Free Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey Page A

dinner table.”
    I knew I went pale as milk, then flushed to the color of ripe strawberries. He laughed. “Lord Strahan always gets his way.” He nudged me with the tip of his boot. “Want some help, lass?”
    I drew back, lifted my chin.“I can manage.”
    “Pity.”
    I waited until he’d left and shut the heavy door behind him. I was pretty sure the reason the others were leaving me relatively alone wasn’t because they didn’t want to hurt me, but rather because Strahan wanted to hurt me more. I was starting to feel nauseous. I had to force myself to get up and sort through the clothes. The last thing I wanted was for them to march back in and find me only half-dressed and use that as an excuse to drag me out in my underwear. Or worse.
    I was really grateful for all those long dull Victorian movies that Jo loved so much. It was the only reason I was able to vaguely recognize some of the lace and linen piled in a heap on the bed. The lacy pant-things went on first and then the corset—just in case I wasn’t already feeling dizzy and lightheaded enough. There was a lump that looked like it was stuffed with cotton batting and I assumed it was the bustle so I used the ribbons to tie it around my waist before pulling the dress over my head. The lace clung to the corset, then spilled over the edge into frothy cupcake ribbons and pleats at thebottom. My bare shoulders poked out of peek-a-boo cuts in the fabric. The collar was ruffled with white lace, closed at the throat. There was just enough space to hide my necklace in my cleavage, thanks to the corset. I’d never actually had cleavage before; Jo had all the boobs, I had all the skinny. I thought I’d feel silly in the dress, but it made me stand a little taller.
    The doors swung open, clanging against the wall. A guard jerked her head for me to follow her. I swallowed, frozen in place. She paused and turned her head. “Walk or be dragged.”
    I walked. The hallway was lit with ornate beaded lamps of various sizes. There were crystal bowls filled with lilies everywhere. She wasn’t a crow-guard. There were no feathers in her hair, and her armor looked more like a beetle’s carapace, shiny black with streaks of green and blue. As she led me back to the main hall, the scent of lilies grew stronger and more cloying.
    Exquisite crystal chandeliers glittered overhead, revealing Lord Strahan in a frock coat made entirely of black PVC. Devin’s Goth sister would have drooled over it. In fact, she would have loved this whole place, with its overdone glitter and edge. I just wanted our tiny apartment with the cracked Formica counters and radiator that clanked and groaned through the winter.
    “Much better,” he said, giving me the once-over. “Can’t do much about the hair, I suppose, but it’s not so ghastly as all that.”
    I just glared at him. I was so out of my depth it was ridiculous. He kept smiling, like a proud host. His harem of ghostly ladies floated behind him. “You’ve met my Grey Ladies. Now, do sit down.”
    His genteel manners were getting to be as creepy as the rest of this nightmare. I sat in the chair he nodded to, mostly because the beetle-girl shoved me down into it. She stood behind me, straight and alert. I knew if I so much as moved a muscle away from the blue brocade cushions, I’d be feeling the tip of one of the daggers hanging from her belt.
    “Please let me go,” I whispered.
    Strahan waved that away as if I were being ridiculous. The Grey Ladies laughed, and it was the sound of ice cracking on a lake, swallowing an unprepared person entirely.
    “We’ve a ball to look forward to,” he said. “It’s barely a week from Samhain and we must celebrate. Your aunt wouldn’t miss it. She’ll think to gain her crown back, won’t she?”
    I’d seen my aunt in ripped jeans, torn T-shirts, and ropes of crystal beads, but never a crown.
    “Bring the others in,” he said to a man in a starched cravat and holly leaves for hair. I