Taming the Wilde Read Online Free PDF Page A

securely,” Morrow ordered Roake. “We are set to cast off and Miss Wilde has delayed us long enough.”
    I took one last long look toward the city where my dreams had become nightmares as Roake drew me down below decks, where he performed an indignity that I could never have expected. As we reached the foot of the stairs, Roake turned me so that my back was towards the other ladies. I was perplexed as to the reason for this, but when he swept up my skirt a moment later, displaying my bare bright red buttocks to all present I understood it all too clearly. Uttering a shriek of surprise and outrage, I tried to force my skirts back down and to turn to save my dignity, but Roake wrapped his arm around my waist and held me firm. “This is merely the product of a short exposure without any implements at all,” he said with the undeniable pride of a man who considers a job to have been well done. “Mark this well.”
    “How dare you!” I writhed in his grip, earning another blow that landed full force on my left buttock. It seemed more powerful than any he had delivered in the cabin and I squealed aloud, adding vigor to his demonstration.
    “I dare because for all intents and purposes, you are mine for the duration of this voyage.”
    I knew he was addressing us all, but the way he turned his head back and spoke directly to me, his curling lips just inches from my ear, it felt as if he spoke only to me. He followed the statement with several more wicked blows that brought tears springing to my eyes. He wished to humble me in front of my fellow prisoners and he had succeeded.
    When he finally dropped my skirts and turned me back I could not see the others for the fog of tears that I blinked away as he walked me back to my cell, every step painful and raw both physically and emotionally. I was glad when the door closed behind me for I could finally stop clenching my fists with the effort it took restraining myself from slapping his filthy face.
    Seething with anger, I watched as he walked away without a second look towards me. There was not an ounce of kindness in his black heart, of that I was certain. His step was jaunty, his bearing proud as he passed through the silent crowd of prisoners. I knew they would not be silent for long, once the guards were gone I would be regaled with tales of my own rear end. If we sailed around the world a hundred times I would never hear the end of that blighted incident.
    “Perhaps by the time we land I will have earned my sentence.” I mused under my breath. As a general rule I was slow to anger, but once affronted I never rested until those who had trespassed against me had paid for their sins. Master Roake had committed a heavy sin, one that would not easily be forgiven. I told him as much, though under my breath silently so he could not hear it. “You have made the wrong foe, Master Roake, you have picked on the wrong woman and you will know the error of your ways ere you set foot on shore again, I swear it on my father's grave.”
     

Chapter Three
     
    I will not say that setting sail was easy. Though we prisoners did little but sit and feel the motion as the ship moved through water we knew that every rock and roll of the vessel meant that we were moving farther away from the only home we had ever known. Melancholy took many of the prisoners and a soft sobbing could be heard throughout the prison deck as we were carried into our first night aboard the Valiant.
    I could feel the touch of Roake's hand for many hours, a lingering sting that found new flame whenever I moved. The bunk in the cell was a little more comfortable than my prison accommodations had been, many times we had been so crowded as to have been forced to sleep on the floor. Lying on my back was not precisely painful, but it provided a memory I did not wish to have, so I tossed and turned with the ship from left to right until the morning came and we were roused with the dawn according to Roake's schedule.
    I was not