The Gilded Cage Read Online Free PDF Page A

it was all too familiar to her.
    Horatio saw the gesture and turned away angrily. Why did he bother? But how could he not? He turned back. This time, he clasped his hands together tightly. He would not touch her again, he vowed. He would not try.
    â€œBell, you know I am devoted to you. I love you dearly. I said I wouldn’t ask until I felt you were ready—”
    â€œYes, Horatio,” Bell said quietly. “You promised that.”
    â€œBut how can we go on like this?” Horatio burst out. “It is killing me, Bell. I love you so much. … Will you marry me? Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? I’ll treasure you, Bell. I’ll be your helpmate, your comrade, your friend—” Horatio paused. “I will even forbare being your lover, if you wish it.”
    Bell collapsed into an armchair. “Oh, Horatio …”
    â€œI mean it, Bell. I’ll wait. I’ll wait forever, if necessary.”
    â€œYou say this because you don’t believe it will be forever,” Bell murmured. “You will always expect…”
    â€œThere is no answer then, for us?” Horatio asked, his usually humorous face tight. When Bell was silent, he crossed to her side. He crouched by her chair and looked searchingly into her face.
    â€œPerhaps I have no right to ask this, my dear,” he said tenderly. “But I know you’re not a cold woman. I’ve felt your warmth. Is there something—someone—in your past who’s hurt you, made you this way? I meant what I said, darling. I can wait. Perhaps I can even learn to do without the—the physical. But I have to know if it’s an impossibility for you, or if you need time …”
    â€œI don’t know.” Bell startled herself, for she’d whispered the words aloud, the painful answer to the question she asked herself, over and over again.
    How she’d hoped to fall in love with Horatio! He was handsome and intelligent and kind. He was committed to reform, as she was. His pieces on the suffragists were weighty and considered, free of the sly tone of so many others. Columbine had approved of him wholeheartedly. “Finally a man who writes of our struggle without a nudge or a wink,” she’d said.
    And his hands were large and strong, his face alert and humorous, his mouth sensual. At first, she’d thought him dangerously attractive. More than once she had felt close to falling, to blotting out the world in his arms, as she’d heard it was possible to do. But time and again she was able to resist so easily. That had been the worst thing of all. To long for that abandonment, and yet to be relieved when it did not come.
    Horatio saw her hesitation, and it gave him hope. He felt anger and heat flood him, and his frustration, fueled by the encounter with Marguerite, boiled over. Grasping her arms, he lifted Bell to her feet.
    Her full, beautiful mouth parted in surprise. Her breath fanned his cheek, and he could smell her hair. Horatio was beyond thought now, as raging excitement raced through his blood. He placed his hand on her breast. It fitted against his palm, lush, full, exciting. Horatio made a low noise in his throat as fresh desire flooded him.
    Bell tried to twist away, but he held her fast. “Stop it, Horatio. Stop—”
    â€œNo. His fingers played across where her nipple would be, underneath the bottle-green silk. “I want to feel your heart beating,” he murmured. His eyes glinted. “I want to feel if you have a heart to beat, Bell …” His mouth descended on hers, and she felt his rough mustache.
    But this time, there was no gentle brush of soft lips. Horatio’s mouth was open! His tongue insinuated itself between her lips, tried to go deeper. Bell clamped her teeth down as a shudder ripped through her. Now she used all her strength to twist away.
    â€œNo!” She almost screamed it, loud enough so that Marguerite,