Lady of Desire Read Online Free PDF Page B

question him. Draping his arm around her shoulders, he sent the message loud and clear that she was under his protection. Jacinda deemed it best, this once, not to argue.
    At length, they came out to a deserted crossroads where the man called Nate waved to a hackney that had been waiting in the shadows. Apparently one of their own, the driver had been stationed there to bear away the wounded. Riley’s corpse was hefted into the coach; then the more seriously injured men climbed aboard. When the ragtag carriage had gone, the rest of the men broke up into twos and threes—to avoid attracting attention, Blade explained—taking different routes back to their gang headquarters in Bainbridge Street.
    Nate joined Blade and her as they walked through the streets. “Whew!” the lanky Yorkshireman exclaimed, fanning his hand before his nose. “What the hell stinks?”
    From the corner of her eye, Jacinda noticed Blade shoot him a discreet look as though to hush him; then it dawned on her that the unpleasant smell she had noticed in the air was coming from
her!
Her fine velvet redingote had absorbed the infernal odor of the garbage heap. The humiliation of it was the crowning blow of this night. She could almost hear her nemesis, Daphne Taylor, cackling with glee.
    “I’m afraid, sir, that the unpleasantness you are referring to is emanating from my coat,” she forced out stiffly, trying to hide her misery and the fact that her pride was in shreds.
    Nate blanched, looking genuinely embarrassed. “Oh, gracious, miss, I didn’t realize. Beg your pardon!”
    Blade laughed softly at her discomfiture, his green eyes dancing. “There, there, darlin,” you still look as pretty as a rose, even if you don’t exactly smell like one. You can have my coat, if you want. It’s a bit bloody, but you’re welcome—“ He started pulling it off.
    “Not necessary, thank you.” Scowling, she shoved off his loose half embrace.
    They laughed at her.
    “Plucky little thing,” Nate said with a chuckle to his friend. “ Where’d you find her? ”
    While Blade explained what had transpired, Jacinda glanced this way and that, noticing that their surroundings were becoming increasingly grim. The dirty streets narrowed, crooking past rows of ramshackle shops and lodging houses of dubious character. Every corner flapped with the remnants of old faded posters, deteriorating like ancient burial shrouds. The few people they saw either fled from the sight of Blade or bowed to him with a reverence she doubted they would have shown to the regent. Meanwhile, Blade concluded his story of finding her in the junk heap. She noticed he treated the good-natured Yorkshire-man more like an equal than he had the others.
    “She was there all the time,” he finished, sending her a mystified glance.
    “Well, hang me,” Nate said. “She got a name?”
    “Deuced if I know. You ask her, Nate. She doesn’t like me.”
    She gave Blade a flat look in answer to his taunting bid for a denial from her on that point. She did not deign to indulge him.
    “Aye, I’ll do the introductions,” Nate agreed, turning to her. With an air of fun, he gave her a small bow. “Nathaniel Hawkins at your service, ma’am, and who might I have the pleasure of addressin‘?”
    “Smith,” she lied coolly, using the same alias she had given the booking agent. “I am Jane Smith.”
    Blade’s stare homed in on her—sharp, piercing, alarmingly intelligent. “Bullocks,” he said softly.
    “You accuse me of lying?” she cried. Good God, how did he
know?
    “Children, children—now, would that be a missus or miss, Jane Smith?”
    “Miss.”
    “Well, then,” Nate went on cheerfully. “Miss Smith, allow me to present my good friend, Billy Blade, the elected captain of the Fire Hawks of St. Giles.”
    “And you accuse
me
of using a false name,” she scoffed, looking past Nate’s grinning face at her captor. “Billy Blade, indeed.”
    “Perhaps you wouldn’t mind telling