Twilight with the Infamous Earl Read Online Free Page A

down at the woman, who was trying to shake off his grip. “Come along, my dear. Let’s have our private chat.”
    *   *   *
    Emily struggled to free herself, but it was an act of futility. The gentleman held her as effectively as an iron manacle. If she could have moved her arm, she would have brought the top of her parasol down on his boot. “You have no right to touch me!” she said through clenched teeth as she seethed.
    They had only stepped a few yards away from the girl and her beastly stepfather. She glared impotently at him. He was whispering something to poor Katie; most likely, he was threatening her with a beating if she did not stand with him.
    “Are you listening to me?”
    Emily reluctantly glanced up at her captor. It was the first time she had bothered to truly look at him. He was a gentleman. She had deduced as much with just a passing glance. His manner of speech, clothing, and arrogance marked him as part of the aristocracy.
    What stunned her into silence was the beauty of him. If angels walked the earth, they would possess such compelling perfection. His face looked like the work of a sculptor. Unblemished skin, a strong jaw, full lips and brow that age had improved upon. He looked about thirty years old. Despite the hint of tan darkening his skin, his face was unlined. Oh, and his eyes—an intense turquoise-blue that seemed to peer into her very soul. She felt the impact of his stare and wondered if she would see those eyes in her dreams this evening.
    “He is going to run off with her,” she fretted.
    The man gave her an exasperated look. “For all practical purposes, the man is her father. He has every right to run off with her.”
    “You don’t understand,” she began, sensing she had been pulled aside for a lecture.
    “No, my lovely lady, you do not seem to comprehend the situation,” he said sternly, his fingers biting into her arm. He kept his voice low for her ears alone. “If a constable wandered by, he is likely to haul you off to the magistrate for trying to kidnap the girl from the only family she has left. What are you hoping to accomplish? That she is abandoned and placed in a workhouse?”
    “A workhouse is better than living with that filthy beast,” she whispered back. “Are you aware what he was doing before you came along? Do you even care?”
    “I wager more than you do, little innocent,” he shot back, frustration and impatience threading his voice. “Hungry bellies need to be filled, and there are unpalatable ways to fill them. Just because you do not like how these people go about—”
    Had she mentally described him as an angel? Mayhap a fallen one. “I am not blind to the harshness of the world, sir! I understand that some people are willing to sell their bodies to survive.”
    “Not willing,” he countered. “Willingness has nothing to do with it, when one’s choices are made out of desperation. And you have no right to condemn them.”
    Aghast, she would have staggered backward if she could have stepped away from him. “Is that what you think I am doing? Judging them?” A wave of heat suffused her face. “That girl is not a whore. Her stepfather was selling her virginity to anyone who would meet his price.”
    The gentleman hesitated. “And you know this for a fact?”
    “The man approached my brother. When I saw the girl’s face—” She swallowed, and shook her head. Why was she trying to justify her actions? He had no right to judge her .
    The fear and desperation she had glimpsed in young Katie’s eyes had been Emily’s undoing. It would have been simpler if she had looked away and continued up the street with her brother. At least she would not be arguing with him .
    Something akin to pity softened his harsh expression. “You can’t save everyone,” he said quietly.
    “I wasn’t trying to save everyone,” she said, her eyes stinging with the threat of tears as her sister’s face flashed in her mind. “I was trying to save her.