Red Snow Bride (Wolf Brides Book 2) Read Free

With nary a one in sight, I hobbled at top speed down the walkway in hopes of finding one eventually.
    A small buggy sat a few streets up, and sweating freely and chugging breath, I asked if he would give me a ride.
    The man wore thin cotton clothes and a drooping cowboy hat. He took his time looking me up and down and then spat onto the ground near my feet. “Pay first.”
    I pulled a few coins out of my purse and tried unsuccessfully to haul my bag up with me. By the third try, the driver exhaled a put-upon sigh and helped. “Don’t have all night,” he said. “Where to?”
    The Count Delecroix d’Maine’s house, if you please.”
    “Where the hell is that?”
    Oh, right. The drivers on the other side of town knew where all of the high-born ladies and gentlemen lived, but down here was a different world. Horribly different. I gave him the address and hoisted myself into the buggy before he took off at a clipped pace.
    I couldn’t burden my parents with this scandal. If I sought sanctuary in their house while all of the turmoil of my failure enveloped the whole of Boston society, they’d be dragged down on this sinking ship right along with me. Unlike Daniel, I couldn’t hurt good people for my own comfort.
    If anyone could help me in my desperate moment of need, it was the Countess.

Chapter Two
     
    The driver didn’t wait long after he’d dumped my bag, upside down I might add, onto the clean cobbled street beneath the buggy. The smelly man said he, “wasted half the night driving all the way across town.”
    The time of night was atrocious and I hesitated for a moment before I knocked. The clenched knuckles of my fist froze in midair just inches away from the polished burgundy door. My options were to sleep on the stoop or let her know I was here though, so knock I did. One of the Countess’s servants opened the door and ushered me into the parlor while she went to fetch my friend. The Countess came down minutes later, tightening a silk night robe around herself and glancing with the startled eyes of a deer from side to side. She sent all of her servants to their quarters and commanded that they not usher a word about my late arrival.
    “You can’t be here,” she whispered, sitting directly across from me with a worried expression knitted into her perfectly groomed eyebrows. “This thing you and Daniel are going through will pass, but until then, we can’t be caught up in the firestorm.”
    “It won’t pass. He sent me to an inn in the darkest corner in Boston,” I rushed in desperation. “Please, I don’t want to ever put your reputation up to question, but I’ve been mistreated and all of my valuable possessions lifted from me.”
    She frowned at my temple. “You poor thing. Is that what’s happened to your face?”
    I lifted my fingers to my head, but only dried, crackled flakes of crimson came back. “I have nowhere to go.”
    She shook her head slowly. “You married an evil man, Mrs. Delaney.”
    “Don’t call me that. It’ll be Ms. McGregor again now.”
    Her silk robe billowed behind her as she disappeared into the library, only to return moments later with a small wad of money in her hand. “Swear to me you won’t tell anyone of my help, least of all the Count. He’s forbidden me to become involved in the scandal.”
    “I swear.”
    The money crinkled into the palm of my hand and I pressed it firmly into my coin purse. Begging for money like some commoner put a sadness on my heart I couldn’t quite swallow. “Look how far I’ve fallen in one night.” Even I could hear the devastation in my voice.
    Pity pooled in her hazel eyes. “I daresay it’s going to get much worse, Lorelei.”
    “Where will I go? I can’t go back to Hell’s Tavern. I’ll be killed or worse there.”
    She inhaled deeply and adopted a faraway look. “One of my servants stays at a small hostel not far from here. It’s mostly women and children and terribly simple, but the rent is cheap and men