Heart of Courage Read Online Free Page A

couldn’t remember.”
    â€œRudy!”
    â€œIt’s the truth, sis. I got drunk with Tom and the boys. That’s all I remember until I woke up the next morning with a doozie of a headache in the back room of the Golden Pheasant.”
    â€œThe Golden Pheasant?”
    He looked sheepishly away. “It’s a gaming establishment. I go there with my friends.”
    â€œTell me the place is not located anywhere near Covent Garden.”
    He made no reply, just stared down at his lap.
    â€œDear God, Rudy. What have you got yourself into?”
    He looked up at her. “That’s just it, sis. I haven’t done anything but drink a little too much.”
    â€œAnd gamble?”
    He shrugged as if it were unimportant. “I’ve lost a few guineas here and there.”
    But his guilty expression said it was more than a few and she thought how disappointed their father would be to learn the wastrel activities of his son.
    â€œThe thing is, I’m not a murderer. I just…I don’t know how I’m going to prove it.”
    Neither did Lindsey. Still, as spoiled and overindulged as her brother was, she loved him. Both of them were a little reckless, a little impulsive. But she knew deep down that Rudy was innocent of the brutal crimes.
    And she would do whatever it took to clear his name.
    Â 
    Thor watched young Rudy Graham leave Lindsey’s desk and walk out of the office. Though he hadn’t meant to listen to their conversation, he had overheard enough to know the lad was in trouble.
    He understood how it could happen. When he had first arrived in London and could barely speak the language, he’d had a run-in with the law himself. He had been brawling in the street with a pair of thugs, trying to defend a young woman who was being accosted.
    The moment the police arrived, the woman disappeared and Thor was unable to explain what had happened. Instead, he was shoved into the back of a police wagon along with the local riffraff and hauled down to the station. Leif had been forced to come down to gain his release. It seemed to Thor that once the authorities got a notion in their heads it was damned hard to dislodge it.
    He looked over at Lindsey, who sat with her head bowed, her plumed pen unmoving in her slim fingers. Apparently the police had decided that young Rudy Graham had murdered two women.
    The boy was in serious trouble.
    Bracing himself for whatever reaction his offer might get, Thor walked over to Lindsey’s desk. She looked pretty today, in her simple printed muslin dress, her honey hair swept back on the sides and held in place with turtle-shell combs. He wondered why he always seemed to notice the small things about her, then cursed himself because he did.
    â€œDo not be angry,” he said. “I overheard some of your conversation with your brother.”
    Her head turned toward him. “You were eavesdropping?”
    â€œI have always had good ears.”
    Her lips twitched, nice full lips a pretty shade of pink. “I suppose it wasn’t your fault,” she said. “We should have gone upstairs, but Rudy was so upset….” She shook her head. “I am worried about him.”
    â€œHe is in trouble with the police.”
    â€œThey consider him a suspect in the Covent Garden murders. But Rudy would never hurt anyone. He is simply not that sort.”
    â€œI know little of your brother, but if there is any way I can help, you only need ask.”
    Her golden-brown eyebrows drew together. “Why would you help? You don’t even like me.”
    He didn’t really dislike her. She just had a way of annoying him. “You are Krista and Coralee’s friend. They are my friends, so I will help.”
    She looked up at him with those big tawny eyes and the air in his lungs refused to come out.
    â€œThank you for the offer, but I don’t need your help. My brother is innocent. In time, the police will find the