No Choice but Surrender by Meagan McKinney Read Free Book Online

the cold and the men's stares.
    "She wouldn't be the one with the purple eyes, would she, Hans?" The man, a blond giant, stepped from the gatehouse and walked up to her. Brienne lowered her eyes and moved from his path, but the giant bade her look at him. He gave a sharp whistle between the gap in his front teeth.
    "If I wasn't here to see it myself, I wouldn't believe 'twas true. Hans!" the giant called to his mate.
    Another large man walked out of the gatehouse. This one was also blond but was bearded, with a slight tint of red in his whiskers.
    "She's got 'em, just as Slane said." The man named Hans peered into her eyes and then took a step backward.
    " Tis like nothing I've ever seen. So where are you off to, Brienne Morrow?"
    She tried to hide her dismay that they knew her name.
    "I shall be leaving Osterley, Please open the gates." She spoke in a brusque manner, not knowing quite what to make of the two Nordic giants.
    "Master Slane gave orders to the contrary." The giant with the smooth chin moved back to the gatehouse.
    " 'Tis of no consequence. I ask you again, open the gates." She was not yet intimidated by the still-closed gates. Her freedom was too close at hand for her to worry that the guards would not open them. When neither of them made a move to comply with her wishes, she walked over to the heavy wrought-iron gates and tried to open them herself. But they would not budge.
    "I will not stay here!" she cried out as she placed her bag on the damp ground and put all her strength into pulling the gates open.
    After watching her tug futilely for several minutes, the giant with the reddish whiskers came over to her.
    "There be no point, my lady. The Master Slane bids you not leave, and we follow his orders."
    "The Master Slane, is it?" she spat at him, now furious. "Well, there are other ways of leaving than through the gates!" With that, she walked over to the side of the wrought- iron fence and tried to swing her bag over the ten-foot height of it. Her first attempt missed, but her second succeeded. The tan woven bag landed with a thump on the other side of the fence.
    She eyed the two giants, who had left the gatehouse and were now timidly watching her; both were obviously unaccustomed to female rage. It was then that she took her chance. Swiftly she ran along the fence and through the open doors of the gatehouse. She had almost gotten to her bag and was about to disappear into the underbrush when she felt herself being picked up off the ground. Two gigantic hands wound themselves around her waist, and she knew without a doubt that there was no way she could struggle out of them.
    It was Hans who carried her back through the gatehouse, but both giants walked her back to the house. Neither one of them dared to speak. Throughout the guarded journey she shot quelling looks at both of them; her fiery jewellike eyes sent off sparks of purple fury.
    By the time they reached the house, her cloak clung damply to her chilled body, and her hem flopped around her ankles, wet and muddy. Even her hair was soaked from the pervading mist that blanketed the English countryside. And like this, soaked and bedraggled, she was deposited in Osterley's gallery like so much baggage.
    With a nod from Avenel Slane, the two blond giants left Brienne and himself alone. He was sitting comfortably by the south fireplace, very close to the portrait of the earl that she hated so much, and she stood before him feeling like a half- drowned cat.
    "I will not stay here with you, so accept that fact and let me go. I can imagine no reason for your wanting to keep me here except to use me as some kind of perverted bait for my father. And I must tell you now," she said, taking a deep breath, "it will not work. I refuse to stay, and my father will refuse to come." She spoke through clenched teeth—whether from anger or to keep them from chattering, she wasn't sure.
    "Why don't you come closer to the fire, Lady Brienne, and warm yourself? You seem to