doubt that disobeying me is a very, very bad idea.”
“If you even try to cane me, I’ll shove that thing so far…”
“Hannah!” Her name cracked through the air, making her shut her mouth for fear of swifter retribution. “That’s enough,” he said in a deep gravelly tone that he only used when someone was about to get their butt handed to them.
Hannah settled into a sullen silence as Lorcan sat down in the armchair near her bed and they looked at one another, Hannah defiant, Lorcan determined until the sedative effect of the medication kicked in and she found her eyelids too heavy to do anything besides shut in much-needed sleep.
Chapter Ten
For the first week of her captivity, Hannah was utterly miserable. Her injuries were not serious, but they were uncomfortable and the painkillers made her feel ill and all she wanted to do was go home, but of course that was not allowed. Lorcan tried his best to be kind, but he could not give her what she really wanted, and he would not bend on his decision to keep her captive.
“Your ribs are fully healed. The doctor says there’s no reason you shouldn’t get out of bed,” he said, standing at her bedside. “I will take you for a walk on the heath, if you like.”
“No, thank you,” Hannah said, avoiding his gaze. She stared out the window at the gray sky and thought depressing thoughts. She was not going to make Lorcan feel better about the horrible decision he’d made for her. If he didn’t like to see her moping about, well then she’d just mope even harder. Teach him a real lesson.
“Maybe this will cheer you up,” he said, handing her a book.
Hannah ignored it. She didn’t even look at the volume sitting on her midsection. She didn’t care about anything, not about books, not about breathing, not about anything.
“It’s the diary your great-great-aunt wrote during her time here,” he said. “One of them, anyway. I can’t say that what’s in it won’t be disturbing on some level, but I think you deserve to have it.”
His words brought her out of her stupor of self-pity. She snatched the book up from the bed. “Honoraria wrote this?”
“She liked to keep diaries, I suppose,” Lorcan said with a little shrug. “I think this one is the one she wrote when she found herself in a similar position to the one you find yourself in now.”
He retreated to the chair he often sat in with her. She did not know if he was trying to spend time with her, or simply keeping guard. Either way it didn’t make much of a difference. Her curiosity reignited, Hannah opened the book and began to read. Almost immediately, Honoraria’s words started to echo her own experience.
I am a prisoner. These beasts are holding me captive and there is little I can do but bow to their will. A hundred of them stalk these halls and the surrounding heath. They run the village too. And they have decided that I will be among their number.
The alpha is a strange man indeed. His temperament is remote, his aspect frightening. I find myself quivering whenever he is near.
Hannah nodded to herself. The alpha sounded like some relative of Lorcan’s, if the description was anything to go by. Okay, maybe Lorcan wasn’t remote, but he was domineering and she knew the quivering sensation all too well. She flipped through a few pages, until another entry caught her eye.
I made an attempt at escape today. It was ill-fated, which I should have known from the outset but the impulse for freedom is too strong to be ignored. I write this while leaning against the mantelpiece, for sitting at a desk is an impossibility. Reginald took an ash branch lash to me most thoroughly, and my hindquarters are marked from the backs of my knees to the top of my buttocks. I have not been subject to such punishment since my juvenile days, and then to a much lesser extent. I cursed him every moment he delivered his brutish justice and left him in no doubt as to my
“If you even try to cane me, I’ll shove that thing so far…”
“Hannah!” Her name cracked through the air, making her shut her mouth for fear of swifter retribution. “That’s enough,” he said in a deep gravelly tone that he only used when someone was about to get their butt handed to them.
Hannah settled into a sullen silence as Lorcan sat down in the armchair near her bed and they looked at one another, Hannah defiant, Lorcan determined until the sedative effect of the medication kicked in and she found her eyelids too heavy to do anything besides shut in much-needed sleep.
Chapter Ten
For the first week of her captivity, Hannah was utterly miserable. Her injuries were not serious, but they were uncomfortable and the painkillers made her feel ill and all she wanted to do was go home, but of course that was not allowed. Lorcan tried his best to be kind, but he could not give her what she really wanted, and he would not bend on his decision to keep her captive.
“Your ribs are fully healed. The doctor says there’s no reason you shouldn’t get out of bed,” he said, standing at her bedside. “I will take you for a walk on the heath, if you like.”
“No, thank you,” Hannah said, avoiding his gaze. She stared out the window at the gray sky and thought depressing thoughts. She was not going to make Lorcan feel better about the horrible decision he’d made for her. If he didn’t like to see her moping about, well then she’d just mope even harder. Teach him a real lesson.
“Maybe this will cheer you up,” he said, handing her a book.
Hannah ignored it. She didn’t even look at the volume sitting on her midsection. She didn’t care about anything, not about books, not about breathing, not about anything.
“It’s the diary your great-great-aunt wrote during her time here,” he said. “One of them, anyway. I can’t say that what’s in it won’t be disturbing on some level, but I think you deserve to have it.”
His words brought her out of her stupor of self-pity. She snatched the book up from the bed. “Honoraria wrote this?”
“She liked to keep diaries, I suppose,” Lorcan said with a little shrug. “I think this one is the one she wrote when she found herself in a similar position to the one you find yourself in now.”
He retreated to the chair he often sat in with her. She did not know if he was trying to spend time with her, or simply keeping guard. Either way it didn’t make much of a difference. Her curiosity reignited, Hannah opened the book and began to read. Almost immediately, Honoraria’s words started to echo her own experience.
I am a prisoner. These beasts are holding me captive and there is little I can do but bow to their will. A hundred of them stalk these halls and the surrounding heath. They run the village too. And they have decided that I will be among their number.
The alpha is a strange man indeed. His temperament is remote, his aspect frightening. I find myself quivering whenever he is near.
Hannah nodded to herself. The alpha sounded like some relative of Lorcan’s, if the description was anything to go by. Okay, maybe Lorcan wasn’t remote, but he was domineering and she knew the quivering sensation all too well. She flipped through a few pages, until another entry caught her eye.
I made an attempt at escape today. It was ill-fated, which I should have known from the outset but the impulse for freedom is too strong to be ignored. I write this while leaning against the mantelpiece, for sitting at a desk is an impossibility. Reginald took an ash branch lash to me most thoroughly, and my hindquarters are marked from the backs of my knees to the top of my buttocks. I have not been subject to such punishment since my juvenile days, and then to a much lesser extent. I cursed him every moment he delivered his brutish justice and left him in no doubt as to my
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