Bound: The Inland Slave by Kelsey Charisma

glanced at Katja, before facing her father. Felix poked Annett so she would begin. She jumped, and immediately said, “Sir Cragged came into Katja’s room last night.” She gave a sidelong leer to Katja before adding, “And later…I heard the unmistakable sounds of immoral fornication.”
    Katja’s mouth dropped. Instantly, she felt betrayed, embarrassed, and exposed. She couldn’t believe Annett would tell her father something like this, which would have grave consequences. She quickly turned to her father, and her panic only intensified. He was an angry red, his jaw was clinched tight, and a vein in his forehead throbbed. “Father, no!”
    “Did you sleep with him before marriage?”
    “NO!” She looked at Annett, pleading silently and desperately that she’d take back her words. However, her servant didn’t even look at Katja to express an apology. Annett’s certainty seemed so genuine that her father surely believed Annett, and Katja couldn’t do anything other than shake. There was no way she could lie her way out of not sleeping with someone before marriage, and admitting it wasn’t Sir Cragged but Felix wasn’t something she was willing to do. In fact, it would make the situation worse.
    “YOU’RE LYING TO ME! DON’T LIE TO ME!” Cade’s booming voice filled the room. Katja flinched, sure he would reach over the table and strangle her at any moment.
    “Father I swear it’s not true!” Katja turned to Annett and Felix again. “Felix. Say something. Tell him it’s not true.” She wanted him to say it was impossible because he’d been watching over her all night, but Felix spoke over her.
    “There are ways of finding out if she is lying. Send for a doctor and be certain.” Felix said. Katja gasped, realizing that all that time he was wanting inside of her was so he’d had proof she’d been deflowered. She stood up and slapped him hard across the cheek.
    “SIT DOWN KATJA!” Her father demanded. “I will not send for anyone, and have my name disgraced. I will do no such thing.” Cade glowered at Katja. “You have ruined me! You couldn’t wait three days to find this man’s bed? You’re a whore!”
    “FATHER!” She pleaded desperately.
    Cade jumped up from his chair, and posed his hand to strike her cheek, but when he swung, Felix immediately captured his wrist. The two men looked as if they would brawl on the table, but then Felix spoke sternly and low, “You hired me to protect her. I will safeguard her even from you. Touch her, and I will break your hands.” Her father swallowed, and looked away. When Felix released him, he added, “Ask your daughter if she enjoyed Sir Cragged’s company or if he left her crying. If she never wanted him, her mistake was Annett’s for leaving him with her in the first place.”
    “What are you doing?” Annett spat.
    Cade’s head snapped onto Katja. She was dizzy trying to keep up with Felix, who obviously thought this conversation through. Her father’s grief instantly speckled his face with white blotches as the color drained from his flesh. Suddenly he looked defeated and broken when he whispered, “I already know she didn’t want him.”
    “Then send her away, in case she is with child. You can tell all the servants that she chose not marry to him, and you angrily sent her away. Rumors would be less severe, and no one will know she isn’t wed if she travels with Annett and myself. Do this before you send her suitor a letter explaining the wedding is off because she’s too young.”
    “You’d have to travel far from here.” Cade said to himself, but then he fell quiet a moment as his eyes narrowed in on Felix. “And why are you so willing to help? Are you bartering your freedom? You don’t belong to me. I am not about to grant you anything!”
    “All I ask is that my bill of sale stays with Katja so I can travel freely and safely, without question I break any laws. Transfer the sale into her name, and give it to her, so she