Page 26 of An Unwilling Earl
She made a very good point, even though he still didn’t know why she had run from her aunt. Yes, the woman was an ogre and probably impossible to live with, but Jacob had a feeling that something else was afoot here. Something more sinister than Lady Morris’s tyrannical religious life.
“Come live with me,” he said. “I won’t charge rent. You can save your money, and I will help you create a new identity. If you leave London as a new person, no one would know that you had stayed under my roof, so your new reputation would be safe.”
She looked at him with narrowed, cynical eyes. “And what would you want in exchange for such largesse, my lord?”
His face heated in anger. He had hoped that she would think him better than that but apparently not. “I certainly wasn’t propositioning you, Miss Morris.”
She turned away. Her fish was cooling on her lap, the grease congealing into unappetizing lumps, but she didn’t seem interested. Considering how hungry she’d been the day before, he was surprised.
“My apologies if that is the way it sounded,” he said softly.
Her thin shoulder came up in a shrug. “I’ve been propositioned before. It’s not all that shocking.”
His hand curled into a fist, and he wanted to demand the name of the miscreant who had propositioned her, but he held his tongue.
“What is your game, Lord Ashland? Why do you want to save me?”
He paused. “That’s a tough question without an easy answer.” He didn’t want to tell her that she intrigued him far more than was appropriate and that he thought about her at odd times during that day and that he worried about her in the rookery.
“I like you,” he finally settled on. “And I think you need help.”
She turned to study him, her gaze bouncing over his face, looking for deception, he was sure. “You’re different, not like anyone else I’ve met before, but I like you, too.”
He would be hard-pressed to describe what those words meant to him. It was as if he’d run a great distance and his heart was bursting and he was out of breath and exhausted but exhilarated at the same time.
“I will consider moving my lodgings to your place, but only if Suzette agrees to go with me and only if I can pay a fair rent. I don’t want to be a charity case.”
“Agreed,” he said, deciding right there that he would hold her rent money in reserve and give it back to her when—if—she went to America. “But only if I go to your lodgings with you while you talk to Suzette.”
She grinned, the first smile he’d seen out of her. “Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”
Good Lord, no. He had no idea who this Suzette was and who he was inviting into his house. Mrs. Smith was going to have a fit. “I’m aware.”
She took the last two bites of her fish and stood. “Let’s go then,” she said around a mouthful of food.
“Now?”
“Is there a better time?” She tilted her head and studied him. “Or are you afraid?”
Chapter Nine
Jacob followed Charlotte through the warren of narrow streets and alleys that made up London’s worst rookery. He was amazed that all this time she had been hiding right under their noses and they hadn’t even known it. He was also amazed that he was actually here. He’d heard of the rookeries, of course, but had never ventured into one.
That Charlotte had willingly come here spoke much to the fear she must have lived with at her aunt’s.
There was an odor of unwashed bodies, rotting corpses, and general poverty. He’d heard of the charitable organizations determined to clean up the rookeries, but until now he’d never realized the depth of despair that lurked in these dark streets.
His back itched with the eyes scrutinizing him from shadowed doorways and darkened windows.
Charlotte was a different person here. She pulled her top hat lower over her eyes and made no eye contact with anyone—walking quickly and with purpose. Jacob followed her lead and kept alert, feeling inadequate to protect her.
Before they entered, Charlotte had looked him up and down critically. “You are entirely conspicuous, but it will have to do. People will be curious. They’ll be watching you. Be careful.”
“What about you?”
“They won’t notice me much. I’m one of them.”
“How did Miss Charlotte Morris, the granddaughter and niece of a marquess, become one of these people?”
