The Smuggler and the Society Bride

The Smuggler and the Society Bride by Julia Justiss Page B

Book: The Smuggler and the Society Bride by Julia Justiss Read Free Book Online
Authors: Julia Justiss
Ads: Link
squelched the now-familiar panicky feeling stirring in her breast, submerging it in the same dark place as her memories of that awful night. True, she still had no idea what she going to do, but she wouldn’t tease herself any further about it at the moment.
    Perhaps in the same ‘later,’ when the whole episode no longer made her feel so humiliated and hopeless, a reviving anger would come, and with it a compulsion to finally discover who or what, beside her own naïveté and vanity, had brought her to this. For now, she pushed that speculation aside like the lump of glass in her pocket.
    Like she should her curiosity about the man who, so soon after her disgrace, was already tempting her to forget that no man could be trusted.
    She’d just turned from the harbour to set off for the vicarage when she heard the woman’s scream.

Chapter Eight
    T he cry resonated deep within her…an echo of the one she’d heard issuing from her own throat that infamous night. Praising the Lord it was still full daylight and certain there must be other people about, she looked around wildly, trying to find the source of the scream.
    Hearing a second cry, she looked down the hill toward the port and spotted a girl outside a small stone hut, struggling in the grip of one man while another loomed close by. The girl, she realized suddenly, was Laurie Steavens, little Eva’s sister.
    Honoria looked quickly up and down the street again, but found it deserted. She might run back into the draper’s shop, the closest dwelling to the spot where she now stood, but could she persuade the merchant to come with her to the girl’s aid before the man holding her, with the help of his accomplice, carried her off?
    Honoria didn’t think so. All the pain and anguish of struggling vainly in a determined man’s grip flooded back, and she knew she couldn’t simply turn away and abandon Laurie.
    Wishing herself back on the beach where she might find some wrecker’s driftwood, or back in wooded country, where some convenient nearby tree might offer up a limb she could use for a club, after a moment’s hesitation during which shedebated whether or not to proceed with no weapon at hand, Honoria charged down the hill.
    There were only two men, she thought as she hurried closer, and there must be sailors about somewhere in the port below. If she halted a safe distance away and added her screams to Laurie’s, surely they could rouse someone to come to her aide.
    â€˜You, there,’ she yelled as she approached. ‘Release that girl immediately or I’ll have the magistrate on you!’
    Though the man didn’t loosen his hold, he did turn toward her. ‘What’s it to you, wench, if we want a little sport?’ he called back in slurred voice. ‘Prepared to pay ’er for it, ain’t we, Hal?’
    The fact that one of the reprobates bore her beloved brother’s name incensed Honoria even further. ‘Since she does not appear to be interested in accepting your offer, let her go.’
    The man called Hal, tall and skinny, squinted at her appraisingly. ‘Golden-haired gel looks mighty fine, Davy. How’s about I take her ’n leave you this one?’
    The second man sounded as bosky as the first. In fact, he swayed on his feet when he turned, almost falling over.
    If they were both cast away, a good shove on this steep slope might be enough to dispatch them. With no help yet in sight, Honoria took the chance of coming closer. ‘It’s the two of you that will be leaving. Come, Laurie!’ She darted to the side of the girl away from the ruffian, grabbed her other hand, and jerked hard on it.
    The first man held on with surprising strength, while Hal lurched in her direction. ‘You come along, too, sugar-tit. Ol’ Hal’ll make you happy.’
    â€˜Miss, step away afore they grab you!’ Laurie cried.
    But Honoria hadn’t grappled

Similar Books

The Short Cut

Jackson Gregory

The Big Rewind

Libby Cudmore

Artemis Invaded

Jane Lindskold

The Curse of That Night

Rochak Bhatnagar

The Suitor List

Shirley Marks

Amanda's Young Men

Madeline Moore

The Perfect Letter

Chris Harrison