Secret Fire by Johanna Lindsey

watched murderous fury gather in those turquoise orbs. He was again overcome with the desire simply to leave her there, but Marusia jabbed him in the ribs to remind him he couldn’t do so.
    He grunted and bent to lift Katherine out of the trunk, setting her on her feet. She immediately crumpled, falling forward against him.
    “You see what your thoughtlessness has done, husband? The poor thing probably has no feeling in her feet.” Marusia threw the lid of the trunk down for lack of a chair. “Well, set her down and help me get these ropes off.”
    It wasn’t just Katherine’s feet that were numb, but her entire legs. She discovered this when her knees knocked together as she was plopped down on the top of the trunk, and she felt nothing. Her hands too had long since lost feeling. And she wasn’t ignorant of what would happen when the feeling began to return. It wasn’t going to be pleasant.
    Vladimir untied her wrists while Marusia worked diligently at her feet. Her shoes had been left behind, one of the things she hadn’t gotten around to putting on when Vladimir had entered the room. There had been no time to arrange her hair either, and it hung loose and tangled down her back and shoulders. But most embarrassing was her dress, which was partly unbuttoned inthe front, the lacy bodice of her white chemise stark against the black of the dress. And as she noticed the crowd in the doorway, staring at her curiously, bright color swept up her cheeks. No one had ever seen her in such a state of dishabille, and yet more than a half-dozen people were in this tiny room with her.
    Who were all these people? For that matter, where in God’s name was she? And then she felt the swaying motion and knew. She had felt it in the trunk, but had prayed she was mistaken. She heard a babble of Russian being spoken by the door (she could recognize the language easily now) and knew she was on a Russian ship.
    Her arms sprang free of the rope, and she brought them around in front of her with a moan, carefully flexing her shoulders and elbows. Behind her, Vladimir reached for the gag, but she felt his fingers hesitate in her hair. Very perceptive of him. He must know she was not going to accept this last misdeed silently. She had such a tongue-lashing ready for him that his ears would blister before she was done. But still he hesitated, and she couldn’t make her fingers move yet to yank the gag away herself.
    A torrent of Russian came from behind her, and the group by the door quickly departed. The gag fell away, but Katherine’s mouth was too dry for her to do anything but croak the word water . Marusia left to get some, while Vladimir came around and began to massage Katherine’s feet. She would have liked nothing better than to send him sprawling with a solid kick, but she couldn’t move her legs yet at all.
    “I owe you an apology,” Vladimir said without glancing up at her. His voice was gruff, as ifhe had to force the words out. “I should have made holes in the trunk for ventilation, but I’m afraid it just didn’t occur to me.”
    Katherine was incredulous. What about his putting her in the trunk in the first place? Where was his contrition for that?
    “That was not—your only—mistake, you—you—”
    She gave up. It simply hurt too much to talk with her parched throat and her tongue feeling like some swollen, rotten intrusion in her mouth. And feeling was returning to her legs, the discomfort increasing by the second. She had to grit her teeth to keep from moaning. Good Lord, she had suffered numb limbs before from lying too long in one position, but nothing of this magnitude.
    The water arrived, and Marusia held the cup to Katherine’s lips. She drank greedily, without the slightest thought to decorum. At least one part of her had found instant relief. But the rest of her was screaming in protest, a thousand needles attacking her legs and hands until she thought she couldn’t bear it, only to have it get worse