Unmasked (32 page)

“Molly, though,” Nick said, his gaze roving over the scarlet dress and the scattering of freckles on her shoulders, “is a different matter. I would be very happy to renew my acquaintance with her. I have wanted her since that very first night in the Hen and Vulture.”

Mari put her hand on his nape and brought his lips back down to hers. “She is yours,” she said softly. Their kiss was sweet and deep and passionate, an ending and a promise and a new beginning.

“I told you once that had I known who you were that night at the Hen and Vulture, I would not have chosen you,” Mari said. “But it was not true, Nicholas. It was you I was drawn to. It was you I wanted.”

Nick smiled and drew her closer into his arms. “So you
were
looking for someone in particular that night,” he said.

Mari nodded. She stood within the circle of his arms and felt her heart swell with the pleasure and the passion and the pure freedom of being alive and being loved. “I was looking for someone special that night,” she said. “I was looking for you.”

I
N
2007
THE
UK
CELEBRATED
the bicentenary of parliament’s abolition of the slave trade in the British Isles. The trade was outlawed under the Slave Trade Act of 1807 with penalties of £100 per slave levied on British captains found importing slaves. However, this did not stop the British slave trade. If slave ships were in danger of being captured by the British navy, captains often reduced the fines they had to pay by ordering the slaves to be thrown into the sea. It also did not mean that existing slaves were automatically freed. Further reform was needed and the trade was finally legally abolished in the British Empire under the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

This struggle for freedom was one of the ideas that inspired me in the writing of this book. I wanted to explore the concept of liberty and the influence that an experience of slavery might have on an individual.

My heroine, Marina, was born a Russian serf. In that sense she was a slave, part of a tradition of slavery that covers many different forms of human exploitation across many cultures and throughout human history. A definition of slavery might be the systematic exploitation of labor for work and services, without consent. It also covers the possession of other persons as property. The origins of serfdom in Russia date back to the eleventh century. Russian landowners eventually gained almost unlimited ownership over Russian serfs. The landowner could sell the serf to another person while keeping ownership of the serf’s personal property and family. Mari was therefore the property of her owner and could be sold at whim.

Slaves could be freed through a process of manumission, by which the owner would grant liberty to their serfs, but the system of serfdom in Russia was not abolished until 1861.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-1881-3

UNMASKED

Copyright © 2008 by Nicola Cornick

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S. A.

® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

www.HQNBooks.com