A Rogue in Sheep’s Clothing Read Online Free Page A

hissed, his eyes light with the pleasure of her pain.
    Heart in a knot, Ellie wanted to run, not lure her horse to the auction block.
Baron Wadsworth is a dangerous man
, she remembered her mother saying. Her family was in danger.
    Voice shaking, Ellie croaked, “Beautiful boy, come to me.” She rattled the grain in the bottom of the bucket. “Come, sweeting.”
    Manifesto’s ears swiveled, and pricked forward as she walked toward him. “You’re a greedy boots, aren’t you, poor horse?” she said. “Come for a treat.” The stallion stretched his neck cautiously then dove his nose into the bucket. Hands trembling, Ellie attached the lead. “Please forgive me,” she whispered as she led him to the side of a wagon in the barnyard. “You must not be whipped anymore.”
    Lank’s muffled voice came from the barn. “Is he secured?”
    “You better go, Miss Ellie,” Jimmy James said. “Ol’ Lank, he won’t like seeing you here, and it might be worse for the horse.” The groom took the lead from her. “Maybe this auction ain’t the worst thing wot could happen to Manifesto. Get him out of here clean, before Lank does his worst wit him.”
    Ellie nodded, unable to speak. The lead slipped from her fingers, and like a wayfarer in the dark, she sensed, rather than saw, her way back home.
    • • •
    “Wake up and don’t yell. It’s me.”
    Claire rolled over. The kitty sleeping on her back slid to the bed. “What’s the matter?”
    “I’m going to rescue Manifesto,” Ellie told her.
    Claire sat up. “You’re not going to do something impetuous, are you? Nothing you haven’t thought through very carefully?”
    “No, no,” Ellie told her.
    “Because you remember what happened when you went after Mr. Hollingsworth for that filly … ”
    “Well, a man can’t dock a sensitive horse’s tail. It drives them mad, unable to swat away flies.”
    “Uncle Sebastian paid one-and-a-half times as much as Hollingsworth paid him to get her back.”
    “And she’s a valuable carriage horse to this day.”
    “Yes, but only months ago you chased Vicar Smith from the parlor when he tried to divert me from Satan’s path; you told Lank you’d shoot him if you caught him near Manifesto, you … ”
    “Claire, I need your help.”
    “Oh, I just know this is going to be rash.”
    “I’m going to sell the Fitzcarry pearls and buy Manifesto with the money.”
    Claire gasped and clutched her chest. “But you mustn’t. They’re Mama’s prized possession.”
    “We must keep that stallion. The only way we’re going to stay in this house is to preserve the Albright pedigree. That’s our income, and it’s far more valuable than pearls. Mama let me wear the necklace to the Mortimers’. I feel certain she was trying to tell me to do something with them.”
    “What did she say exactly?”
    “Well, she didn’t use words. It was more of a feeling. Anyway, are you going to help me or not?”
    “Oh, Ellie, when you get going, a charging bull couldn’t stop you, but I’m begging … ”
    Ellie sprang off the bed. “Well, I need you to tell Mama and Papa that I left for Aunt May’s early this morning. I’ll probably be gone for a few days. Could you do that for me?”
    “Oh dear.”
    “Thank you,” said Ellie, patting her sister’s shoulder, “and don’t forget to tell them. I don’t want them to worry.”
    Claire shook her head in despair. “Oh dear.”
    • • •
    Ellie hurled a fistful of pebbles at Toby Coopersmith’s window. The majority fell short, but one or two pinged on the pane. After a minute the window opened and Toby’s sleepy voice called out, “What?”
    “Let me up, Toby, quick!”
    Moments later Toby opened the door, still dressed in his nightshirt. The two slipped upstairs to his room.
    Best friends with Ellie since toddlerhood, Toby carried the unmistakable mark of an Albright — white blond hair, blue eyes, and a pale complexion. Ellie had exploited Toby’s nearly identical