Page 40 of The Highlander’s Unexpected Wife

Chapter Ten

Alison tried to calm the churning in her stomach. They’d ridden without respite for at least four hours when the carriage finally stopped at an older, three-story brick house in a small, unknown town. She knew they had traveled northeast, but once they left the lights of Inverness, and with the twists and turns the driver had made along the way, she’d lost her orientation.

The carriage listed to the right and, an instant later, the door jerked open. “Inside,” the man snapped.

Sallie, Eva and Capri across from Alison exited first, then she followed. The other woman, Phoebe, came next. Alison slowed as Sallie passed her. Then Alison whirled and dashed around the back of the carriage and rammed into a solid wall of muscle. The man’s python-like arms banded around her.

“Wrong way, lass.”

“There has been a mistake. I do not belong here,” she said in her most haughty tone.

He spun her around and pulled her up the walk and into the house. “Keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you.”

They entered the house and Alison froze in the hallway. Smoke, along with the strong scent of perfume hung heavy in the air. Portraits of women in varying states of undress hung on the walls. Two women leaned over the banister of a staircase just ahead. They wore only stockings, corsets and silk robes that hung half off their shoulders. This couldn’t be— Was this a brothel? Alison’s heart thundered. She sidled closer to the girls she’d arrived with, too aware the large man who had herded them into the brothel now blocked the entrance behind them.

“Keep moving,” another brute of a man ordered.

With a hand to Alison’s back, he pushed her forward. Alison stumbled and fell against Phoebe.

Phoebe maneuvered Alison in front of her. “You don’t have to be rough,” she told him.

“I like it rough,” he said in a low tone.

The girl raked her gaze down his body. “Men like you usually do.”

“Phoebe,” another of the other girls warned.

Phoebe’s defiance disappeared as her shoulders slumped and she cowered. “We are doing what you ask. Just don’t hurt us.”

Alison stared at Phoebe. Her transformation from brazen to meek had been instantaneous. This girl wasn’t what she seemed.

They continued forward, through a parlor where men lounged, some with women straddling their laps, or in some sort of embrace. Others had no female companionship. Many stared as Alison and the other women filed through into a smaller parlor.

Had Lord Weston discovered her absence yet? It mattered not. No one could have the slightest idea where she’d gone. Still, the knowledge didn’t stop the childish hope that Lord Weston would somehow find her.

Alison started when an older woman entered the room. Sudden fear dug sharp talons through Alison’s confidence.

The older woman turned to one of the men and said something in a low voice Alison couldn’t hear.

“You’ve been compensated very well for the night’s accommodations,” the man snapped.

“You parade beautiful young women through my parlor and expect my gentlemen patrons to ignore what they have seen?”

“Ain’t no gentleman here,” the man said.

“I have a patron willing to pay a king’s ransom. Wants that one.” Sarah pointed at Alison.

Alison’s blood went cold.

“Boss said they ain’t to be touched,” the man growled.

“Well, that one’s going to be touched. Your boss wants virgins; she’ll still be one in the way that counts.” The woman approached Alison.

Alison willed her legs not to fold beneath her.

“Make a scene and you won’t need to worry about your virginity,” the woman said.

Alison’s heart hammered. She glanced at the other girls from the carriage. Cara gripped Sallie’s wrist and shook her head. In that moment, Alison wondered if Lord Weston would bother to save her even if he could.