Jaded Moon (Ransomed Jewels Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

she didn’t. Couldn’t. She couldn’t show any weakness. Not if she wanted to protect another child from the cruel whims of the nobility.
    “Well, Miss Foley?
    “No, my lord. The child was not brought here after the accident.”
    Josie could not mistake the angry rush of air from his lungs. It took a long minute more before he asked his next question.
    “Do you know what happened to the child, then?”
    Josie lifted her chin even higher. “I know what happens to every child. It’s my responsibility to make sure none of them are placed in harm’s way.”
    “The child would hardly be put in harm’s way.”
    “Really?  Explain to me how a man who claims to want only what is best for the child does not know the child’s name. Or whether it is a boy or a girl. Or even when it was born. Hardly a reassuring recommendation.”
    “You would be wise not to cross me, Miss Foley.”
    “I’m not trying to cross you, Lord Rainforth. I’m simply protecting one of my children from a questionable fate.”
    Vicar Chadwick stepped out from behind his desk. “Enough, Miss Foley. Lord Rainforth, please, sit down.”
    The marquess didn’t sit as he’d been asked, just as he didn’t release her from his piercing gaze. Finally, the vicar’s soft voice sifted through the hostile tension.
    “If it’s any consolation,” the vicar said, clearing his throat, “I will promise to look into the matter personally. If I discover anything, I’ll let you know.”
    “I’ll hold you to that.”
    The marquess gave a sharp nod in farewell then left the room. The door slammed against the frame with a loud thud and for a long time there was only silence in his wake.
    Josie sank down onto a chair, her knees trembling. Damn him! How dare he march into her orphanage and demand one of her children.
    “Ah, Josie,” Vicar Chadwick said, clicking his tongue as he was wont to do. “I can’t condone what you just did.”
    “I saved a child from being torn from the only stability he’s known since his mother was taken from him.”
    “With a lie.”
    “It wasn’t a lie,” she whispered. “Exactly.”
    “Wasn’t it? The boy is here and you know it.”
    “But that isn’t what the marquess asked. He asked if the child was brought here after the accident. And he wasn’t. I took him home with me first. For more than a month. Until his nightmares lessened.”
    “I don’t think that’s what Rainforth meant.”
    Josie bolted to her feet. “What would you have had me do?  Hand the boy over to one of the worst rakes in all of England? You know his reputation as well as I. His name has been linked to more scandals than anyone can keep track of. Tales of his debauchery and wild living have made it all the way across England. And those are only the escapades that can be mentioned in polite company. There are worse ones to be sure.”
    “Such as the fact that his father was a traitor?”
    Josie swiped her hand in dismissal. “That is certainly a black mark on the Rainforth name, but not of his doing. It was his father who betrayed his country and the blame for that can’t be placed on the son’s head. The marquess has enough to answer for on his own.”
    “But the child is undoubtedly his. The eyes are the same. The face. His coloring.” The vicar shook his head. “You can’t keep the boy from him.”
    Josie lifted her chin a little higher. “I won’t hand the child over to a man with Rainforth’s reputation. You don’t believe he really wants him, do you?”
    The vicar furrowed his brows in contemplation. “You can’t know he doesn’t,” he said softly. Firmly. “And he won’t give up. He seemed a very determined young man.”
    “Well, I’m a very determined young woman. Besides, the child can’t mean that much to him. If he did, he’d have been here long before now.”
    With a swish of her skirt, Josie left the room, heady with the realization that she’d just stood up to a member of the nobility and won. She’d