A Notorious Love

A Notorious Love Read Free Page B

Book: A Notorious Love Read Free
Author: Sabrina Jeffries
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical
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poverty? It was hard to believe he’d prefer it here. She could see soot-blackened, dilapidated buildings through the window and hear tenants arguing through the paper-thin walls. “Finding you was easy. I merely asked Griff’s coachman to take me to where you lived.”
    “And he brought you to St. Giles, just like that?” He shook his head in obvious disgust. “I’ll have the wretch turned off for that foolishness.”
    “You most certainly will not. I told him it was urgent, and I promised there would be no repercussions if he helped me.”
    “Oh, did you, now? Nice of you to appropriate Griff’s servants like that. Why not ask one of them where to hire somebody to track Lady Juliet?”
    “Because servants gossip. I’m certainly not going to let Griff’s servants know what really happened, after taking such great pains to hide it from our own servants.”
    “What did you tell yours?”
    “That Juliet had gone to London alone to visit Rosalind, and I was following after. Because if word got out that Juliet had run off with some unsavory character—”
    “—your family’s good name would be ruined,” he finished for her.
    “Don’t be silly—I don’t care one whit about that. What worries me most is Juliet’s future. All she has ever wanted is a husband who will make her happy, and I am quite sure this man will not. And if anyone hears of the elopement, she’ll be ruined, even if she is still…chaste…when we recover her. I know nothing about your Bow Street runners’ skills or reliability, but I could not trust anyone to be discreet in this matter.”
    “Yet you trust me?” he said, clearly surprised.
    “To be discreet? Certainly. And Griff trusts you to runKnighton Trading while he’s gone, so why shouldn’t I trust you with this?”
    “That’s another thing. I’m s’posed to be helping Griff.” He began to pace the room with quick, forceful strides. “And you may find this hard to believe, but I also have my own business to run. I advise gentlemen on how to invest their money, and I already have more clients than I can handle. I don’t have time for chasing after foolish girls who elope with unsuitable men.”
    “I would have gone to Griff if he were here. I did send him and Rosalind an urgent message, but it won’t reach them on the Continent for days, and this matter requires haste. So I came to you. You’re the logical choice.”
    When he raised an eyebrow, she continued in a softer tone, “You know Juliet and seem to like her. I’m sure that if you heard the whole of it, you would understand why I consider this situation so dire.”
    That seemed to give him pause. Slowly he approached the table, then settled his hip on the edge, not far from her. “I’m listening.”
    Yes, and crowding in upon her with his giant’s body that blocked the meager sunlight silting through the grimy window behind him. Must he loom like the great God of War poised to pounce? It was most unsettling.
    She would have stood and moved away if she could, but she’d die before she let him watch her struggle to her feet with her usual awkwardness.
    Instead, she concentrated on replacing his half-empty cup on the tray and tidying up the chipped tea things. “About a week after Griff and Rosalind were married, a man named Captain Will Morgan came to Stratford-upon-Avon. He claimed to be interested in seeing the sights in Shakespeare’s birthplace while on leave fromthe regiment quartered in Evesham. But he stayed nearly three weeks, which I thought excessive. Indeed, although most people found him amiable, I distrusted him from the first.”
    He snorted, “That’s hardly surprising, given your general distrust of my gender.”
    He fixed his too-perceptive eyes on her, making her flinch. He’d done that at Swan Park, too, studying her like a teacher searching out his pupil’s weakness. She could easily guess what he saw—a woman whose lameness ought to make her grateful for any affection men might

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