When she attempted to slide it back, he told her, “Keep it.” To Cora, he said, “Why don’t you start again. Tell us everything that happened that night, from the beginning.”
“Well, I was in Covent Garden, in my usual place for the evening. Each lady has her usual place, you know. A hackney stopped right in front of me, and this splendid-looking gent beckoned me inside. Fair hair, light eyes, fine features. I’ll tell you,” she said, directing the comment at Meredith, “it’s not often we get one so handsome as that.”
Meredith looked completely nonplussed by the “we” in that sentence, but she merely tilted her head and said, “Go on, then.”
“Anyway, he complimented my bonnet, which I was quite proud of. I’d just replaced the ribbons a day before. When I said, ‘I thank you, sir,’ he told me to call him Leo. And then he asked me if I’d like to see a boxing match over in Whitechapel. He’d made plans to attend with a friend, he said, but the friend cried off.”
Bellamy gave a low groan of culpability. “That would be me.”
“Normally, I told him, I stay far clear of the East End. That’s for low-class girls, the ones what work the docks. But he was so handsome, and he asked so prettily. And I’d never seen a boxing match, not a real one, so …” She lifted her eyebrows. “Off we went. On the drive, he was ever so kind to me. Let me drink brandy from his flask. I didn’t even know then that he was a lord, but I could tell he was true Quality. Not from his clothes or his accent, but just his manners.” Cora’s eyes fell, and she traced a groove on the tabletop. “He treated me like a person, Leo did. Like a sweetheart even, not just a whore. Sometimes I still can’t believe he’s dead. Like to broke my heart, though I’d scarce known him a few hours and we hadn’t even …”
She didn’t finish the thought. No one at the table needed her to.
Bellamy cleared his throat. “Yes, that was Leo. Always considerate of others, regardless of their station. Most fair-minded man I’ve ever known.”
“So you went to Whitechapel,” Rhys prompted.
“Oh, yes,” Cora went on. “And that boxing match was a sweaty, smelly business. All the men shouting and shoving and carrying on. Didn’t like it at all, but at least it was finished quick. Afterwards, the whole crowd was milling about. Leo was foxed on brandy and giddy from the fight.” She turned to Meredith again and murmured low. “You know how men are. They get riled up by the violence. Makes ’em randy.”
Meredith gave the girl a patient smile. Behind it, he could tell she was chewing a mouthful of unspoken remarks. Rhys wished he could look forward to going to bed with her tonight, just to hear all the thoughts she was so obviously keeping to herself.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason he wished they were sharing a bed tonight. Nor even the main reason.
“Leo took me round the corner. He started talking very sweet to me. What a lovely girl I was, and how lucky a man would be to enjoy my favors.” She laughed a little. “I told him he didn’t need no luck with me, just a shilling or two. He laughed and kissed me on the cheek and promised to give me three. Well, I thought he meant to just duck into a dark corner and lift my skirts, like most of them do—but no. He said he wanted to take me home with him, and would I be lovely to him there? A real bed, he wanted!”
“Fancy that,” Meredith murmured.
“Leo sent a boy to call the hack. While we were waiting there, a gent called out to him from the shadows. Leo seemed to recognize who it was. He told me to wait right under the streetlamp, and he’d be just a few paces away. The two of them went round the corner to discuss.”
“Discuss what?” Bellamy asked.
“I don’t know, do I? Couldn’t make out the words. But they were discussing it angrily, I could tell that much. Then it got very quiet, and I started to prickle all over. Thought perhaps they’d forgotten me, and I’d be lost all alone in Whitechapel. All I had to my name was the half-crown sewn into my stays for emergencies.” She drained the rest of her cordial, as if for courage. “Seemed like ages I stood there, not knowing whether to follow after them or not. And then suddenly I heard sounds. Horrid sounds. Punches, blows, cries. Worse than the boxing match.”
She gave a little shudder. “Were it anyone else, I would have run home that instant. But I’d grown so fond of Leo, and I was ever so scared … I turned into the alley and let loose with a scream.”
Everyone went silent. Rhys supposed, like him, the others were waiting to see if she’d demonstrate.
Fortunately for Meredith’s cordial glass, the girl didn’t.
“It took a few moments before I could make out a thing, what with the dark and shadows. But there were two big, coarse-looking men standing there. And at their feet, Leo and his friend were moaning on the ground. I screamed some more. The two men took off running the other direction, disappeared at the end of the alley.”
Twice Tempted by a Rogue (Stud Club #2)
Tessa Dare's books
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- A Week to Be Wicked (Spindle Cove #2)
- A Lady by Midnight (Spindle Cove #3)
- Beauty and the Blacksmith (Spindle Cove #3.5)
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