“Miss Durrant, you’re making a nuisance of yourself.”
My heart was thudding painfully. Visions of chains and dungeons were vivid in my mind. I could feel the force and power of this man. His attitude was calm and benign but there was strength and authority underneath the smile. With a levity I did not feel, I shot back at him, “Lawyers are supposed to make themselves a nuisance. Mr. Everleigh. Especially when their efforts for an out of court settlement are ignored.”
Uncle Andrew cocked an amused eye; after all I was only a female who had been a slave who, when given authority, had scorned it and took flight. I wondered if I was on the verge of being kidnapped once again.
“You’re a good girl and not a bad lawyer,” he ventured. “Constance and Betty both like you, and Elizabeth Lord phones my secretary every day, hoping you’ll return. You’re in demand.”
He was up to something and I had the feeling I’d find out what very soon. Striving for composure, I asked, “Did Elizabeth return to her husband or have you got her in a dungeon?”
“She’s back home and thinks she’s won the toss.” Uncle Andrew chuckled. “Her old man has a few things up his sleeve for her she doesn’t know about. So have I. Your beloved Elizabeth is marking time until your return,” He gave me his familiar searching glance. “How about this afternoon?”
Fear clutched at me like a live thing. I cursed myself for a fool to ever believe Everleigh had forgotten me, or would let go of his hold. I hardened my voice and tried to keep the trembling out of it. “I’m through will all that, Mr. Everleigh. You can’t walk in here, like that and whisk me away. The only business you and I have is Hugo Markham’s claim.”
“Damn it, girl, I like you! I’d describe you as a mixture of the stuffily erotic, mothballs in one hand and a horse whip in the other. Will you come quietly or do I have to take steps?”
“I’ve no intention of going anywhere with you, Mr. Everleigh. Now, about the claim...?”
Uncle Andrew was never dull. What he took from his pocket now widened my eyes - a pair of golden handcuffs. “Left wrist, Diane.” he said calmly, “Stick it out.” Even as I obeyed I knew myself a fool but there was something hypnotic in Uncle Andrew’s eyes and his billions were an invisible presence, like a ghostly army of armed men. “Had these made expressly for you, Diane. Nicely feminine but fully functional. You’ll enjoy the way they feel.” Carefully he fitted a golden jaw around my wrist.”
Everleigh was right. The jaw closed with almost soundless clicks to invade me with sensations. The metal was smooth as silk and fitted my wrist to a perfection ordinary handcuffs never achieved. They were warm from Uncle Andrew’s pocket, and when the second cuff followed the first, a sensual glow possessed my being. Striving hard to remain a lawyer unaware of heat within her loins. I icily inquired. “Aren’t you being childish, Mr. Everleigh?” I got no answer. Sarcasms ran off Uncle Andrew like water off a duck’s back. I was aware of disadvantage and retrieved my gold-encircled wrist.
“It’s not pure gold, you understand,” Everleigh apologized.
“There’s special steel beneath that pretty surface. Gold is a rather soft metal and we can’t have you getting them off without permission. When you want to wear them properly, let me know.”
Aware of being played with. I nursed my gold and felt a fool. I tried not to think of wooden boxes equipped with straps such as I think I had made my last trip to Rockley in. “Surely you don’t expect me to walk around in public with those things on my wrists, do you?” I asked bluntly.
“You’re forgetting I have a private car and a private jet,” Everleigh said gently. “The people who will see you once those things are behind your back could care less.”
“Behind my back!”
“Certainly not in front, can’t have you making an unseemly fuss.”
Once more the fear. It would be so damnably easy. Andrew Everleigh’s vast wealth would capture me and make me a prisoner with an ease to make me shiver. But my tone was sulky, “You’ve just lost a pair of handcuffs, Mr. Everleigh. Unless you wish to take them off right now?” I offered my gold-encircled wrist.
“I’ve got a place in the Bahamas where I intend to keep you prisoner, Diane, my dear.” Uncle Andrew was patient. “I could take you back to Rockley but that’s a too familiar scene. What you’re going to find in the Caribbean is a return to the old days of slavery on the sugar plantations with the rolls reversed. It’s you who is going to be the slave and cut the cane.”
“You’re dreaming. But please don’t let me interrupt.” He was enjoying himself and continued his discourse in a cultured Scottish voice. “There’s everything there to revive the ancient days. Your jailer will be a mulatto and I’ll put Constance in residence to look after things between my visits. I’ll be regarding this as something of an experience so I’ll keep an eye on you. When I think you’re sufficiently abject. I’ll take you a step further.” He spared a truly warm smile. “The question is. Diane, do you come willing or do you insist I use force?”
“The whole thing is too ridiculous to consider.”
“I would like you to walk willingly into this new segment of your life clothed in nothing but those handcuffs. Even if I am long in the tooth. I still have an eye for a beautiful naked girl in chains. I know you understand.”
“Could we return to the legal business of Hugo’s claim, Mr. Everleigh? I find your fantasies distasteful.”
“Ah, yes, business! That poor boy’s claim and the nuisance you’ve been making of yourself. As a concession to you personally, Diane. I’ll make Hugo Markham an offer of one hundred thousand dollars.”
“That’s in insult.”
“If you willingly yield to my car and plane, I’ll raise it to a million.”
I tasted victory but was still a lawyer. “Two million is the barest minimum. And that’s only a fraction of what he claims is his right.”
No one could win with Andrew Everleigh. From an inside pocket he withdrew some folded papers. “I have everything here, ready to sign. I figured on the two million, so everything is in order. It will need Markham’s signature.” Everleigh spread the papers out flat on the desk and looked me squarely in the eye. “I’m not really settling a claim, Diane. I’m buying you. These documents won’t get my signature until I have you safely handcuffed and firmly committed to being once more my prisoner. What do you think of that?”
“It’s crazy! No lawyer would sell herself into slavery to settle a client’s claim. Mr. Everleigh, please give me a break.”
My plea was waved off. “We all know the unusual circumstances relevant to what we are about to do.” Uncle Andrew said, evenly. “You’re probably half in love with Hugo Markham, but remembering when you were at Rockley, I’ll make a shrewd guess you’re getting hot between your legs. Now about that situation in the sunshine I’ve just offered ... Believe me, it has intriguing possibilities for you. And let’s not call it slavery but a special vacation. And you’re not my prisoner, but my possession. I value you, Diane.”
“I sell myself without receiving a penny!”
“You’ll have no need of money, not ever again.”
What a package, the most incredibly messed up situation any girl could face. I knew Uncle Andrew was easily reading my mind, knew also it would be useless to protest, but I was still female. “What you’ve told me of this ‘situation in the sun’ sounds horrible,” I said. “Would you care to tell me more? Something that might intrigue me just a little?”
“You’re already intrigued, my dear. No, I’ll tell you no more, you’ll have to take me on trust, the same as at Rockley. But get this straight, Diane. I’m offering you a deal. Two million for the settlement of Markham’s claim, and I’ll sweeten the pot with a trust fund of a million for yourself. I don’t know when you’d ever use it, but in your state of mind it will give you comfort.” He winked a wise old eye. “Money cures everything for lawyers ... Doesn’t it!”