The Rake and The Rose (A Rake's Mistake) Read Online Free Page B

can’t have you run off with it can I?” His voice sounded amused.
     
    “But, I was just leaving!” her desperation was palpable to Alexander and he felt sorry for it. “I am sorry that I caused trouble…I’ll leave and you’ll never-”
     
    “Never what?”
     
    “-have to see me again.” She finished.
     
    “What is in your sachet?” At first he seemed simply irritated. He wanted to find out if she was indeed a thief.
     
    “Nothing…” She hid it behind her back and his anger peaked. She had to have taken the coins. He took the sachet away calmly, but with strength from her bird-like hands, which went limp at her sides.
     
    “Well, then, I guess you won’t mind me seeing!"
     
    His voice was a well-hidden tone of no nonsense, and she gave up as he handed her over to the magistrates. The men took hold of her again and he opened it to find a piece of fresh bread and some mint with it. His eyebrows shot up, and he looked up at a young woman all but hanging from the first floor drawing room window, with her mother trying to drag her back in.
     
    “Madame! Madame Cromwell! I found my coins! Mama had them!”
     
    He inhaled sharply and looked back at the fairy girl in front of him, and this time he actually took in her condition. The bandages on her feet were not just tinted, they were soaked in blood. She had cuts under the grime, and he noticed a trickle of blood on her cheek, the origin disappearing into the gritted hair and scalp. Her pale face was thin and she looked exhausted, the deep circles under her eyes dark and ominous. His heart pounded.
     
    He tilted his head and his expression took on a softened look. “Where did you come from?” He prodded making his grip a bit more gentle after taking her again from the magistrates- who for all intensive purposes were attempting to stay out of the ordeal.
     
    “I don’t know…”
     
    His expression must have been bemused, because she looked upset. “How old are you?” Alexander assumed she wasn’t more than eighteen. 
     
    “I don’t know,” she whispered softly looking as if to cry.
     
    “If you say ‘I don’t know’ one more time…” the growl was back in his tone.
     
    “But I don’t! I do not remember!” She sighed exasperated and swayed a bit more. Charlotte tried to fight the urge to faint; and stayed up right because he had taken her from the magistrates and held on too tight.
     
    He peered at her “Are you hurt badly? Your forehead…”
     
    She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. “I am fine, please let me pass.” She moved his arms and started walking with her head held high. 
     
    He was stunned, “I did not say you could leave.”
     
    Alexander could not have hidden the barely contained rage if he had even wanted to try, for some reason his need to possess this now tangible creature flared. He stepped in front of her again and swore her black eyes turned into fire. He also realized they were not just black; they had warm caramel tones in them when the light struck them just right.
     
    “You do not tell me to do anything. I’m leaving!" How dare this man try and keep me here! With that said she bolted, and with speed he did not think she could have possessed. She ran straight into the woods with the grace of a doe.
     
     Alexander cursed, "Don't frighten her, and make sure she is returned to me!" 
     
    He looked at Francesca who waved at him to come over. "Alexander, please be gentle with her, she's only a frightened girl." 
     
    "Francesca I realize that now. We're going to help her." Before he knew what was going to happen, he had Titan saddled again and was trotting down the path where she had gone. She can’t go too far, she’s too wounded…Wounded, hungry and alone. Alexander thought guiltily about how he had treated her like a common thief.
     
    Charlotte thought she was fast. Thought was the key word, as it was more like a rushed limp. She scrambled when she tripped in a gopher hole