Free A Gift for a Lion by Sara Craven

what they call you?'
    'Not to my face.'
    'But I thought—then what was…?'
    'What are you talking about?'
    'When I arrived here,' she said tightly, 'with your thug's jacket over my head, there was an animal— growling at me. I was terrified. They'd mentioned a lion —last night in Calista and again here on the beach. I thought it was real—a real lion.'
    He threw back his head and laughed. Don't glare at me like that,
bella mia
. You will ruin your digestion. I will show you your lion.'
    He got up from his chair and walked to the window. He stood staring through the grille for a moment and gave a long, low whistle. Joanna waited for a nerve-jangling moment, uncertain what to expect, then, in reply, came a frenzied barking.
    'Oh.' Joanna was conscious of a strong sense of anticlimax. 'A dog. Can I see him?' She got up. Is he fierce?'
    'Yes.' Leo Vargas returned to the table and sat down, picking up his brandy glass. 'And no respecter of beautiful women, although he probably growled at you earlier because you were wearing a jacket over your head. He is quite a conventional animal. But I do not advise you to tangle with him—or any of his companions.'
    'And what is his function?' Joanna asked.
    'He is a guard dog. He patrols the grounds of the
palazzo
at night. But I say again,
cara
, you would do well not to seek his company. I would not want you to faint again.'
    'I don't think that's very likely,' she said coolly. 'I was—overwrought earlier at our first encounter. But I'm quite used to dogs, and I certainly don't blame him simply for doing his duty.'
    'Do you always forgive so easily?' Leo Vargas asked. He was lying back in his chair, toying with his brandy glass.
    'It depends what the offence has been.' Her pulses were jumping suddenly. She stole a look at him, but his eyes were hooded, enigmatic. She was waiting for him to speak again, but the silence between them lengthened.
    'When are you going to let me go?'
    No pleading. Almost a casual tone. She was proud of that, and wondered how much she owed to the Dutch courage of the wine at dinner.
    'You have a saying, don't you? This year, next year, some time—or never.'
    'But don't you see'—she tried to keep her voice reasonable—'the longer you keep me here, the worse it will be for you when you do release me. You may be an important man in your own world, but I am a British subject and we do still have rights. And kidnapping is a terribly serious crime, especially in Italy.'
    'But we are not in Italy,' he said almost idly. 'We are on Saracina, which belongs to me, and where I make the laws. You trespassed, and now you are being punished, because that is my law.'
    'I think you're mad,' she said helplessly.
    'Sometimes I think so too.' He drained the remainder of his brandy and got up, his movements as lithe and easy as those of the animal for which he had been named. Joanna rose too.
    'You told me not to lie to you,' she said, 'but I think you're lying to me. You talk about punishment. I don't think it's anything of the sort. I think there's something going on here on this island that you don't want the outside world to know about and that's why you have your armed guards and your gunboats. It's not to safeguard your privacy. It's to keep some secret, and I can only think it must be something pretty discreditable if it warrants all this performance.'
    'Go on.' He was standing by the door, his hands resting lightly on his hips, his face in shadow so she could not read his expression, but she could hear the edge in his voice and knew she had struck somewhere near the truth.
    'Keep your secret for as long as you can,' she said. 'One day I shall leave this place, because sooner or later someone—Tony or my father—will come to fetch me, and I shall tell them everything I know. You must be subject to some kind of authority, somewhere, and they will know how to deal with you.'
    'Have you anything more to say, before I bid you goodnight?'
    'Yes,' she said, and at last