"Sharon Green - [ebel 01 - Rebel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Sharon)

Rebel
By
Sharon Green

Chapter One
Adair Cantlen sat on the floor of the dim cell, the torch light coming through the barred door the only
thing keeping complete darkness away. Not that she particularly cared. She sat with her back against the
stone wall, her tights-covered legs bent at the knee, her wrists resting on those knees. It had been at least
an hour since she’d been thrown into the cell, but Adair didn’t care about that either. One place in that
house was as good or as bad as another, and as long as she had to be here it didn’t much matter where
she was kept.
As had become usual over the years, she was being ignored. Young girls were supposed to be demure
and ladylike at all times, she’d been told, not ridicule their lessons in proper behavior. When making fun
of the nonsense did no good, she’d tried to complain to her father, the duke. Duke Elden had smiled and
patted her on the head, hearing not a single word she said, so she’d also stopped trying to complain.
Instead she’d made trouble every chance she had, but even that didn’t get anyone’s attention. Most of
the time her efforts were ignored, and when she’d done something that couldn’t be ignored her father
took a whole minute or so to inform her that decent young ladies didn’t act in that particular way.
She’d finally gotten sick and tired of being the family ghost - and intended pawn - and had walked out
with the intention of never coming back, but even that wasn’t acceptable. It took less than three days for
her father’s guardsmen to track her down, and now she was right back where she’d started. Alone and
ignored …
The entire area of cells had been very quiet since the guards had closed the barred door and left, but
suddenly the sound of footsteps came to destroy the silence. More than one set of footsteps, so either
they were going to try to feed her, or …
“Are you ready to be reasonable yet, or do you have to be left in here a bit longer?” her father’s voice
came after his arrival at the door cut down on the amount of light coming through the bars. “I’m really
angry with you, Adair, and I have no patience left for any more of your nonsense.”
“It wasn’t my choice to come back here, Father,” Adair pointed out without turning her head to look at
him. “If you hadn’t sent your men after me you’d never have had to put up with my … nonsense again.”
Duke Elden Cantlen made a sound of annoyance.
“If I hadn’t sent my men after you, you’d probably be dead or worse by now,” he stated, then turned to
whoever had come to the cell with him. “Get her out of there and bring her to my study. I’m going to
settle this problem once and for all.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” came before the shadow of Adair’s father moved away. “Right away, Your Grace.”
From the hoarse scratchiness of the voice, Adair knew that it was Zinder who’d spoken. Zinder was
more of a general bodyguard than a guardsman, someone who wasn’t under anyone’s orders but the
duke’s. The man was no youngster, but there were very few younger men who would even consider
going up against him. Lean and tough and deadly, Zinder was more a member of the family than Adair.
“Better get to your feet, girl,” Zinder’s voice came again after the sound of the door being unlocked.
“You know I’ll drag you if you force me to it.”
“Of course you will,” Adair answered, making sure not to look at him as she stood up. “You dragged me
back to this place, didn’t you?”
“Another girl in your boots would consider it being saved,” Zinder said, taking her arm as soon as Adair
got within reach. “On the other hand, another girl in your boots would never have left to begin with. Do
you have to grab every chance coming past to show how different you think you are?”
Adair knew that the question was meant to put her on the defensive, so she simply ignored it along with
the man who’d asked it. Zinder waited no more than seconds before he made the same sound of
annoyance Adair’s father had, and his hand tightened on her arm.
“I’m glad to say the duke wasn’t joking about being out of patience with you,” Zinder informed her, the