A Baron for Becky Read Online Free

London. He’s here on a debt-collecting mission. Our
Mr. Perringworth has been a naughty, naughty boy.”
    “Run orf, ’e
as,” Tiny said. “An’ the skirt too. Smite, ’e’s not gonna be ’appy.
’Ad a buyer for the little ’un, ’e did.”
    “We are
talking, I take it, of The Rose of Frampton and her child?” the
cousin asked.
    “Perringworth
left them as payment for his debt, but they seem to have
disappeared. I don’t suppose I could borrow your jacket,
cousin?”
    “We can do
better, I think.” Something was placed on the bench with a
thump.
    “You’ve brought
clothes? Ah, good chap. I say, Tiny, if you could just wait outside
while I change?”
    The bully’s
steps retreated down the stairs, and then up the path towards the
house. Suddenly, the seat lid was opened. Rose was dazzled for a
moment by the sudden light.
    When her eyes
cleared, two men were leaning over her. The sun had risen while she
was hiding, and was shining directly into the summerhouse, giving
both fair heads a halo of gold.
    Aldridge was
everything she’d heard. If Sarah hadn’t been asleep on top of her,
she wasn’t sure she could have resisted poking his bare chest to
see if his muscles were as hard as they looked. Or perhaps just
shaping them with her hands... What on earth did Aldridge do for
exercise?
    She met his
amused brown eyes, and he winked as if he knew exactly what she was
thinking. She turned her head and met vivid blue, instead. If
Aldridge were handsome, then his cousin was beautiful—classic high
cheekbones, a firm mouth currently in a stern line, but with a
lower lip that suggested a passionate temperament, and golden hair
tousled from being trapped under his hat. He could have sat as a
model for the archangel Michael. She wouldn’t be at all surprised
if he slew dragons in his spare time.
    “The Rose of
Frampton, I presume,” he said. The voice was bland, non-committal,
not a hint of judgement. Still, she blushed.
    “We have no
time for introductions,” Aldridge said. “My dear, is there another
way out of the garden? Tiny has men on the front gate and the
back.”
    “We can get
through the hedge,” said Sarah with a yawn, as she responded to
Rose’s hand gently shaking her shoulder.
    “Where will
that take you?” As he spoke, Aldridge was dressing: stepping into a
pair of pantaloons and pulling them up before he unwound the shawl,
turning his back to don and tuck in a shirt. “We’ll bring the
carriage as close as we can to pick you up.”
    “The lane. It
takes a turn past the house and runs beside the hedge for a short
way,” Rose said. The angel man had helped Sarah from the cavity,
and was now holding out a hand for her. Unaccountably shy, Rose
held her dress at the knee as she climbed out.
    Aldridge was
sitting on the floor, pulling on boots. “Over the side with you,
and hide. We’ll draw Tiny off. Don’t run for the hedge until we
clear the corner of the house.”
    “Aldridge,”
said the angel man, “what am I assisting with here?”
    “A rescue, dear
cousin. You heard what they said about the child.”
    The angel man
smiled at Sarah with a sweetness Rose did not expect from such a
stern man. “A rescue we can manage. Come. Let me lift you over the
wall.” Sarah went willingly to his arms, and he swung her between
the trellises into the garden beyond. Aldridge lifted Rose and did
the same, the strength in his arms fulfilling the promise of the
muscles now hidden beneath a gentleman’s waistcoat and jacket.
    “Tiny!”
Aldridge’s voice moved away from her as he spoke. “Tiny, the Earl
of Chirbury and I would like you to take a message for us to
Smite.”
    Aldridge
continued talking, and the steps of all three men retreated up the
path. Rose waited impatiently until they sounded distant before
daring to peek over the bush that was her hiding place. As soon as
they disappeared around the corner of the house, she stood
cautiously, checking all around her.
    No one was