The Heartwood Box: A Fairy Tale (31 page)

That produced a loud snort
.
“I’ve been charged to protect you
.
Anything that concerns your safety is my busin
ess
.
When did you last eat?”

“I have no idea
—
some time before I was tied to the bed by my husband and then kidnapped by his brother.” 

Derek’s eyes narrowed at her insolent tone
.
He
said nothing
but
removed some wrapped packages
from the saddle
bags
that looked all too familiar
.

“So help
me
, Derek, if that is
a
tongue
sandwich!
” she
cried
, her voice shaking.

“Don’t push me, Genevieve,” he warned back
.
“I’m within a hair of taking you over my knee as it is.” 
Recovering his temper, he
pointed to the shelves
.
“There is all the food and water you could need to survive
,
lamp oil
, extra blankets
.
I put in some
books,
drawing things
.
I didn’t know what your pastimes might be, so I just guessed
.
” 

He pulled her
around the far side of the cot
where the wall ended
,
creating a small alcove
.
On the
ground was a deep, narrow hole
with a pile of dirt next to it, a bucket for water
,
and bottles of distilled pine oil
.
“The less we use that the better, but it will do for now
.
The others know where this place is
.
S
omeone will come if I can’t get back.” 

“If you can’t get back
?
Where are you going?”

“I must go hunt down that demon,” he said as he grabbed
yet more
weapons from the shelves
.

“When are you coming back?” she
cried
, ashamed of how shrill she sounded, but even Derek’s company was preferable to being abandoned in this cave
.

He moved swiftly towards her
.
“Do you want me to come back, angel?” he sneered.

Genevieve would
never understand what came over her, but her hand darted out smacking him hard across the face
.
There was a moment where they both stared at each other, Genevieve as surprised as
Derek
was
.

When
Derek
moved
, it was
almost inhumanly fast
—
truly he was Decla
n’s descendant
!
  Within seconds
he had
her
over his lap, her wrists gripped behind her back
.
There was a click
,
and she realized he’d bound her hands together with those bloody cuffs
.
He flipped her skirt
up, revealing her lack of drawers
.

“Twelve,” he grow
led
,
and
then
his hand smashed down
.

Genevieve was so shocked by the pain, she could only let out an inarticulate cry
.
Blow followed blow while her eyes smarted with tears
,
and her brain tried and failed to make sense of the
agony
.
These were a million times harder than Damian’s playful little slaps
.

But even as she felt in danger of being driven mad by the pain, to her horror, the muscles between her legs clenched
,
and she could feel the wetness pooling as her desires soared
.
With the next smack of
Derek’s
hand, she made a sound that was closer to a groan, as pain and pleasure seemed to writhe in and out of each other
.

She realized he
’d
stopped
.
He
rubbed her buttocks soothingly
and then unlocked her hands and pulled her up
.
He
tried to
cradle her in his arms, but she shoved away from him furiously, elbowing him sharply in the side
.
“You continue to goad me?”
Derek
demanded incredulously.

“I hate you,” she screamed, hating herself more
.

“You
can’t
stop, can you?” he murmured
.

Genevieve thought she would faint as his usual forbidding scowl melted and was replaced by something smoldering with dark promise
.
Thankfully, after a minute he seemed to shake it off
.
Back to business, he gripped her by the wrist and reached behind the cot and pulled up something, which he clicked to the ring on one of her cuffs
.
It
was another chain! 

“I presume Damian told you that you are strictly forbidden to touch your bonds
.
You can’t escape them
,
and I will know if you have tried to tamper with them
.
I
may be
gone
a day, perhaps two
.
While I’m gone, think about what you want, Genevieve
.
If you keep provoking me, I will give you what you crave.”  He sounded as desperate as she felt. “And next time, I won’t stop until you are sated.” 

W
ith that, h
e disappeared up the ladder, closing the hatch behind him
.

Genevieve was left in a state of shock
.
She mechanically opened the
package he’d left for her
and let out a shrill giggle
.
The cursed scoundrel really had packed her a tongue sandwich
.
With a shriek of rage, she hurled it against the far wall
.

