Free Desires of a Baron by Rose Gordon Page B

heel and left the lending library.
     

 
     
    Chapter Ten
     
     
    Lucy wrung her hands together and looked around the almost empty parlor. There wasn’t much left of their meager belongings. Just the dining table and chairs and a faded, threadbare settee she’d found behind the bakery a year ago. It couldn’t possibly be worth more than a half penny, but that’d be a half penny they could use.
    “ Why do we have to move to York?” Seth demanded of her, his face red and angry.
    Lucy’s heart clenched and anger, mostly directed at herself, bubbled up inside of her. “We’re going to start over somewhere we’ve never been,” she said. “It’ll be fun like one of those adventures you like to read about.”
    Seth stared at her, unmoved. “I don’t understand it. Can’t you find another post in town or go to London and work for Lady Norcourt?”
    “ No,” she said a little more sharply than she’d meant to. But the truth was, every business owner she’d gone to seek employment from was only interested in offering her one type of employment. And she wasn’t interested in becoming that kind of woman. Nor did she want to go to London and work for Lady Norcourt.
    “ I don’t understand why you won’t marry Mr. Appleton.”
    “ Other than the fact he hasn’t asked?” Lucy said sarcastically.
    Seth plopped down on the threadbare settee. “So if he asked—”
    “No,” she snapped. She rubbed her hands over her face. “Seth, I’ve already told you, gentlemen like Mr. Appleton do not marry women like me.”
    “ I think he might. He said he thought you were fetching.”
    She was sure he did. “While that is the finest compliment a lady could ask for, that does not mean he wishes to marry me.”
    “It could,” Seth said, oblivious to her previous sarcasm.
    Lucy sighed. “I know you like him, but it’d be better if you stopped thinking about him.” She swallowed and screwed up her courage. “Gentlemen like him, young, handsome, wealthy, they see women like me as amusements. Not as wives.”
    “Amusements?”
    Lucy groaned. As much as she didn’t want to prevail upon Paul, Sam’s brother, for support, she might have to bring herself to ask him to explain the things to Seth that she couldn’t. Heat crept up her neck. No. Too much had passed between the three of them that she could never ask that of him. “Seth, I won’t discuss this with you any further. You are not to ever mention Mr. Appleton to me again, do you understand?”
    Seth jumped up from the settee. “No, I don’t understand,” he said as he fought back the tears. “I don’t understand you at all and I never will.” Then, without allowing her a chance to explain, he ran from the house, slamming the door as he went.
    Lucy started after him as he ran. But she couldn’t keep up and fell to her knees on the ground, silent sobs wracking her body. “I’m trying, Seth,” she cried out quietly into the setting sun. Tears stung the backs of her eyes. Which was ridiculous. She was the one who’d created this mess. Well, not just her, there was a he involved, too. But she should have known better. That familiar bitter taste that always accompanied thoughts of him filled her mouth, making her want to act most unladylike and spit. Which was probably fine since she wasn’t a lady in any sense of the word. Instead, she rose to her feet and went back to her house. Seth would come back soon enough. This wasn’t the first time he’d gotten angry with her and run off. He’d come back.
    Twenty minutes later there was a swift, bang, bang, bang at her front door. Lucy stood from where she was packing their remaining clothes into the one trunk they’d have to share with all the personal belongings they’d be able to keep.
    “ Hello,” she said, opening the door a couple of inches.
    Two men were standing outside, both leering at her. She shuddered. The shorter one, Mr. Bronson, she recognized right away. He worked in the livery down the