Page 76 of Inconvenient Honor
Papa, what did you do?Any relief that Volkov had failed to find her father faded under his current threat.
“This marquess of yours also made life difficult in London.” He kicked Richard’s ribs. “Yes, I owe this one quite a bit.”
“The question is what to do with you? I discovered your destination by sheer luck from an encounter on Malta. I paid dearly to be told when you left the Seraglio.” He laughed, an ugly miserable laugh. “Not enough perhaps. I had not counted on finding you with another man’s bastard. I truly hate taking someone else’s leavings.”
Lily had no warning when he yanked her arm with his free hand and pulled her up.
“No!” she screamed.
Richard fell sideways. She could see him try to rise from the corner of her eye. Volkov yanked her forward with his left hand. The lantern in his right swung ominously. The thought of her flowing veils catching fire caused her to yank instinctively on Volkov’s hand. She batted at the lantern with her free hand and knocked it against Volkov.
“Damned whore, you’ll pay for this!” Volkov shouted when fire singed his jacket. He dropped Lily and the lantern, plunging them into darkness. Lily scooted back into the farthest corner she could find.
In the light of a flickering torch hastily brought up to the entrance by one of Volkov’s minions, she saw Volkov swing around to her with murder in his eyes and step forward. Behind him, Richard rose to his knees and staggered upright.
A tall man dressed, unlike his fellows, in a short jacket and loose trousers shouted from the door at Volkov who ignored him and kept coming toward Lily. The man snapped his fingers. Someone grabbed Volkov’s shoulder and pulled him back. They shouted in a stream of Turkish, Russian, and other languages. Richard seized the opportunity to move in front of Lily.
“That man told Volkov we’re too valuable to damage,” Lily whispered in his ear. “He spoke Russian, if poorly.”
Two of the men in black subdued Volkov, one holding either arm. They joined the argument with Volkov and then began to argue among themselves.
“It isn’t quite Arabic or Turkish either. I think I hear Berber, at least when they speak between one another,” she told him. She felt him stiffen.
Volkov ordered them to let him go. “It is none of your business who these people are. They belong to me,” he shouted. They spat in his face.
“They’re saying he failed to pay them!” Lily exclaimed. Astonishment momentarily banished fear.
The tall man at the door crowded into their prison carrying a torch. He flicked a brief glance at Lily and Richard, but he saved his contempt for Volkov.
“He’s listing unpaid bills,” she said thickly. She clung to Richard’s back.
“Bills for?”
“Murder, beatings, across Greece. Hazard pay for coming into Constantinople itself, I think. He says they grow weary and will take the prize for payment.” Lily felt a surge of hope. “What prize?”
“Us. We’re the prize.” Richard cursed quietly.
Her hope faded. “Who are these people?”
“Corsairs, most likely.”
Hope died. Lily’s heart stuttered. “Corsairs?”
“Barbary Pirates.”
A swiftblow from the flat of a scimitar quieted Volkov. He hung limp and unconscious between his two captors. Richard spared him no pity. The corsairs tossed the Russian to the floor and began to strip him systematically until he lay naked and unmoving on the cold stone floor.
The tall man with the torch shone his lighton Richard and shoved him sideways to have a better look at Lily. He reached over to lift a lock of her hair where it hung in disarray on her shoulder.
“Don’t touch her.” Richard shouted. He extended a hand to stop the man and got a slap across the face for his trouble. The blow snapped his head back and threw him into the wall.
The man moved his light closer to Lily; he examined her face and hair with meticulous care. He spoke to her in Russian. She answered in Turkish.
“What did he say?” Richard asked through swollen lips.
“Not Turkish,” Lily answered without taking her eyes from their captor. “I assured him I am not.”
“English,” the man said, his speech heavily accented but perfectly clear. “Both?”
