The Last Hellion Read Online Free Page B

ragged boy hurried forward.
    "Mind the mare, Tom, and there's two bob for you," Lydia told the street urchin.
    Then, picking up her skirts, she ran into Russell Court.

    Loretta Chase - The Last Hellion
    "You there!" she called. "Release that child!"
    Susan gave a low "Woof!" that echoed through the narrow passage.
    Madam Brees—for it was she Lydia called to—threw one quick glance over her shoulder, then darted left into a still narrower alley, towing the girl with her.
    Lydia did not know who the girl was—a country servant by the looks of it, likely one of the countless runaways who made their way to London every day, only to fall promptly into the clutches of the bawds and pimps who loitered at every coaching inn from Piccadilly to Ratcliffe.
    Lydia had spotted the pair in the Strand, the girl gawking at the sights like the average bumpkin while Coralie—garbed like a respectable matron, with an expensive bonnet perched upon her shoe-blacking-dyed curls—drew her relentlessly toward ruin: Drury Lane and its legion of vice pits, beyond doubt.
    If they made it into whatever brothel Madam was aiming for, Lydia would not be allowed in, and the girl would never get out.
    But as she turned into the alley, she saw the child dragging her heels and trying to shake off Coralie's grasp.
    "That's it, my girl!" Lydia cried. "Get away from her!"
    She was aware of masculine shouts behind her, but Susan's thunderous bark drowned out the words.
    The girl was struggling in earnest now, but the stubborn bawd held tight, dragging her into Vinegar Yard. As Coralie raised a hand to strike the child, Lydia hurtled at them and backhanded the trull away.
    Coralie staggered back against a dirty wall. "Murderous bitch! You leave us alone!" She flung herself forward again.
    She wasn't quick enough to get to the girl, whom Lydia swiftly pushed out of the Loretta Chase - The Last Hellion
    way. "Susan, guard," she told the mastiff. Susan moved close to the girl's drab brown skirts and let out a low warning growl. The fiend hesitated, her face twisted with rage.
    "I recommend you crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out from," Lydia said. "Attempt to lay hands on this child again, and I'll have you taken up on charges of abduction and attempted assault."
    "Charges?" the woman echoed. "You'll peach on me, will you? And what do you want with her, I wonder, you great Jack whore?"
    Lydia looked at the girl, whose wide-eyed gaze shot from Lydia back to the trull, then back again. Obviously she didn't know which of them to trust.
    "B-Bow Street," the child choked out. "I was attacked and r-robbed and she was taking me to—to—"
    "Ruination," Lydia said.
    A tall ruffian dashed into Vinegar Yard at that moment, with another fellow at his heels. Several other males were also emerging from divers taverns and alleys.
    Lydia was well aware that, wherever a mob congregated, trouble usually followed. She was not about to abandon this waif, however, mob or no mob.
    Ignoring the rabble, Lydia focused on the girl.
    "Bow Street is that way," she said, gesturing westward. "The way this viper was taking you leads to Drury Lane, where all the lovely brothels are—as any of these elegant fellows can tell you."
    "Liar!" Coralie screeched. "I found her first! Find your own girls, you overgrown hag! I'll teach you to come poaching in my yard."
    She started toward her victim, but Susan's ominous snarl stopped her in her tracks. "You call that beast off!" she raged. "Or I'll make you sorry."

    Loretta Chase - The Last Hellion
    No wonder her girls were afraid of her, Lydia reflected. She must be half mad to dare move so close to Susan. Even the men—each and every one a gutter-spawned villain, beyond question—kept a respectful distance from the growling mastiff.
    "You've got it wrong," Lydia told her calmly. "I shall give you to the count of five to make yourself scarce. Otherwise I shall make you exceedingly sorry. One.
    Two. Thr—"
    "Ah, now, ladies, ladies."