The Pirate Woman by A E Dingle Chapter 2 Page 15

he said. He raised the heavy, dull-gold band, and placed it upon Dolores’s brow with the courtly homage of a born noble. It fitted to perfection — as indeed it should, since the loving fingers that had fashioned it had crept around the girl’s sleeping head many times to that end — and feminine vanity would not permit Dolores to ignore the fit. She stepped over to a long gilt-framed mirror, and her beautiful face grew dark and her violet eyes dusky at the glorious reflection that gazed out at her.

“It is well, Milo; I thank thee,” she smiled. “Now to scatter the rats that gnaw at my walls. Lead out quickly.”

Milo entered the passage, raising the plated door and letting it fall after them. He disdained to carry a weapon; but Dolores was