Of Noble Birth by Brenda Novak

to suffer
the pain and degradation of being tied up all night, Alexandra
began to struggle again. But it was only a matter of minutes before
her hands were bound in front of her and then tied to the bed. As
Nathaniel had promised, she didn’t have enough rope to lie
down.
    “You’d better hope I don’t
get free,” she threatened. “ You have to sleep
sometime.”
    “I’ll take my chances,” he
replied. “Perhaps I’m giving you too much credit, but if you do
manage to get loose, it wouldn’t be a good idea to bother with me.
The door is that way.”
    “Oh... you! You’re
insufferable!” Bringing her knees up between her arms, Alexandra
laid her head down and tried to block Nathaniel from her
consciousness. She soon realized, however, that she would have to
address him again.
    “You’ve got to untie me.
I’ve got to...” she stopped, wondering how to tell him what she
needed. “A lady needs a little privacy occasionally.”
    He crossed the room and
retrieved the chamber pot from its place behind a cloth curtain in
one corner of the room.
    “You’re not going to untie
me?” Alexandra asked in surprise.
    “You don’t deserve
it.”
    “But how will
I—”
    “You’ll figure it
out.”
    “I deserve to take care of
natural bodily functions without you watching my every
move.”
    “Don’t flatter yourself. I
have no interest in watching you.” He stretched out on the bed,
lying on his stomach, his face buried in the crook of his
arm.
    Alexandra made no move
until she thought Nathaniel was asleep. “Boar... ogre,” she
muttered to herself. “I hope your father catches you and hangs you
from the tallest tree.”
    He didn’t
respond.
    She pulled and twisted on
the rope, but the knot proved tight and well made. She only managed
to jerk the bed a few inches from the wall.
    “Hold still,” Nathaniel
snapped, rolling onto his back and covering his eyes with his
arm.
    Alexandra glared at him.
“There will come a time, when I will even the score.”
    “Plan your revenge
tomorrow,” he told her. “Get some sleep. You might need
it.”
    With a sigh of defeat,
Alexandra waited as long as she could before relieving herself.
Then she eyed the screen dubiously, wondering how to return the pot
to where it belonged. She certainly had no desire to sleep with
it.
    Suddenly a wicked thought
made her lips curl into a smile. Grabbing the enamel pot around the
base, she prepared to launch it right on top of Nathaniel, smelly
contents and all, when a cutting voice gave her pause.
    “You can’t imagine the
terror of what I will do to you if you don’t put that thing down
immediately.”
    So he was awake.
Alexandra’s smile withered. He didn’t move to stop her, didn’t so
much as remove his arm from across his eyes, but she got the
feeling he was almost daring her to incur his full
wrath.
    She clung to the pot for a
long time, so sorely tempted that she had a difficult time letting
wisdom overtake desire. When she finally set it down, she did so
carefully, to ensure it wouldn’t splash on her, then pushed it as
far under the bed as she could. If she made Nathaniel too angry,
she’d start a fight she could only lose. And she didn’t want to
incite his imagination as to the possibilities of what a strong man
could do to a captive woman. He was a scoundrel if ever she’d met
one. But he was right about one thing. Tomorrow was another day,
and she’d do her best to make it as miserable for him as
possible.

Chapter 4

     
    Nathaniel feigned sleep
until Anne finally nodded off. He couldn’t rest while she sat on
the floor without so much as a blanket. That he admired her despite
himself enraged him. She was certainly unlike the women of her
class, most of whom were priggish and without an enlightened
thought in their heads.
    Anne was quick-witted,
courageous, and demonstrative. Nathaniel glanced with chagrin at
his bandaged hand. Not many women he knew, or men for that matter,
would have risked what she did to