She’d reached her limit
.
An instinct of self-preservation warned her that she could not stay here
—
could not trust herself with Derek
.
She frantically attacked the cuffs, trying with her fingers and teeth to pull them off
.
Damian had simply buckled them on and off, but when she tried
,
she found there was some mechanism that made them lock
.

Likewise the chain proved stubbornly bolted deep into the ground
.
She would have searched for a knife to cut through the lea
ther, but the chain didn’
t stretch far enough to reach the shelves that held the weapons
.

She was well and truly trapped here
.

With that realization came exhaustion
.
She could either start screaming hysterically or go to sleep
.
She opted for sleep
.
She turned
the lantern to its lowest flame
and sat gingerly down on the edge of the
cot, fumbling to untie her boot
laces
.
A
pparently
she was
too much her mother’s daughter to get into a bed wearing shoes, which had been a high crime i
n their cottage
.
Heaven forbid
she do it in this underground prison, chained to a cot, while impossibly aroused by her new brother-in-law’s spanking
?

Bizarre-sounding laughs gurgled up as
she
pulled off
each boot
and neatly placed
it
by the side of the
cot
.
She’d have to ponder that one
.
Fortunately, before she went utterly mad,
Genevieve curled up on the cot
and allowed sleep to claim her
.

Genevieve slept
surprisingly well despite her recent
turmoil
.
When she finally woke, she sensed that she had slept well past her usual time, though there was no way to tell in her underground prison
.

She was alone
.
Thank goodness
the lantern was still flickering
.
She got up before her only light completely sputtered out
.
The shelf held a row of lanterns, along with twenty bottles of
oil, enough to light her parent
s
’
cottage for a year
.
Though it made her feel profligate, she lit three lanterns, which left the small space
bright
enough that she could have done fine lacework if she’d wished
.

She made use of the “hole,” trying to ignore the lingering burn on her buttocks
.
She poured the pine oil a bit too liberally afterwards
.
It didn’t surprise her that Derek would push for them to go outside whenever they had the chance since the primitive necessary would eventually begin to stink
.
Afterwards, she drank some water and forced down a few biscuits before her stomach rebelled
.

Thus began an endless day trapped
alone
in this sunless cave with no idea of how long she must stay
.
If she’d been the good girl her parents had tried to raise, she would have read or sketched, but Genevieve was in too great a tumult to do more than pace restlessly as far as her chain would allow until she felt lightheaded
.
She
then curl
ed
up on her cot, only to begin the cycle again when that became intolerable
.

Now that there was nothing else to distract her, her thoughts divided pretty evenly between Damian and Derek
.
Every attempt to make sense of her quarrel with Damian made her head ache
.
She was stunned that he could get so angry
that
he
would
leave her without a single word
.
She wanted to scream at the unfairness of it
.
The very first time she’d fought back against his tyranny, he’d
abandoned
her
.

She ranted out loud that she
was better off without him
if this was how he would treat her
.
Clearly he wanted to lock her away in that prison of a house, leaving her to wait for those moments when he could spare her some time
.

But then she would remember everything that had passed before the quarrel: lying in his arms in the bath, his wicked games, their morning in the garden where he regaled her with tales of Roderick the cook
.
She’d been happy
.
When she thought of the beautiful room he’d prepared so thoughtfully, she desperately wanted to reconcile matters with him
.
Surely it must be possible! 

Then an evil voice
sneered
that she was a fool to be surprised that he would leave her
.
H
ad she really thought she could win his love
?
Why on earth would her marriage be happy when all she’d done for the past four years
was
make everyone around her miserable
?

A week ago, such thoughts would have
precipitated one of her attacks
where she would lie in a darkened room, curled on her bed
,
gripped by despair
.
But today rage at one Derek Black was enough to drive her from her cot
.

She crossed and recro
ssed the floor of the cave
as she contemplated her endless grievances against him: the spanking, the sandwiches, the ride on Nightshade, making her
“
go
”
outside in front of him
!  Just the sensation of the cuff on her wrist made her shudder with rage
.

She yearned to slap his face again!  She barely ate, relishing the hunger pangs, knowing her skipping meals would anger him past all endurance
.