Wildfire Kiss Read Free Page A

overnight.
    She took up her straw bonnet and tied the blue
ribbon under her chin. Otto smiled and said, “Fetching … you
have superb taste.”
    She laughed and slipped into her blue spencer. She
gave her black curls a twirl around her ears as she glanced into
the sidewall mirror.
    Otto stopped, ran a critical eye over her, and set
her bonnet perfectly before he turned and bid her father good day
as he offered Babs his arm.
    She stalled him a moment and said hesitatingly,
“Until later then, Papa …?”
    Otto added quickly, “Don’t worry, my lord. I will
take care of our darling Babs.”
    “How you will manage that is beyond me, for I tell
you frankly I have never been able to handle that particular
chore!” her father pronounced with a smile, both rueful and
affectionate.
    “Oh, Papa!” the lady objected.
    “Go on then, go on.” He waved them off and then
stood away from them as they left him to his own thoughts.

Two

    LADY BABS’ PAPA was certainly concerned and with
good reason. If the haute ton ever caught wind that one of
their own had betrayed their foibles, it would ruin her. He
couldn’t have that; the truth was that he thought the sun rose when
she did. She was his precious, and he was at a loss to know how to
protect her from her own wildness.
    If she were found out—would they forgive her
escapade as just that? No, he knew better. They would see it as a
betrayal. How else could they see it? The book poked fun at
them.
    His only child, his treasure. She filled his home
with laughter, and that had not been an easy task after his beloved
wife had died. He had wanted to take a gun to his head and put
himself out of his misery … but Babs showed him how they could
live and honor her memory. Now, now he had to find a way to protect
her.
    This was all his fault. If he had not fallen into
debt, she would not have been pushed to write and sell the
miserable piece of scribbling. His fault. She was but a perfect
being, always kind-hearted …
    They would oust her from Almack’s and whisper about
her when she passed. She would receive the worst of cold
treatments. He could not allow it. He would not allow it. He would
say, if need be, that he wrote the book!
    Lady Caroline Lamb had written a novel, and she had
been all but banished from the London scene. She had been
belittled, shamed, and gossiped about by those who had once fought
to be in her company. Caroline had not left defeated, though,
because she was, after all, who she was … but he didn’t want
the ton to whisper about his good girl. Quite a different
matter!
    Certes! If ever he was caught in a muddle, it
was now. She was his brilliant, daring, brave little puss, full of
impulse. She was rough-and-tumble to a fault, but she was his, and
in the end he would think of something. He must.
    He went to his writing desk and sat. With a long and
somewhat worn sigh, he took up a quill and started his letter. So,
just as she had predicted, he was again applying to her for
assistance. Lady Jane was a formidable figure whose presence in his
household would most certainly cut up his peace, but there was no
other way.
    Even in the wilds of Romney Marsh her power wielded
itself with the beau monde. She would come .
    Theirs were very different natures. She took after
their father and he after their mother, but their common bond was
their great love for their name and his Babs. He sighed heavily; if
Babs only knew what sacrifices he always made for her—perhaps she
would be more circumspect!
    ***
    Indeed, had Babs known to what drastic measures her
father was moved to implement, she would have been astonished. This
in spite of the fact that she watched Count Otto purchase a copy of
her novel from a stack of neatly and prominently displayed copies
laid out on a nearby table.
    Who would know a mere slip of a girl had written
it—who would suspect? No one, she told herself confidently.
    She did, however, experience a ripple of excitement
as she watched Otto flip