Chapter Two
Lucy hurried through the park toward the old post office, her mind racing as she replayed her encounter with that intimidating Taar-Breckian warrior. She couldn’t believe that she’d actually had the courage to make her proposition, or that she’d got down on her knees like that for a man she’d only met minutes before. Worse than that, for a man whose name she didn’t even know. He hadn’t given her the basic courtesy of introducing himself and yet she’d done what he asked without question. What the hell had gotten into her?
Although she’d approached him, offering to become his pet, she hadn’t imagined for one minute that he would begin to issue orders immediately. She’d wanted to refuse, to tell him that they needed to establish a relationship first, but something had compelled her to do as he told her. A thrill had pricked through her as she obeyed his command. Sure, she’d felt some embarrassment at kneeling for him but it had also felt entirely natural, as she’d known it would. For a long time, Lucy had read books about women who submitted to men and she’d been curious to try it. She just hadn’t imagined giving herself over to a man like the Taar-Breckian warrior. With her quiet temperament, she’d thought the type of man she would be attracted to would have a gentler disposition. She’d pictured a man who would ask her to follow his instructions, who would treat her as a cherished partner while fulfilling her deepest fantasy. She realized now that she’d been a little naïve in her expectations.
The Taar-Breckian’s overwhelming dominance had come as a bit of a shock to her. More disturbing still was that she’d thrilled to the dispassionate note of command in his voice. His air of authority did funny things to her insides and made her yearn to be at his mercy. That had to be a testament to the raw, male power that oozed from his every pore. She’d become drunk off it. There really was no other way to explain the fact that she couldn’t stop picturing herself on her knees before him. She was ready to abandon all thoughts of an equal relationship and give herself over to his control. Well, almost. She still had some doubts.
Lucy shook her head to dispel thoughts about yielding to the warrior from her mind. Right now, she had to concentrate on ensuring that she reached her destination unseen. She moved off the main path and in among the thick line of trees that bordered the park. She doubled back a hundred yards or so, just in case she’d been spotted by anyone. A woman on her own tended to attract a lot of attention but the streets were quiet, so hopefully nobody had spotted her. Hitching up her skirts, she clambered over the fence that would take her into the alleyway behind the post office. It was a bit of a struggle and, as she came down on the other side of the barrier, she landed in an inelegant heap on the ground.
Brushing the dirt from her hands, she got to her feet. She hated having to scramble over fences and walk down dark alleys, but she knew there were no surveillance cameras here. Over the years, she and her friends had learned where they were visible to agents of the High Council and where they could come and go as they pleased. There was a surprising number of blind spots to exploit.
Lucy hurried along to the back of the post office. Pressing her shoulder to the heavy door of the derelict building, she gave it a shove. There was a loud scraping of metal on concrete as it opened, just enough for her to squeeze through. She didn’t like being in this place with its odor of abandonment and decay, but it was relatively safe. Thousands of people walked by every day without giving the building a second glance.
She crossed the large, empty space where customers in the old days must have queued up to mail their letters and parcels. Making her way past the serving counters, she headed into the back room where people had once sorted the mail. She walked to the far wall where the entrance to the space she and her friends from the Hyde Ladies’ Circle used from time to time was concealed. Kept from sight by a stack of shelves, the door led into a long corridor, at the end of which was a small room. Each of the women in the group had brought something to decorate the space so it would be comfortable in case any of them had to spend a considerable amount of time there. Lucy was glad of that because she was going to have to stay there for a spell. She wasn’t ready to go back and face that Taar-Breckian warrior again and she certainly couldn’t go home. Her father would demand to know where she’d been this morning, what she knew about Victoria’s disappearance. If she managed to hold her nerve and refused to tell him anything, he would probably put her under lock and key until he could marry her off. Any hope she had of making it to Taar-Breck would be lost.
As she entered the corridor and pulled the door shut behind her, Lucy reflected on how much things had changed in just a few short hours. Last night, she had stayed with her friend, Victoria, to give her some support before the betrothal ceremony that had been scheduled for today. Her being away from home overnight wasn’t something her father would normally approve of, especially since Victoria’s stepbrother was a bachelor. Spending the night under the same roof as an unmarried man without her guardian present was something that would be frowned upon, but Jonathan had persuaded her father to allow it. He’d thought that Lucy’s presence would calm Victoria’s nerves before her betrothal was announced.
Recently, Victoria had been putting on a convincing show of maidenly distress, but Lucy knew that what her friend really felt was anger. She was being married off to a man she hadn’t chosen for herself, after all. It was only natural that she would rail against that. Like most men would, however, Jonathan had read her mood all wrong and assumed she was nervous about the prospect of performing her marital duties for the first time. That was a joke. Victoria had thumbed her nose at the establishment by losing her virginity months ago.
