Trapped by Scandal Read Online Free PDF

hand, his knife in the other. “Now,” he instructed softly.
    Hero rattled the bars as she shouted, pouring forth a stream of abuse, interspersed with shrieks and yells that wouldn’t have been out of place in Bedlam. Results were almost instantaneous. Two guards came pounding down the corridor, yelling their own abuse, cudgels raised.
    â€œ Cretins ! ” she yelled, shaking the bars again. “ Cochons ! ” A cudgel came down, aiming for her fingers, and she whipped her hands off the bars just in time and spat at them. “ Salopards ! ” They yelled and whacked the bars with the cudgels, but they didn’t unlock the gate.
    Why weren’t they unlocking the gate? There was one way to make sure they did. Hero tore at the buttons on her shirt, ripping it open to reveal her bare breasts. She stood there, challenging them, laughing at them. Sheheard Guillaume draw a quick breath behind her, and then they were unlocking the gate, salivating as they came into the cell, reaching for her. She grabbed the hand of one of them and bit hard. He screamed, aimed a fist at her, then fell to his knees as the stave smashed into his skull. The second guard was momentarily stunned, and the moment was sufficient for Guillaume to bring down the stave again. Even as the guard crumpled, Hero was out and running for the yard.
    The scene that met her eye as she emerged blinking into the sunshine of late afternoon was pure mayhem. Four tumbrels stood in front of the open gates, horses pawing the cobbles, restive in the midst of so much noise and movement. Men were shouting, herding groups of prisoners, hands bound behind them with rough rope, men and women alike with bared necks, hair tied back or in some cases shorn. They were prodded into the tumbrels with cudgels and pikes, some stumbling up the step into the cart. Helpless, they were hauled up by the guards, and beyond the gates the mob bayed for the blood of the aristos.
    Hero could not spare a thought for today’s victims of the Terror. She ducked and weaved through the throng, her head down but her eyes fixed upon the open gate. She plunged beneath a horse’s head and dived headlong into the triumphant mob beyond the gate. And no one seemed to notice her. In the midst of the crowd, she was safe. She looked like one of them; she knew how to behave like one of them. She paused and for the first time dared to look behind her, to see if her cell companion had reached safety.
    â€œThis way. Don’t dawdle.” An arm came out and swepther almost off her feet, propelling her through the odiferous, exultant crowd and into the relative calm of a narrow alley. “You did well,” Guillaume commented as he finally released his hold, and they stood panting, listening to the rabble’s screams coming from the street byond.
    â€œIt’s amazing what fear for one’s life can do,” Hero observed, wiping the sweat from her brow with her sleeve.
    â€œAmazing,” he agreed. “Stand still for a minute.” Deftly, he rebuttoned her shirt. “That was a risky move but courageous. However, you don’t need to advertise your sex to the entire city.” Hero felt herself blush as his fingers brushed, presumably accidentally, across the swell of her breast. “Here. Wrap this around you.” He pulled off his sleeveless woolen jerkin, holding it out to her. “It’ll drown you, but it’ll cover a multitude of sins.”
    She took the garment, thrusting her arms into the armholes. It came almost to her knees, but ill-fitting clothes on a ragged youth would draw no remark in this city. She pulled the sides together across her breasts and laced and tied the two strings that held it closed. The jerkin still held his body’s warmth and gave off a slightly musky masculine scent that made her feel strange but at the same time gave her a welcome feeling of anonymity.
    â€œSo where to now?” Her voice sounded