The Claiming by Kaitlyn O'Connor Read Free Book Online Page B

expect her to be. He had sent her straight to her room when they arrived at the plantation. When she had come down the following morning, attired in the only clothing she owned, he had choked on his beverage, leapt from his chair and marched her right back upstairs and shown her the clothing that had been provided for her.
    Naturally, it had not fit. It had been made to the measurements of the other woman. Jana expected him to be immediately suspicious. Instead, he seemed to have assumed there had been a mistake and sent for a woman to take her measurements and rework the clothing to fit. She was confined to her room until the first was delivered.
    Blane met her at the head of the stairs that time, grasped her arm and led her back into her room. She had not donned the clothing properly. The clothing she was wearing was designed to go under other clothing … in layers. He explained that he would have to instruct her to the best of his abilities. It was not allowed to behave in any way as an outsider and there was no female available to call upon. He had also explained that she must never divulge to anyone that he had acted as her lady’s maid—under penalty of death—his--should his brother discover it.
    That had frightened Jana witless, but Blane had reassured her. He had explained that it was just an expression, that he was fairly sure Alain wouldn’t kill him, he would only make him wish he were dead.
    Jana was not really reassured, but decided Blane must not be completely serious, for he didn’t seem terrified. She would have felt better, though, if he had left the room by the door instead of climbing out of the window.
    When she was finally dressed to his satisfaction, he had led her around and explained what everything was, how it worked, and what was expected of her.
    The biggest shock—next to the layer upon layer of clothing she had found she was expected to wear every day—had been her discovery of the infants. When she had asked Blane what their purpose was he had only stared at her blankly and scratched his head. Finally, he had explained that they were what happened when a man and woman had sex without birth control … and then hastily added that she was never to mention sex or birth control to anyone at all. These were forbidden subjects.
    Jana couldn’t help but think his warning strange. Moreover, he had already given her a list of ‘forbidden’ that was so long she was beginning to have trouble remembering all of them, but she had not been conditioned to dispute orders. She had, to the best of her abilities, committed it to memory.
    Still, she was confused about his explanation regarding the infants. She understood the concept of birth control. She had been told that she was genetically engineered to be infertile, but they had stressed that infertile was not sterile. She could not be made sterile and also retain the hormones necessary to achieve maximum desirability. She must use birth control to prevent any unfortunate accidents. She hadn’t realized that this was what they meant by unfortunate accidents.
    She still didn’t completely understand the concept, but apparently they were part of her job. She was to provide some of their care. The dark female that Blane had explained was their nurse would also tend to them and would teach her that job.
    Surprisingly enough, and despite the fact that she’d quickly learned that they were quite disgustingly uncivilized, she had found them very amusing. Their nurse had explained that they were just beginning to learn to walk, but they obviously had a long way to go. They generally fell as soon as they’d managed to stand upright and had the tendency, if they let go of whatever they’d used to pull themselves up with, to stagger around and bump into things as if they were intoxicated.
    They were the same age. The nurse had looked at her strangely when she had asked if they were incubated at the same time or if the female had cured faster. The woman had