Free A Midsummer Night's Sin by Kasey Michaels

trade. Two generations from the docks, girl, that’s all it takes. And you name the first whelp Reginald somewhere in his string of names. I’ll go the blunt for that, as well. I promised m’mother as much, and that’s how it’s going to be, understand?”
    His mother. Grandmother Hackett. To her father, everything that was right and good about the world. To her mother, who had been forced to have the coarse, domineering Alice Hackett live in her house until the woman died, the bad angel who sat on Regina’s shoulder. Her mother loved her daughter, but Leticia could never quite hide the fear that Regina had the makings of a lowborn peasant deep inside her, just waiting for some inopportune moment to pop out and sully her and her family escutcheon.
    “Papa, I have terrible news,” Regina said as herfather had recourse to the gin decanter, the only thing that bonded him to her Uncle Seth. She had hoped to be able to put off the telling until the morning, but that was impossible now. “Our coach took a wrong turn tonight and brigands attacked us. I’m fine,” she added quickly, as her father had whirled about to look at her, his face a thundercloud. “But Miranda was…”
    “Well? Spit it out, girl. The idiot girl was what? Beaten? Shot? Raped?”
    Regina sought out a chair and sat down. “No,” she said. “Taken. Miranda was taken.”
    He raised one inquisitive eyebrow at her. No sign of caring, of compassion. Simply inquisitive. “Is that so? Taken where?”
    “She was abducted by the brigands.” Regina hated that her voice was shaking, hated that she was afraid of her father. But she was. He was so large, so physically imposing. She reassured herself that anyone with half a brain in his head would be afraid of her father. “Uncle Seth has already begun making inquiries,” she lied quickly. “There is a great fear that Miranda has been kidnapped in order to be sold somewhere. I was left alone because I’m not what they wanted. It’s just as you told Mama and me. Terrible men, buying and selling people as if they were bolts of cloth.”
    “I see,” Reginald Hackett said slowly. “And you’re not lying to me? She hasn’t talked you into going along with some farradiddle about slavers to cover that she’s run off with some idiot young pup who thinks he loves that penniless twit?”
    “No! Papa, this is real. ”
    “And you didn’t help her make up the story, thanks to me telling you about such things? Come on, come on—the truth!”
    Regina shot to her feet. “I am many things, Papa, but I am not a liar.”
    His enraged shout shook the chandelier above her head. “Damned if you aren’t!”
    She sat down once more, hoping to hide her sudden urge to flee the room. She hadn’t realized he knew her that well. “Papa, please…”
    “You’re mine, aren’t you? You couldn’t help but lie whenever it suited you. Only good thing about you, other than your worth in the marketplace.”
    Regina felt a spurt of resentment. “I also have tolerably good teeth,” she said quietly. But he’d heard her.
    He downed the remainder of his gin and deposited the empty glass on a nearby table before spreading his arms wide as if in apology, one he certainly didn’t mean. “You need a thicker skin, that’s what you need, girl. I’m only stating facts. All right, all right, never mind. We’ll put your sad tale of brigands to bed, shall we? You were up to mischief tonight, the pair of you, but you escaped by the skin of those tolerably good teeth while your cousin didn’t. Next time, you might not be so lucky. But there’s not going to be a next time, is there?”
    Her shoulders visibly slumped. He knew. How did he know? “No, sir.”
    “So your cousin did not involve you in some elopement? She truly was taken. Seth knows?”
    Regina nodded. “He’s going to hire some Bow Street Runners in the morning.”
    “Another dip in my purse,” Reginald grumbled. “She hardly seems worth it, except to