“Will you have a care for yourself?”
Isabel struggled against his restraining hands.
“Let me go!” she spat at him furiously, “how dare you touch me!”
To her surprise Nicholas did not relinquish his hold.
“I dare to save you from yourself,” he answered and his voice was unsteady.
“Let me go,” she repeated. “I shall do what I desire to do.”
“You will do nothing of the sort,” he replied and then suddenly the strength of his fingers increased. “Dammit, Isabel,” he exclaimed, “but you would try the patience of a Saint.”
She laughed then, laughing a high hysterical laugh, and fought him once again.
“Stop it!” Nicholas said. “Do you hear? Immediately!”
He shook her, shook her as if she was a child, shook her so hard and so violently that Isabel’s breath was shaken from her and in her ast
