The Golden Barbarian by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online Page A

mean tomorrow. I will let you become accustomed to me before the marriage is consummated. I’ve waited a long time. I can wait a little longer. Suppose I leave you to think about my offer.” He glanced over his shoulder as he walked to the door. “It’s a very good bargain. Everything you could want. Would you rather Sacha took you home to Belajo?” He read the answer in her expression and added softly, “Then be bold,
kilen.”
    The door shut behind him.
    She whirled and looked out the window again.
    “Be bold.”
    She had never lacked boldness, but these circumstances were different, and the step he wanted her to take would affect her entire future. She would be defying her father to journey to a wild land with a man who was as strange and barbaric as Sedikhan.
    Yet Galen had been entirely reasonable and urbane as he had outlined his proposal to her. He had used persuasion, not force. Why was she still thinking of him as a barbarian?
    She caught sight of him below, striding toward the stable. His pace was unhurried, almost leisurely, but every step held enormous power under complete control.
    She suddenly realized his iron control was at the core of her fascination with him. She had sensed a deeply layered explosive violence in him as he outlined his proposition, and she had been waiting for it to surface.
    She was being foolish. If he did possess a violent nature, she would probably never see it. He had given her a choice. But what if she refused his proposal? Would he still be so calm and reasonable?
    Galen disappeared into the stable, and Tess felt a sudden easing, as if she had been released from bondage. Bondage? What an odd thought when he had offered her only freedom.
    She turned away from the window and sat down in the chair. Resting her chin on her hand, she dreamily gazed into thin air.
    Freedom. The thought was honey-sweet, and the temptation nearly irresistible. Three years and she could be free for the rest of her life. Three years was not such a long time. She had spent six at the convent, and Zalandan had to be better than that dreary place.
    Freedom.
    “Well?” Sacha asked as Galen came into the stable.
    “I left her to mull over my proposition.” Galen took off his coat and hung it over the side of the stall again. He knelt beside Sacha in the stall. “I’ll carry on.”
    “Does she need me?”
    Galen’s brow rose as he glanced sidewise at Sacha. “I don’t know why you persist in believing I’m victimizing your sweet cousin. I was everything gentlemanly and courteous to her.”
    “She’s still a child. I’d hoped while she was away, she would become—”
    “Convents don’t contribute to worldly wisdom.” Galen dipped the cloth in the hot water again. “That’s why you were able to persuade her father to send her away.” He applied the salve and wrapped it tight around the stallion’s ankle. “She’s not really a child. She may lack experience, but we both know she is anything but ignorant and naive.”
    Sacha remembered the luminous look on Tess’s face when she had spoken of traveling the route of Marco Polo. “She has her dreams.”
    “So do I.” Galen waited another moment, then loosened the bandage and began to unwind it. “Sedikhan.”
    Sacha frowned as he looked at the bandage. “How many times are you going to do that?”
    Galen put the cloth in the hot water in the bucket. “As long as it takes to get the results I need.”
    “All night?”
    “If necessary.” Galen squeezed the water out of the cloth and began spreading the salve on the bandage.
    Sacha felt a sudden uneasiness as he realized Galen’s determination in this matter, small as it might be, was as nothing compared to his devotion to his grand plan.
    “Why don’t you warn her?” Galen suggested without looking at him. “It’s what you want to do.”
    “You won’t try to stop me?”
    “Why should I? It will make you feel better.” He wound the bandage tightly around the horse’s ankle.