Lion's Bride - Iris Johansen [59]
“Selene? It’s true she’s older, almost eleven.” Nicholas moved brusquely toward the child. “But I cannot give you the same price. In three or four years she’ll be old enough to give you pleasure…as well as children.”
No mention yet that she was also his daughter. The whoreson would probably pull in that small fact when the negotiations became more heated. “I have slaves to give me pleasure. I want only her skill.”
He stopped in front of the red-haired child’s hoop. Her embroidery was exquisite, he thought. Too bad. The price would have been cheaper if he could have argued that point. She had not even glanced up at him. She just sat hunched, ignoring them as her needle went in and out of—
He went still, his gaze on the child’s back.
“What is this?” He pushed aside the loose cotton tunic covering Selene’s shoulders. Red stripes crisscrossed the girl’s narrow back. “Perhaps she has less value than you claim.”
Nicholas shrugged. “She has a biting tongue, but that doesn’t affect her skill.”
Kadar’s forefinger traced a white scar. “This one is older.” The child did not look up, but he could feel the muscles of her back knot beneath his touch.
“She was caught helping a runaway slave. We needed to know the slave’s destination so that she could be recovered.”
So Selene had met with punishment when Thea had fled. “And did she tell you?”
Nicholas shook his head. “We could not continue; she would have died. It became a choice of losing two slaves instead of one.”
“No, you wouldn’t have wanted to do that.” No mention that the escaped slave was the girl’s sister. He wondered if he could chance cutting the bastard’s throat before he left Constantinople. No, he decided regretfully, he would have to deny himself that pleasure. Freeing the child was the important thing. “But these marks do show a temperament that could prove troublesome.” His hand dropped away from the child’s scarred back. “I suppose you’ll have to show me another slave.”
He was two aisles away from Selene, listening to Nicholas’s praises of another poor child when he glanced back at her.
She was staring at him, bold green eyes glittering with resentment in her thin face.
He smiled at her.
The enmity in her expression didn’t change. If anything, her belligerence increased.
Evidently not one to be won over by a sweet smile. He felt a ripple of interest mixed with pleasure. It would be a much more interesting trip back to Dundragon if the child offered him some challenge.
“Lower your eyes.”
A squat, heavy woman was standing behind Selene with a slender whip in her hand.
Selene did not lower her eyes.
Nicholas’s attention was caught, and he broke off extolling the skills of a dark-haired child. “No unpleasantness, Maya. We have a guest.”
“She’s wasting time. She must finish this side of the tunic by nightfall,” Maya said. “You wished it for the caravan leaving day after tomorrow.”
Nicholas’s brow furrowed. “True.”
Kadar wagered the child would not stop staring at him while he was in the room even if the whip did fall on her. It was a point of honor to her now.
He turned and moved quickly toward the door. “I’m weary of these discussions. Decisions are so trying. Can we not continue tomorrow?”
Nicholas followed him. “Of course. We will have a goblet of wine and then go visit the baths. It is the most divine of pleasures.”
Except beating helpless children. “You’re the kindest of hosts.” Kadar beamed. “I look forward to it.”
The stranger came to the garden that evening.
Selene stiffened as she saw him standing in the arched doorway, his gaze moving casually among the women gathered in groups about the fountain.
He was probably choosing which woman to pleasure him tonight, Selene thought bitterly. Tomorrow after he had relieved his lust, the negotiations for the purchase of a slave would resume.
He was younger than most of the merchants and traders who came there. Young and richly robed, with a beauty as startling as the torch burning on the wall