But, when she had woken this morning, Victoria was gone. Lucy and her friend’s maid, Zinnie, had fled the house before Jonathan Walton could discover his stepsister was missing. He had an explosive temper and Lucy hadn’t wanted to find herself on the receiving end of it. Knowing that Victoria’s departure would make her own life here uncomfortable, Lucy had gone straight to the Taar-Breckians for help.
It wasn’t a completely spur of the moment decision. Ever since her friend Caroline had been arrested, Lucy had felt it could only be a matter of time before the secret police knocked on her door. There were few options for escape available to her and going to Taar-Breck where Caroline was now settled with her husband seemed the least ominous of them. Sure, she’d heard rumors that the aliens treated their females badly, but the stories were clearly exaggerated. At least, she thought they were. Now that she’d come face to face with one of their warriors and heard his demands, she wasn’t quite so certain.
As Lucy entered the small room where she intended to spend the night, she jumped back in fright. There was already someone in there.
“Zinnie!” she exclaimed, once she’d recovered her powers of speech and realized who the figure emerging from the shadows was. “What on Earth are you doing here? I thought you’d headed north to look for Elizabeth Chatterton.”
Lucy was not exactly sure why Zinnie thought that Elizabeth was hiding out in that part of the city. Actually, until the maid had mentioned that was where she was going, Lucy hadn’t even realized that Victoria’s maid knew Elizabeth. She chose not to ask too many questions in case the two women were connected through some subversive activity. In the current political climate, she suspected that ignorance might be bliss.
“I still plan to go north,” Zinnie explained, “but there are government agents everywhere. I’ll wait until nighttime when it’s easier to move around unseen.”
Easier, perhaps, but there were dangers other than the secret police lurking on the streets once night had fallen. Lucy knew that only too well. After all, she had crept about in the darkness many times, to go to meet her friends. She’d had to avoid running into unsavory men, and women, each time. She didn’t know exactly what kinds of criminal activity they got up to, but she’d heard enough rumors of violence to realize that the civilized veneer that glossed over the city’s problems faded with the setting sun. Lucy had no intention of lecturing Zinnie about the risk to her safety, though. She was a grown woman, more than capable of making her own choices.
“So, you’ll stay here until nightfall?” Lucy asked.
“If you don’t mind, miss.”
“Of course not.” Lucy didn’t know the other woman particularly well, but Victoria was unusually close to her maid, so she guessed she was okay to be around. Anyway, she would be glad of some company for a little while. Lucy hated being on her own. “I owe you for getting me out of the Waltons’ house before Jonathan found out she was gone. Do you know any more about where Victoria went?”
“No.” Zinnie shook her head. “Like I said this morning, I’m pretty sure she’s gone looking for the rebels.”
“She must be crazy,” Lucy said. Anyone of their social class who thought they could put their trust in members of the rebel forces was crazy. Sure, they had a common interest in seeing the downfall of the High Council, but the rebels hated the more privileged members of society and wanted to see them stripped of their wealth and status. Besides that, they were unpredictable, and they always needed money to keep their fight against the state going. That made them dangerous. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t betray Victoria in exchange for the generous reward her family was bound to put up for her return.
“That’s what I told her,” Zinnie said, “but you know Vicky. Once she’s made up her mind about something, there’s no stopping her. Anyway, what about you, Miss Lucy? Did you manage to speak to someone at Lady Chatterton’s house?”
“I did,” Lucy confirmed as she flopped onto one of the large floor cushions in the center of the room.
“And will they help you?”
“Perhaps,” Lucy replied, thinking about how the Taar-Breckian warrior had taken her proposition and turned the tables on her with demands of his own.
“They had conditions?”
“Sort of.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well,” Lucy said, “I met with one of their leaders and asked him to help me.”
“Go on,” Zinnie prompted when Lucy fell into contemplative silence.
“Well, he wanted to know why he should and I told him that if he did, I would become his pet.”
Zinnie stared at her for a moment, a look of sheer incredulity passing over her face. Then she burst out laughing.
“It isn’t funny,” Lucy said indignantly.
“Oh, Miss Lucy, it is, a bit,” Zinnie said, quickly bringing herself under control. “What on Earth made you offer to be his pet?”
Lucy’s cheeks blushed. “That’s a bit personal, but I thought it would be something he might like, that we’d both like.”
Zinnie gave her a compassionate pat on the hand that told Lucy she understood if she didn’t want to go into detail.
“So, what did he say?” Zinnie asked.
“Uhm, well, he told me that he would expect me to obey his every command.” She didn’t think there was any point in telling the other woman how she’d got down on her knees for the warrior. It was humiliating enough that she’d done it, without sharing the experience with a virtual stranger. “He’s given me some time to think about whether I can submit to him completely but he wants an answer soon.”
“And he won’t help you unless you agree?” Zinnie asked, her expression a little more solemn now.
Lucy shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t think so. He didn’t seem the type to compromise.”
