtedly what he was delivering, his hand signs making it more than evident to Kira that her fighting could haul down the tent.
    Precisely, she thought victoriously. The warrior must have guessed the direction of her thoughts, for he shook his head with that maddening slowness. He moved out of her line of sight, then returned with a thick scrap of wool felt that looked much like the fiber of the tent itself. The warrior stood over her, mimicking the sway of the tent before dropping to his knees and pressing the piece of felt over Kira’s nose.
    The wool itched for an instant, then she realized she could not breathe. Her eyes widened in horror at his meaning. He would sit by and let her suffocate? Surely not! she thought wildly. His untroubled expression shocked her, answering her doubts more eloquently than words.
    They were barbarians, one and all, these Mongols.
    The warrior stood slowly and cast the piece of cloth aside, satisfaction gleaming in his eyes that she had understood his meaning. He lifted the lantern from the pole where it dangled over her head and set it beside the stove. Kira frowned at him, unable to believe even a Mongol could be so callous.
    Barbarian.
    The final piece of the puzzle dropped into place when the warrior strode purposefully out of the tent, dropping the flap in his wake.
    The tent fell into darkness in the same moment that Kira realized that he was leaving her alone. The muffled sound of his horse’s footfalls made her feel more abandoned than she had in all her life.
    Indeed, she knew not even whether he would return. And that possibility troubled Kira more than she knew it should.
    * * *
    “The others will well enjoy this news,” Nogai commented wryly.
    Thierry gritted his teeth as he dismounted, wishing there was some way he could keep the tale of his deed from spreading through the camp. But Nogai was not known for holding his tongue, especially once he had some qumis under his belt. The fermented mare’s milk was intoxicating beyond anything else Thierry had ever sampled and enough to loosen the most reluctant tongue.
    That Nogai’s tongue was willing made the liquor’s effect all the worse.
    “The tribute will be well received,” he restrained himself to commenting, knowing full well that this was not the news Nogai meant. His companion laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.
    “But naught compared to the news that the Qaraq-Bäke has taken a woman,” he teased in a low voice. Thierry spared Nogai a scathing glance.
    “I take no woman,” he insisted. Nogai laughed again and Thierry was dismayed to feel the back of his neck heating.
    “Good news that is, for should you not claim her, there will surely be others willing to take on the burden of the task,” Nogai remarked lightly. Thierry stopped dead on the path, waiting until Nogai did likewise and turned to meet his eyes. The horses nickered in the darkness behind them. The revelry from the yurt ahead beckoned them onward.
    “The woman will surrender naught but the pearl,” he growled. Nogai lifted his brows eloquently, evidently not convinced.
    “And then?”
    “She will return to Tiflis,” Thierry insisted, disliking the slow grin that spread over Nogai’s features.
    “Surely you jest,” he charged. “No time had you to ride to Tiflis on this day and even less time have you to return there. Do you forget already that we engage the Golden Horde tomorrow?” Nogai rubbed his goatee with an affected gesture of recollection. “‘Tis a battle of