My Lady Compelled by Shirl Anders Read Free Book Online Page B

muttered.
    Harrison merely smiled in a half glacier offering. "Wyndham is young and could hardly be expected to keep his mouth closed to such groundbreaking events, therefore, I have only to suppose what your feelings might be."
    "And you really believe that you know me so well," Drummond questioned tightly.
    "We know each other so well," Harrison rasped. "Although, I cannot ever recall seeing you as you appear now. I only hope, should I ever be unlucky enough to take this fall into love, that it will not be quite so painful as it appears on your face."
    "Scoundrel," Drummond growled, turning to retrace his steps.
    "Most assuredly," Harrison whispered in a ghostly inflection to Drummond's retreating back.
     

Chapter Ten
     
    Drummond found Gabriella, not surprising, exactly where he had left her, only she appeared as a morose figure spilled limply against the wall. Her small head was bent to his approach, therefore, she surprised him when she spoke with the knowledge that he was near to her.
    "You shall have to beat me, my lord. Throw me into chains, before I-I-. Ohh-."
    Drummond swung Gabriella up into his arms to carry her, eliciting her startled squealing. "Entirely too dramatic, madame," he muttered.
    Gabriella clutched his neck to near strangulation proportions, allowing him to assume that no man had carried her in his arms before, as she sputtered rather indelicately. "Y-You would not think so, if you w-were the one being bullied!"
    "Bullied, madame?" Drummond fairly blurted, then caught himself. "A smattering autocratic . . . perhaps," he grumbled for a finish, while he noticed Gabriella's release of some tension, namely her fingernails gouging his neck, when she saw that he carried her away from the direction of the salon.
    "Autocratic," she snorted delicately, with a puff of breath warming his jaw.
    "I can detect that this situation calls for a gesture of proof," he drawled, starting up the long staircase to the upper floors.
    "Gesture?" Gabriella asked, tightening her hold on his shoulders as she glanced precariously downward.
    "Do not look down," he ordered. "Look at me."
    "Bully," she whispered, burying her face into the crook of his neck.
    Being so unobserved, Drummond smiled and held Gabriella a bit more tightly as he took the last five steps to the top of the stairs. "I shall allow you one objection a day, over anything you wish . . . except my releasing you."
    "W-What?"
    "I suggest, madame, that you use the boon wisely. A full day is a long measure," Drummond said, opening his bedroom door with a twist of his hand and a shove of his foot.
    "And today . . . do I have one for today?" Gabriella asked, as he set her onto her feet beside him.
    "Exactly," Drummond stated succinctly as he dropped his chin to regard her gently uplifted face.
    "Well then, of course I will use it to-."
    Drummond quickly used one finger to press over the delicate texture of Gabriella's lips, silencing her before she could use her boon precariously. "I feel it only fair to inform you, madame, that we shall not be entertaining the gentlemen, Archangels this evening. Our plans have changed."
    The relief was readily apparent in Gabriella's violet eyes as she stepped back, releasing his finger's impression upon her lip, while asking incredulously, "Why?"
    Drummond stole a moment's hesitation by padding further into the room, then sidestepped her query entirely by asking, "Do you play chess, madame?"
    Gabriella's delicate features showed surprise, mild reproof, and then perplexity, before she finally answered, "It has been many years, my lord, however, I did play chess with my father when I was young."
    "Excellent," Drummond answered, watching Gabriella's awareness dawning to realize just where they stood and what she could only assume that meant would be happening soon.
    "I would challenge you to a game, my lord," she declared suddenly, a little too suddenly he thought, suppressing a smile.
    "Challenge begets a wager, madame. Is that what