Jo Beverley - [Malloren] by Secrets of the Night Read Free Book Online

her life forever.
    It didn’t matter what she wanted, though, or how this embarrassed her, or how much she disliked it. She just needed to get it done and hope and pray that a baby resulted. Clearly, however, she’d have to be a nurse before she could be an adulteress.
    “If your head hurts,” she said, as coolly as she could, “would you like a powder?”
    “I can’t guarantee that my stomach will tolerate it, but I’m willing to try.”
    He sounded so
calm.
Was he not shocked to his soul by this?
    She was.
    “I’ll be back in a moment then.”
    When she left, Brand eased back onto his pillow with a groan that wasn’t entirely pain. Plague take it. But how could he say no? He was not unaccustomed to frustrated wives, and if he liked them out of bed he was happy to give them pleasure in it, but this case….
    He had no idea what she even looked like. It didn’t matter much, but it made him uncomfortable. Oh well, by the time he was in a fit state to tend to her, daylight would resolve that. Nor should it matter that he didn’t know her. He couldn’t with truth say that he’d been well acquainted with every woman he’d bedded, and what he did know of this one was only kindness.
    With a rueful smile, he accepted that it was his weakness here that bothered him. He wasn’t used to dealing with amorous women when naked, sick, and half out of his mind.
    He heard her return, and watched her shadowy figure fumble across the room. She’d doubtless had light in her own room and had lost her night vision. Why, then, hadn’t she brought the light in here? Did she have something to hide?
    “Here you are,” she said, rather breathily.
    Their exploring hands connected on the glass, and she started. Then he heard her give it one last stir with a spoon. “It’s bitter, but it works. Get it all down.”
    He obeyed, then almost choked at the taste. “Perdition!”
    “Will it stay down?”
    He lay back and still. “We’re arguing about it. What is that stuff?”
    “Mostly willow bark.”
    After a moment, he said, “I don’t think the chamber pot will be needed.” He wished she would go away. “You don’t need to hover over me.”
    She moved a few steps back. “Very well. Till tomorrow, then?”
    Suppressing a groan, he said, “Breakfast and a toothbrush, dear lady, and I’ll be entirely at your service.”
    She left and he feared his tone had been unfortunate, but plague take it, he’d nearly died, his brain was scrambled, and he’d just swallowed what tasted like deadly poison.
    What did she think he was, a damned sexual automaton?
    He drifted back to sleep imagining a scrawny harridan turning an enormous key that gradually raised and expanded his penis to quite terrifying dimensions.

Chapter 4
    R osamunde always woke early, and so she did, even after the most extraordinary and disturbed night of her life. She lacked her usual enthusiasm for the coming day, however. Covering her face with her hands, she wondered how she had brought herself to state her need like that.
    Lord save her.
    And it was still to do, though her courage had fled with the dark.
    She crawled out of bed and drew back the curtains, revived a little by the first glow of a hopeful summer morning. Birds sang their hearts out and distant noises told her the Yockenthwaits were up.
    Breakfast and a toothbrush, he’d said, and at the remembered tone, her cheeks flamed again. She’d demanded it as payment! If a man demanded it of her, she’d want to kill him, even if he had saved her life.
    It was different for men, though.
    Wasn’t it?
    Standing straighter, she took a deep breath of fresh air. Of course it was. They often paid for what she was offering.
    She dressed herself in her simplest gown, with only one petticoat and a light corset underneath. With just the hooks to be fastened, she went to wake Millie.
    The woman opened saggy eyelids. “Wha—? Milady? What time is it?”
    “Early, but I need to speak to you, Millie. Do up my