Lady Star Read Online Free PDF Page A

friend, for I do intend to drink you under the table
and hope to be unconscious for a week.”
    Jules laughed and said with surprise,
“ Your old cob ? What mean you ? A cob ? How is it you
are riding a cob?”

Chapter
Three
     
    STAR CLOSED THE front door at her back, and
released a long breath of air as she exclaimed out loud, “Whew!
Well done, Miss Berkley, well done.” She meant to watch her brother
carefully from here on in. He may be older, but if he thought he
could deal with such odious men and come out clean, he hadn’t a
lick of sense. Indeed, it might have brought him a few sou to stave
off the creditors, but at what price?
    She whipped off her woolen cap, and rushed up
the main staircase, down the wide corridor and stopped at the door
of her brother’s room. Carefully, she opened the door and found him
sitting up with a lit candle beside his bed. She walked right in
and plopped on the edge of his large bed to murmur his name and
shake her head. “Vern. That was the most horrible experience I have
ever had. I should lecture you from now till morning, but I won’t.
Ask me ever again to do something like that and I shall snub you
silly!”
    “Aye and it is all my fault,” he said
hoarsely and looked miserable.
    She eyed him and realized his face was
flushed. His cheeks were red and there was a bead of sweat on his
forehead.
    Clucking her tongue, Star rose and hurried to
his side to put a hand to his forehead and exclaimed fretfully, “Oh
no! You are still quite feverish.”
    “Am I? I do feel better,” he answered and
waved off the problem with a lazy swish of his hand. “Now tell me,
what happened. What did Farley say?”
    “Hush, I will tell you all, but do not excite
yourself,” she arched a look at him and then released a long sigh.
“I found Farley—horrid beast of a man. I delivered your message and
all is as it should be. I did not pretend to be you as you wished.
It never would have worked. I said I was a cousin.”
    He sank back against his pillows, “You are
the most wonderful sister.”
    She realized that he was humiliated by what
he had been forced to tell her and ask her to do in his stead. She
saw now that it had been soul draining for him.
    He looked pitiful in his misery as he
exclaimed, “That I sent you amongst cutthroats, smugglers and
thieves. Ye gods , but I am the worst of brothers!”
    “ Nonsense . I was in disguise and am
very good at play acting,” she smiled encouragingly at him. “I will
not try and bamboozle you Vern. You know as I do, that you were
wrong, however, what has passed, is over and you will never engage
in such conduct again—right? You promise me?”
    “I cannot promise you that,” he murmured.
    “What the deuce do you mean?” she demanded in
unladylike terms. “You must promise me that…Vern.”
    “I am tired, sis,” he answered with a weak
smile. “We’ll talk later.”
    She frowned, but she could see his illness
had indeed taken its toll. She patted his hand and left him to
sleep.
    As she made her way to her own room, she
wrung her hands. What could he mean? He could not continue
doing what he had been doing. It was so much more than wrong. It
was a serious crime and this evening could never be repeated. She
had been so fortunate that Jules had not seen her, really seen her
for he would have known at once that it was she. Jules, sweet
Jules—such a good man, a handsome man and he had become
increasingly…friendly as of late.
    * * *
    “Ye gods! Draw back the flaming drapes at
once!” Sir Edward bellowed at his loudest as a ray of sunlight hit
him fully in the face and caused him exquisite pain. “What in
thunder are you doing?”
    The young serving boy made haste to correct
his error, mumbled an apology and set things in order for his
employer’s guest. He bowed himself out of the room and hurried
off.
    Sir Edward pulled himself into a sitting
position in the darkened room and ran his hands through his ginger
colored locks. He made a