CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

Clint paced the entry hall, the usually unobtrusive Christmas music beginning to set his teeth on edge. His brothers would arrive in less than an hour.

He still second-guessed the plan. Genevieve had improved. When he’d instructed her to do a better acting job, she’d delivered. He couldn’t imagine how afraid she must be of the dungeon to be so compliant. And she’d never even seen the dungeon.

She probably imagined it as a far worse place than it was. In her mind, Clint had no doubt she saw damp stones with water dripping from some unknown source and algae growing through the cracks and crevices. There would be a dripping sound, a dank, putrid smell, a dirt or concrete floor, a chill that wouldn’t leave the air, and heavy chains.

He’d not bothered to disabuse her of that notion. The scarier the dungeon was to her, the easier it would be to get her cooperation. In reality, the dungeon was none of those things. If what he’d been told by the servants who had gone to get her belongings