One Penny Surprise (Saved By Desire 1) Read Free

walked along her next chosen path. London was waking up, and she was getting closer to the edge of the park and the bustling streets. She shivered again and quickened her pace because she was eager not to be alone, or cold, anymore. While she knew she should go back and try to find the river to make the meeting, the desperate need to see another living soul was just too great to ignore.
    “Clarence should be doing this,” she sighed despondently as she slowed her pace until she came to a complete stop.
    In reality, if she was completely honest with herself, she knew this last-ditch attempt to win her father’s favour was a complete waste of time and had to wonder why she had even bothered to try. It had been a long time since Clarence had been a guardian figure; a guiding light she could look up to and turn to for words of wisdom or sage advice. Of late, he had been so surly and offensive that she could hardly talk to him at all. When he did speak to her he made his disgust of her clear in many ways. Not only that but he had indicated on more than one occasion that she was nothing more than a burden to him and he would be glad to be rid of her, even though she did most of the chores and was more of a housekeeper to him than a daughter. Over the years their relationship had become so fragile that they often exchanged harsh words and were barely civil when they were together. Poppy had, of late, taken to spending as much time in the kitchen away from him as she could, mainly because it was one of the rooms in the house he deemed to be beneath him. She knew he would leave her alone in there, and he did, until he wanted something.
    Theirs had long since ceased to be a father and daughter relationship, and had turned into more of a master and housekeeper one that Poppy hated, but had no option to endure until the opportunity arose that allowed her to head off on her own.
    “Well that opportunity is here now,” she snorted as she strained hard to listen for the sound of trickling water. She thought she had heard it for a moment there, but couldn’t be entirely sure. “As soon as this bag is handed over, or what is left of it, I am going and you can stay,” she growled with a glint of unladylike steeliness in her gaze. 
    As far as she was concerned, Clarence had made a complete hash of his life, and had seemingly taken to trying to ruin hers too. It was his latest exploits had driven them out of their comfortable house in Cumbria, to the seedy streets of London.
    “I have had enough of making excuses for you, Clarence,” she declared miserably.
    It felt as though all she had done for the last several months was try to find excuses for his awful behaviour. She had turned a blind eye to him coming home at all hours of the night, more often than not drunk. She had ignored the waning bank balance that was never refurbished with even a solitary copper and was now so perilously close to being completely empty that she wasn’t sure where the money was going to come from to purchase the coaching tickets for their return to Cumbria if they handed all over their money over. She had been unceremoniously dragged into dealing with the huge debts he had run up gambling, but as far as she was concerned, this was the last straw.
    She had some money secreted away. There was enough to purchase herself a ticket back to Cumbria and buy the odd meal or two along the way without making a dent in the larger sum she had set aside to purchase accommodation while she found suitable employment once there. She didn’t have enough to buy a ticket for Clarence as well, or feed and accommodate them both even if she was inclined to remain with him, which she wasn’t now.
    Until she could find some way of raising the sticky issue of leaving without incurring his wrath like she usually did, she had to allow their dire circumstances to dawn on the dratted man and hope that he would throw her out. She knew that if she told him she was going to leave he