My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel(14)

“So what did you do?” you ask, unable to keep your voice from shaking. Constantina tosses back those dark curls and fixes a gimlet eye on you.

“I went into hiding. Took a job at the Rose & the Smoke to stay near to the only person who could betray me to the British. The only one who knew I was still alive.”

“Abercrombie!” you gasp. Constantina smirks.

“Not quite as stupid as you seem. Yes, I needed to keep an eye on him. The old fool was consumed with guilt and was going to blab—I could tell. He did it for the money, you see, and not his beliefs. His resolve was weak. He just wanted to repair that old ruin he laughingly called a castle. Then, when the payment for his betrayal wasn’t what he expected, it finally hit him that he had sold out his country.”

“But why did you reveal yourself now?” you ask. “What happened?”

Constantina again throws back her head and laughs coldly. “What happened? What happened is you arrived.”

Mac squeezes your shoulder, and you see him tighten his grip on his dirk. Ollie, meanwhile, stares at Constantina in silent horror, his eyes like those of a man who knows he is about to drown. If she notices, Constantina doesn’t show it.

“I realized that when clearing out the orphanage. Anyone might come across Abercrombie’s papers. I always suspected the old fool had kept something as a safeguard, in case he needed to name names in order to save his neck.”

“And you couldn’t allow that to happen,” you say. Constantina’s eyes light up with righteous fury.

“Of course not! I had to keep myself safe. I needed the evidence destroyed, and you out of the way, so I set the place on fire!”

Mac gasps and starts forward, but you place a hand on his chest. He looks at you, quizzical, and you shake your head.

“I thought that I was finally free,” Constantina continues. “So I decided to use the opportunity to get out of London. But then I saw that you had that wretched paper incriminating me. And Abercrombie, that fool, had managed to save the chest with the rest in it. So, you see, I had to follow you and make sure you never found out…” She turns to you, her face blazing with hate. “Or make sure you were silenced if you did.”

“I loved you!” Ollie cries, finally finding his voice.

“I loved you, too…in my way,” Constantina says. “We can still be together, as one. Let us kill these two and escape!”

“Never!” Ollie hisses. Constantina starts for a second, nothing more. Then her eyes flash eerily cold, and a deadly smile twitches at the corner of her mouth.

“Then you shall die.”





Seriously, cripes.

Do you try to defeat the evil spy lady? If so, turn to this page.

Or do you hold back? Ollie, unlike you, is a trained spy, and he can probably handle himself. If so, turn to this page.





              “Fighting is useless, chérie.” Fabien regards you fiercely, yet gently, with an intensity that both shocks and arouses you.





The bustling city of Cairo is far behind and the sky darkening to night before Fabien lets go of your mouth. You scream, of course, but no one but he and his associated brigands are within earshot. One of them disembarks from his camel, carrying heavy ropes with which to bind you.

Fabien manages to swing you down from the camel with surprising ease and unstudied grace for one so powerful, while remaining seated upon his dromedary steed.

“Fighting is useless, chérie.” He regards you fiercely, yet gently, with an intensity that both shocks and arouses you. With a rumbling chuckle, he dismounts. “We will not harm you, for we are only here to deliver you to the lady who has paid us.”

“And the lady? What does she want with me?!” you pant. Fabien’s Nile-green eyes flicker, if only for an instant.

“Who can say?” he says with a nonchalant shrug. You trust him not one Egyptian royal cubit.

Instead, you try to take in your surroundings and formulate a plan. Dazed and disoriented, you are unsure you know the way back to Cairo, and even less sure you would survive the journey. Still, would death be any worse than what you fear this band has planned for you?





If death would be no worse, and you wish to fight the brigands immediately, turn to this page.

If in fact, now that you think on it, death would probably be worse, and you wish to focus on not being dead for the time being, turn to this page.





You stagger through the house, drunk with moonlight, your thoughts racing. You must find Lord Craven. Feelings be damned, you must know what the hell is going on in this house. It is not long before you crash headlong into the object of your thoughts just outside his bedchamber.

You immediately fall into a rush of desperate kisses, each deeper than the last. Your entire body thrills to his touch, but that will have to wait.

“Easy, man!” you cry. “I believe I have just seen your dead wife! Do you think me mad?”

Craven drops to his knees, a sign of dramatic relief. “I have seen her, too,” he answers, raking his hands through his mane of hair, wildly stoking your desire as he does. “I thought it was just me. I thought I was losing my mind.”

“The specter…” you speak slowly. “She has haunted you before?”