Free Owning Arabella by Shirl Anders Page B

her.
    "Are you certain that a corset will not be necessary?" Mrs. Grainier inquired for the second or third time.
    "The lady in question has a sufficiently slim waist already. I would not tie even the lowliest animal into one of those trappings," Darth declared, thereby effectively closing the subject.
    Darth paid for his purchases and left through the rear door, tying the parcels off his saddle horn. Mounting Raven, he turned his mount back toward Lee and then gave a second thought to another idea. Bringing Raven about, he headed to the Inn of Griswold. Once there he entered the inn by the front door seeking out the proprietor, and ignoring the stares that he received from the common room patrons.
    Twenty minutes later found him back on the road to Lee as he kept Raven to a trot, mirroring his own thoughts. What he'd learned at the inn had been very interesting. It seemed that Mr. Crom had left the inn without paying his tab and the inn keeper was very interested in finding him. When Darth had inquired how many had been in Mr. Crom's party, he was told that it was but the one man and a small boy. Darth had even gone so far as to describe Arabella by name and by looks, but this had produced no recollection on the inn keeper's part. The inn keeper told Darth that a satchel and a trunk had been left behind, which Darth promptly paid the outstanding fees on to acquire. The trunk would be delivered to Lee tomorrow by coach and the leather bound satchel now hung from his saddle horn. Darth was certain this must be the same satchel that Arabella had spoken of once, but he did not venture within its confines to see what was inside. The smell alone told him the satchel most likely held the herbs that she had remarked on.
    He wondered why Crom would keep Arabella's presence a secret and who the devil was the small boy? The situation was very delicate and he knew the only place to discover the answers were from Arabella herself. He also realized that he did not want to know the answers now, especially if it could sway him in any direction of letting Arabella go. An action that would not, and could not happen.
    "You are a scarred beast," he declared. "Act as you look, man. There is no room for decency in this gamble."
    So with determination, Darth put aside his thoughts and guilt about the how and why's of Arabella, and he just lingered on the woman herself. A pastime that entertained his thoughts all the way back to Lee estate.
     

Chapter Eleven
     
    Arabella stirred on the bed, she knew Darth was gone, yet still her breathing came erratic as she reached for the blindfold. She lifted it slowly, first seeing her naked breasts rising and falling, then seeing her nude body. Quickly she grasped an edge of the bed linen and pulled it over her body. She could see the place on the linen where Darth had torn a strip for the blindfold. She contemplated the blindfold as she lay still, nearly afraid to move.
    Darth's need to blindfold her was the key to his soul, she thought. She realized suddenly that Darth used the blindfold for her, so she would not have to see his scarred face. She'd been so entangled in riotous emotions before this to think clearly and truthfully Darth's scarring had faded in its importance to her. It was simply a part of him. Where the man he was, his strength, his power, and his masculinity overwhelmed her concentration. Yet he must believe that most women would find his appearance distasteful. In all honesty, many women would shudder, and the weaker ones might cower.
    Yes, they would, she conceded. She could not imagine what it must be like to live as Darth was surely forced to do. He had to be terribly isolated, conceivably haunted, and perhaps even afraid. Of course he would never admit it, or allow others to see it. Yet they had been intimate together, and words had come from him that would not have otherwise.
    It was clear that Darth's intentions were to keep her as his slave, and it was also painfully clear that he