Heart of Honor Read Online Free PDF Page B

that while he was unconscious, healing in the barn owned by a local shepherd, he had been bound and sold.
    “I was a free man, but now I am a slave. I am hoping you will be able to help me.”
    “There are no slaves in England,” Pax-ton said. “Here no man can own another.” He turned to the woman who said she was his daughter, and spoke words Leif couldn’t understand. Leif looked up at the sound of footsteps and saw Leopold approach. As much as he tried to control it, his insides quivered.
     
    “Are you the man who owns the circus?” the professor asked.
    The man was black-haired, perhaps in his forties. He made an exaggerated bow and came up with an oily smile. “Nigel Leopold, at your service. And you would be…?”
    “Professor Paxton Hart.”
    “ Sir Paxton Hart,” Krista added, hoping it might somehow help them.
    “Pleasure meeting you, Sir Paxton.” Leopold flashed another phony smile and Krista felt an instant dislike for the man.
    “Mr. Leopold,” she said. “You’re holding a man against his will. He claims that you abducted him. That makes you guilty of a terrible crime.” She pointed toward the cage. “Release him at once.”
    Leopold just laughed. “The fellow escaped from Bedlam. I am doing him a favor, but if you wish to see him returned—”
    “There is nothing wrong with his sanity,” her father said. “He merely speaks a different language.”
    “Gibberish—that is what he speaks. Mad as Mrs. Crane’s daughter. Here, at least he earns his keep. We feed him three meals a day and give him a dry place to sleep.”
    “He isn’t an animal,” Krista said. “He doesn’t deserve to be treated like one.”
    “The man is mad. As I said, I am doing him a favor.”
    Her father studied the circus owner with a frown. “I believe I understand the problem. How much do you want for his release?” Leif was a unique attraction. The Last Barbarian drew large, very profitable crowds. Leopold would not want to lose him, and buying his freedom would not be cheap.
    “Trust me, my friend, you can’t afford the cost,” Leopold said.
    Krista glanced at the blond man in shackles crouching in a cage that was far too small for him. Though the day was fairly warm, a sharp breeze blew, and with so little clothing he had to be cold. For an instant, their gazes met and held, and there was such despair, such a tortured look in his eyes that her stomach squeezed with pity for him. There was no way she was leaving any human being locked in that cage, no matter how much it cost.
    Her father rattled off a more than fair sum of money, but Leopold just smiled and shook his head. “’Fraid not, gov’nor. Like I said, here he earns his keep.”
    “Then I suppose we shall have to take another tack,” Krista said. “First, let me remind you that my father has been knighted by the queen. Second, my name is Krista Chapman Hart. My grandfather, Thomas Herald Chapman, is the Earl of Hampton.”
    Leopold’s thin black eyebrows shot up, though he quickly smoothed his features.
    “That said,” Krista continued, “the man in the cage has accused you of a crime. My father and I both speak his language and we will be more than happy to testify in a court of law that you have abducted him illegally and are keeping him here against his will, that you have forced him into slavery for your own selfish purposes. We will make it abundantly clear to the authorities, Mr. Leopold, that you are the man who should be locked behind bars.”
    Leopold’s face turned a vivid shade of red. “You can’t threaten me!”
    “My daughter has made no threat,” the professor said. “She had merely stated a set of facts. If you wish to refute them, it will be your word against ours.”
    A greedy circus owner against a knight of the realm and a member of the aristocracy. Krista almost smiled.
    “The choice is yours,” the professor continued. “Either you accept a reasonable amount of money as repayment for your investment in