Lady Rogue Read Online Free PDF

it said.  She raised her well-arched brows in question.
    "Garrick Frederick Seton is what those letters stand for.  M y name."  He had been holding a bundle of papers and now plopped them down on the seat.  "I'm an architect by profession."  When she didn't answer he added, "I draw the plans for many of the buildings being erected in the area."
    "Oh !"  Dawn was clearly impressed.  "An artist of sorts."
    "In a matter of speaking."  This time his smile had no trace of scorn .  "When so many men and women decide to live together in the same area, things are bound to happen.  Growth.  New roads.  Sturdy new buildings."  He leaned out the window, motioning to his driver.  "Where to?  East or west?"  He guessed the answer before she said it.  The poorer districts were to the east.
    "Ahw...ye don't 'ave to taike me all the way, Sir.  Jus' to the Red Feather Inn will be far enough."   She had her pride.  The thought of this fi ne gentleman seeing the squalid conditions in which she lived filled her with shame. Her back stiffened as her resentment returned.  It was the cruel indifference of his kind that kept her languishing in such circumstances.
    "Not a one o' 'em rich blokes cared a fig fer the likes o' us," Robbie was always reminding her.  "They think about us as if we wer e a bug crawlin' on the wall."
    "The Red Feather Inn?"  Garrick was dubious.  Even in the daylig ht hours it was a dangerous part of town.  "Are you certain?  I can take you all the way home.  It would be no bother.  Really.  I'd like to make sure that you are..."
    "Don't trouble yerself ."  Something in her e yes stilled his protestations.
    "The Red Feather Inn it will be."  He watched as she traced the outline of his initials with her finger tip, relishing the handkerchief as if it were something precious. Then she handed it back to him.  "No, you keep it."  He smiled.  "A memento of our meeting.  It isn't just every day I have such an auspicious meeting with a pretty little girl."
    "Keep it...?"  Dawn blushed to the roots of her hair, her antagonism momentarily held at bay.  He'd called her pretty, as if he meant it.  She'd recei ved few compliments.  Not since her father died had a man shown her real kindness.  "I'd be 'onored, I would.  I've never been given a gentleman's 'ankie before."
    "Think of it as a token of friendship.  Ev eryone has need of friends, don't you agree?"  At the moment she looked so small and forlorn huddled upon the seat.  Sympathy welled up inside him again.  He wondered if anyone truly cared about this girl.  "Do you have someone to look out for you?  A mother?  A father?"  he asked.
    This time the sudden tears th at blinded Dawn's eyes were real.  Oh, how she hated to cry in front of him.  "My..my father was killed in an accidennt and my..my mother is dead too..but..but I have a brother.  An older one.  He taikes care of me, or rather we taike care of each other.  "'E says I cluck over 'im like a mother hen."
    "A brother?  Good!"  Her answer relieved him.  The girl had at least one member of her family to look out for her.  Strange how the little waif tugged so at his heart.  As the carriage rattled on down the road he was tempted to find out more about her, perhaps even to ascertain some way of seeng her again, but at last he thought better of it.  Mind his own business.  That was good advice.  Besides, they came from two different worlds, across a gulf impossible to cross. He could tell by the wistful look in her eyes that she knew it too.  She was much like a stray kitten, but he was not the one to take her in.  Nevertheless, he was strangely unnerved when the large wooden sign of the Red Feather Inn came into view.
    "Here we are."
    Dawn was so warm and comfortable that she was reluctant to leave the confines of the carriage and the soothing charm of his company.  There were so many things she wanted to tell him.  How could he ever understand?  Her heart