The Bartered Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

view. You were captured by pirates? "
    "My husband was in the army, stationed in Sydney. About six months ago, after his death, we were returning to England when pirates attacked after a storm." She shivered. "It might have been better if we'd sunk. I tried to persuade our captors that we could be profitably ransomed, but they paid no attention."
    She clenched the bars separating them, knuckles whitening. "My daughter Katie was taken from me as soon as we were captured."
    He caught his breath. " I'm sorry. How old is she? "
    "Eight. Almost nine now." Alex thought of Katie as she'd last seen her. How much had her daughter grown? Where was she now?
    "Eight," he said softly. "So young."
    Seeing the compassion in his face, she pleaded, "Can you help me, Captain Elliott? If you will buy my freedom, I swear you'll be repaid twice over."
    He frowned. "This afternoon I asked the sultan if I could do that, but he said that it was impossible." So he had already tried, and failed. Bitterly disappointed, she asked, "Why won't the sultan allow me to be sold? I'm worthless. That's been beaten into me every day since I was captured."
    "Sultan Kasan has a ... a complicated mind. Since I haven't accepted his offer, he might want to use you as a means of persuasion."
    "That's absurd. I am nothing to you." She reached through the bars for another piece of fruit. "Why should my fate make a difference in whether or not you agree to ship his goods?"
    "It was obvious to him that I hated seeing a woman of my own people enslaved." Elliott's expression became thoughtful. "That must be why he had you placed in this room. If I was concerned with the fate of a woman I didn't know, I'll be even more concerned once we've become acquainted." He rose in one lithe motion and circled the cage, testing the gilded bars. "This is bolted to both floor and ceiling and the door locks are formidable. With time and the right tools you could be freed, but there's no way it could be done tonight so I could spirit you off to my ship. All we can do is talk. Become friends rather than strangers." He shook his head with reluctant admiration. "Kasan is diabolically clever."
    "So now I'm not only a slave, but a pawn." She wanted to weep with frustration at being utterly dependent on the goodwill of a stranger. Elliott seemed to be a decent fellow, but there would be limits to how far he would go to help someone he'd just met. She buried her face in her hands, close to despair.
    "To think that when I was young, I wanted to be a boy so I could have adventures! I should have stayed in England."
    "Because of your daughter?" He sat again and replenished their wine glasses. She nodded, fighting for control. "Katie is so bright and blond and beautiful. She was the happiest baby I've ever known. Now when I try to sleep, I hear her screams as that horrible pirate carried her away. I wonder all the time where she is. How she's being treated. How to get her back. If I ever escape this damnable place, I'll go to Singapore. Perhaps some army men will help because her father was a fellow officer."
    "I'm sure they'll want to do whatever they can."
    Hearing the reservation in Elliott's voice, Alex said tightly, "You must think I'm fooling myself to believe I'll ever see my daughter again. She's probably hidden in a rich man's harem, impossible to find. She ... she might even be dead."
    "It's far more likely that she's being treated well," he said comfortingly. "The people of the Islands are friendly and kind to children, and she's young enough to be adaptable. Though she was probably sold as a slave, surely she'll be cherished, both for herself and because a beautiful, blond girl-child is rare and valuable."
    But Elliott didn't say that he thought Alex might see her daughter again. "I pray that you're right. Can
    ... can you imagine what it's like to lose your child? "
    After a long silence, he said, "A little. My wife died in childbirth, and our daughter a day later. We had named her Anna.