In fact, it seemed to Lucy that this was an all-or-nothing kind of man. He would have fixed expectations of her and she doubted there would be any room for the sort of negotiations she’d dreamed up for her ideal relationship.
“So, what will you do?”
“I don’t think I have much choice if I want to get out of here,” Lucy replied. “I’m going to have to agree to his terms.”
“It might not be so bad.”
Zinnie’s words were clearly a response to the look of trepidation on Lucy’s face.
Lucy smiled weakly, realizing now that the platitudes she trotted out so often for her friends were worthless when it came to making a person feel better.
“And,” Zinnie continued, “once you’re in Taar-Breck, you can speak with Lady Caroline. If you’re miserable with this man, she’ll surely help you get out of the arrangement.”
“If she can help me,” Lucy said. She had no idea what her friend’s situation actually was. For all she knew, Caroline might be shut away in some gilded cage. But, if she did have freedom, then perhaps she might be able to persuade her husband to help Lucy get out of the relationship if she was unhappy.
“I’m sure it will be okay,” Zinnie said, patting her arm in a gesture of comfort. “Do everything he asks of you until you get to know him a little better and then you’ll be able to work out ways to get around him. Men are all the same. Please them in bed and they’ll give you whatever you want.”
Lucy nodded, but realized that she hadn’t given enough thought to the more demanding aspects of a relationship with the Taar-Breckian warrior. She knew she could dress up, crawl around, and act the part of a pet easily enough but when it came to physical intimacy, she wasn’t so sure. He was a large, imposing male. Her small, delicate body would never cope, would it? She really had no idea.
* * *
Once Zinnie had left her alone for the night, Lucy tried to block out her fears by making her surroundings as homey as possible. She reckoned that if she made her environment comfortable, her mind would soon settle. Maybe then, she would stop imagining all the horrible things that could happen to her if the wrong person found her here.
There was a camp bed stored in the large cupboard at the back of the room, so she set it up for herself. A metal contraption with a canvas cover, it didn’t look very cozy, but it was probably better than sleeping on the floor. There was a small table lamp in the corner of the room, so she took it and placed it next to the bed. When she switched it on and doused the main light, it cast a warm glow over everything, softening the harsh gray of the walls and making the atmosphere less hostile. She took a quilt from the large box where she and the other women had stored some essentials in case any of them was ever forced to spend the night here. When the women had gathered the bits and pieces together, the thought of sleeping in this hidden room had seemed like it would be an adventure. Now that it was a reality for Lucy, she really wasn’t looking forward to it.
When the bed was made and there was nothing else to distract herself with, Lucy stripped down to her thin cotton chemise. She folded her clothes neatly and placed them on top of the wooden box she’d fetched the quilt from. Then she clambered up into the narrow bed and tried to make herself comfortable. Beneath her, the metal frame creaked loudly with every move she made, and Lucy suspected that, for the second night in a row, she wouldn’t get much sleep. Last night, she’d been kept awake by Victoria tossing and turning as she suffered through the recurring nightmare she’d been having ever since she found out her betrothal was imminent. Lucy couldn’t blame her for feeling unsettled. Both women were painfully aware of what would happen to them.
Before they were handed over to their future husbands, they would be taken to a medical room. They would be strapped to a chair, their legs spread apart, and examined in the most intimate way possible while the dozen creepy old men of the High Council looked on. It was supposed to be about verifying their purity, but Lucy doubted that was the real reason behind the humiliating inspection. She suspected it was to remind young women that their lives, their bodies, were not their own.
As she was about to turn off the light, Lucy heard a sound in the corridor outside. It might be Zinnie coming back, but she didn’t think that was likely. She leapt out of bed and looked around frantically for something she could use to defend herself. There seemed to be nothing useful. Throwing a fluffy pillow was unlikely to have much impact on an intruder. She took a deep breath to calm herself. Then she remembered the revolver her friend Caroline had acquired on the black market. She wouldn’t want to use a weapon that could be deadly, but it might be enough of a deterrent to force an assailant to back off.
Lucy ran to get the gun. She slipped her hand behind the wooden bookcase and found it, taped to the back panel. She pulled it free just as the door swung open. As the lights came on, she was blinded for a second. When her eyesight recovered, she saw the figure of a large male in the doorway. Her heart pounded as she raised the gun. She had no idea whether it was actually loaded or if it would still fire.
“Put that thing down,” the deep voice of the Taar-Breckian warrior she’d met this morning commanded. “Lucy, put that thing down.”
Lucy shook her head as he stepped into the room, seeming to fill the space with his angry presence. The fury vibrating from him scared her. As he moved a little closer, her hand trembled.
“Lucy, I won’t tell you again.”
She shook from head to foot. Her fingers moved, almost of their own accord, pulling back on the trigger. A deafening crack split the air and when she came to her senses, she was horrified to see blood blooming on the white sleeve of the warrior’s tunic. As her eyes met with his, she could see the cold rage in them and her heart seemed to stop. What the hell had she done?