A Kiss Before Dawn

Read A Kiss Before Dawn for Free Online Page A

Book: Read A Kiss Before Dawn for Free Online
Authors: Kimberly Logan
didn’t think your question needed an answer. You seemed to be carrying on the conversation well enough on your own.”
    Emily bit her lip. Jenna was right. She’d done little else since she’d joined the younger girl here in the stables but fret over Peter’s arrival. “You’re right. I’m sorry. But I don’t understand how they can all behave as if the last four years don’t matter. We’re just supposed to forget everything he’s done to hurt us, I suppose.”
    â€œDon’t you mean what ’e’s done to ’urt you ?”
    â€œYes. I mean no. I mean…Oh, I don’t know what I mean!” With a frustrated huff, Emily tossed aside thecurrycomb and sank down onto a nearby stool. “Drat Peter Quick! The man scrambles my wits until I don’t know which way is up.”
    â€œMaybe you should be considering why that is.”
    â€œI know why that is. He’s a Bow Street Runner. One of the best, if the tales I’ve heard about him are true. If he finds out what I’m doing, who knows how he might react.”
    â€œWhy don’t you try telling ’im?”
    The male voice had both women looking up in surprise to find a lean, gangly figure lounging just inside the stall, watching them with intent green eyes.
    A cheerful young man with a shock of shaggy red hair and an open, freckled face, Miles Riley had been one of the original members of the Rag-Tag Bunch as well as one of Peter’s good friends. Like the other children, he’d grown up at Willow Park, but unlike them he’d decided to stay in Little Haverton once he’d come of age to strike out on his own. His affinity for animals, especially horses, had prompted Lord Ellington to offer him a job in the stables at Knighthaven, and aside from Jenna, he was the only person who knew Emily’s secret. More than once in the past few weeks she’d had cause to be thankful for the stable hand’s help.
    But now she found herself wondering at his sanity. “Tell him? Miles, are you mad?”
    The young man lifted his chin in a defensive manner. “Well, we certainly ’aven’t been able to discover a way out of this mess ourselves. Maybe ’e can.”
    â€œOr maybe he could toss us all in Newgate and throw away the key.” Emily shot to her feet again and began topace the stall, her movements agitated. “You know how he’s changed in the past eight years, Miles. He’d never understand why we chose this path.”
    â€œI ’ate to admit it,” Jenna said, shoving her hands in the pockets of her breeches and taking a step forward. “But maybe Miles is right. Maybe we should go to Peter.”
    Emily shook her head. “I don’t know, Jenna. There’s just no way to predict what he might do. Sometimes I think he’s forgotten his old life. What it was like to be hungry and desperate and willing to do anything in order to get by.”
    Jenna’s face closed up. “Believe me, you don’t forget something like that.”
    Emily felt a pang of sympathy as she looked at her friend. A former pickpocket herself, the girl had more than a passing acquaintance with both hunger and desperation.
    As a child, Jenna’s very existence had been a daily struggle to stay alive. Her parents, Angus and Rachel McLean, were the caretakers of Willow Park now, thanks to the generosity of Lord and Lady Ellington. But at one time, the McLeans had simply been one of the hundreds of poverty-stricken families trying to survive in the rookeries of London. It had been Tristan who had offered them a home and a chance to make a better life for Jenna and their younger daughter, Gracie.
    With an age difference of only two years between them, it hadn’t taken long for Emily and Jenna to become fast friends. And though the younger girl’s brusque manner could be somewhat irritating, Emilycouldn’t help but admire her

Similar Books

A Moment of Weakness

Karen Kingsbury

Edge

Jeffery Deaver

Dirty Zero

Kyle Adams

The Mind's Eye

K.C. Finn

Chosen

Paula Bradley

BrokenHearted

Brooklyn Taylor

Biting the Moon

Martha Grimes

The Matchmaker's Match

Jessica Nelson