The Lady Tamed by Boyd, Heather (urban books to read TXT) 📗

of an age to be out. Despite the glare, she appeared worn down in spirit and resembled Mrs. Hawthorne a great deal. This could only be the daughter of marriageable age he’d heard about. “You must be Miss Hawthorne.”

She did nothing to confirm nor deny. “Who are you?”

“Mr. Dawes. I am Lady Rivers’ good friend. You must not have seen her arrival on foot from the woods.”

“No. I was taking a walk in the opposite direction,” she said slowly, but still seemed skeptical.

“Lady Rivers and your mother are just down the hall in the sitting room.”

Miss Hawthorne looked down the hall and then back at him, her eyes full of suspicion.

Jeremy put his hands behind his back. If he’d intended to steal anything from this house, he had sufficient time already to have made an escape. “I promise not to move from this spot until you confirm it.”

She frowned and then rushed down the hallway. At the sitting-room door, she cried out and rushed inside. The children followed after their older sister. Jeremy could imagine an affectionate greeting being exchanged within the sitting room, but he stayed rooted to the spot until Miss Hawthorne reappeared again and released him from his promise.

“Lady Rivers asked me to remind you not to go too far.”

He nodded. “I had only intended to stroll the gardens closest to the house.”

She glanced back inside the sitting room, a frown growing. “She said that would be best.”

As he turned, he noticed the children again. His character, if serious about courting Lady Rivers, would certainly try to win over her friends and be helpful. “Would you allow me to take the children outside for some air and exercise? Just in the gardens. They have been very quiet, and I think it would cheer them up to be in the sunshine.”

Miss Hawthorne seemed to sag at his offer. “It has been very hard to entertain them.”

“Then please allow me to be of assistance. Perhaps the children can show me their favorite play spots outside.”

“I think they would like that.”

Another quick grin, and Jeremy held out a hand to the young ones. “Shall we go outside and see if we can find any pretty flowers to brighten your mother’s sitting room?”

They rushed outside, ignoring his outstretched hand but holding on to each other. Jeremy followed, watching them run around through the gardens, then stop to confer with each other at a whisper. Then suddenly they darted off toward a distant garden gate.

“Wait! Please not too far,” he called but was ignored.

Jeremy lengthened his stride and gave chase into what seemed to be an orchard, annoyed that those seemingly placid children were as wily as any overly ambitious understudy determined to steal the scene. He eventually found them all sitting beneath an apple tree, holding hands and whispering.

He counted heads to make sure he had them all.

Then countered again—because he had two more heads than he’d thought he’d started out with.

But then he shrugged. Lady Rivers hadn’t said how many in number the Hawthornes were. He had seven now, instead of the five he started with. That could be all of them or perhaps there were more still somewhere about the estate.

They didn’t seem to need him to entertain them, so he leaned against an old apple tree, a silent observer. Jeremy looked about him and reached up to brush an apple hanging above his head. He wasn’t hungry, and so he left it there to finish growing. But before Lady Rivers and her money had come into his life, he wouldn’t have hesitated to take what he needed to survive.

He was well versed in criminal activities, though Lady Rivers had no idea of his past. And she never would if he had his way. To her, his life began and ended at the theater. He would lose her patronage if she learned his first profession had been thief…and that he’d been rather too good at it.

He looked about again, taking in his surroundings. What a world to grow up in. No filth, abundant food just waiting to be picked and eaten from any tree or vine. This family was luckier than any he’d ever known. They would have every opportunity in life.

He became aware that the whispers continued, and glances in his direction grew in number, then the children were all up on their feet again. They tore through the garden, running away from him, gathering up flowers, a little from each plant, and once they had enough, they ran off together again.

Jeremy was forced to give chase, and he was glad their haste seemed to be a return to the Hawthorne house only.

He caught up to them just as they started up the stairs.

But then they began to creep, tiptoeing through the doorway into the dim inner hall. Jeremy followed in a similar fashion, as silent as he’d been when stealing his way into a stranger’s home, because he sensed a change in the air inside the house. Years of watching others and listening to his instincts told him all was not well.

Down the hall, servants had gathered together, faces lowered. Fingers covering their lips.

And in the room they stood outside of, a woman suddenly began to wail, desperately sad.

Heartbroken.

Jeremy froze as the horrible sound of loss faded away, only to start up again.

If he was not mistaken, the gentleman of the house had just passed away.

Jeremy lowered his head and sent up a brief prayer for the man’s soul. But two of the boys ushered the others down the hall, headed toward that far room.

Jeremy hesitated to follow but decided he should, in case he was asked to take them away again.

He reached the doorway and spotted the Hawthornes hugging each other beside a large bed.

Lady Rivers was nearby, her back pressed to the wall, silent tears streaming down her cheeks in grief.

He went to her side, and when he whispered her given name, she turned into his shoulder immediately and began to sob her heart out.