The Last Hellion Read Online Free PDF

"I was only taking the child to Pearkes's." She waved toward the oyster house opposite. "For a bite to eat. She got herself into a bit of trouble—"
    "And will be in a great deal worse, in your hands," Lydia said. Her attention reverted to Ainswood. "Do you know what happens to the children unfortunate enough to fall into her clutches? They are beaten, starved, and raped until they are reduced to a state of abject terror. Then she puts them on the streets—eleven and twelve years old, some of them—"
    "You false, filthy, Jack whore of a bitch!" the bawd howled.
    "Am I impugning your honor?" Lydia asked. "Do you want satisfaction? I'll be glad to oblige. Here and now, if you wish." She advanced upon the procuress.
    "Let's see how you like being on the other end of a beating."
    A pair of large hands clamped on her arms and pulled her back. "Enough, ladies.
    You're giving me the deuce of headache. Let's try to keep the peace, shall we?"

    Loretta Chase - The Last Hellion
    "Oh, that's rich," someone called. "Ainswood keeping the peace. Did hell freeze over when I wasn't looking?"
    Lydia looked down at the big hand grasping her arm. "Take your paws off me,"
    she said coldly.
    "I will—as soon as someone fetches me a strait-waistcoat to tuck you into. Who let you out of Bedlam, I wonder?"
    Lydia shoved her elbow backward, into his gut. It was not soft. Pain twanged down her forearm to her wrist.
    Still, he'd felt something, for he muttered an oath and let go, amid the crowd's hooting and whistling.
    Get out while you still can , an inner voice warned her, and don't look back .
    It was the inner voice of reason, and she would have heeded it if the nerve his ridiculing comments had struck hadn't shrieked more loudly. Nature had not formed Lydia's character for retreat, and pride forbade any action hinting at weakness or, God forbid, fear.
    Eyes narrowed, heart pumping furiously, she turned to face him. "Touch me again," she warned, "and I'll black both your eyes."
    "Oh, do it, yer worship!" an onlooker urged. "Touch 'er again."
    "Aye, my tenner's on you, Ainswood."
    "And mine says she gives him a pair o' stinkers like she promised," another voice challenged.
    The duke, meanwhile, was sizing her up, his green gaze boldly raking her from bonnet to half-boots.
    "Big, yes, but not up to my weight," he announced. "I make her at five and three quarter feet. And ten stone, stripped. Which," he added, his glance skimming Loretta Chase - The Last Hellion
    over her bodice, "I should pay fifty guineas to see, by the way."
    Raucous laughter and the usual lewd comments greeted this witticism.
    Neither the laughter nor the obscenities disconcerted Lydia. She knew this rough world; she'd spent most of her childhood in it. But the crowd's noise recalled her to the main issue. The girl she'd set out to rescue stood frozen in place, wearing the hunted expression of one who'd found herself in the jungle, surrounded by cannibals—which was not far off the mark.
    Still, Lydia could not let this moron have the last word.
    "Oh, that's well done," she told him. "Broaden the child's education, why don't you? Give her a pretty view of London manners—and the high moral tone of the peerage."
    She had a great deal more to say, but she reminded herself that she might as well lecture a milestone. If this jackass had ever owned a conscience, it had died of neglect decades ago.
    Contenting herself with one last, withering glance at him, she turned away and started toward the girl.
    A swift survey of the crowd told Lydia that the bawd had vanished, which was frustrating. Still, it would not have made much difference if she'd stayed, when none of these loudmouthed curs cared for anything but their own entertainment.
    "Come, my dear," she said as she approached the girl. "We accomplish nothing amid this rabble."
    "Miss Grenville," came the duke's voice from behind her.
    Nerves jumping, Lydia swung about—and came up against a solid column of male. She retreated