Free Beastly Beautiful by Dara England

necessary forms had been filled that she remembered she lacked the implements she needed to finish her task.
    “Um, do you have a pen and paper?” she sheepishly asked the clerk. “I need to write a letter. Like, right now.”
    He had already turned away. “Ma’am, you can buy stationary products at the corner drugstore.”
    “I’m sorry, I know that, but I really need this to go out today. It’s urgent, and I’m afraid if I leave and come back later…”
    “All right, all right.” His disapproving frown said he didn’t consider her personal problems any concern of his, but she guessed he found it easier to comply with her request than to argue. “I have a notepad around here somewhere.”
    “Thank you so much.” She put on her most grateful smile as he dug around beneath his counter and produced a pen and a yellow notepad.
    She slid to the corner of the counter where she would be out of the way of the other customers and scooted her shopping bags along with her, before bending her head over the lined pad and starting to work. She bit her lip and tried to tune out the noise and motion going on around her, so that she could focus on what she needed to say.
    Dr. Green,
    It has come to my attention that you and I share a mutual enemy. I haven’t the time to go into the details of how I came to meet Mr. J. Rotham, or of how I happened to learn of the hatred between you. All I will say is that I share your dislike of the man. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be making you this offer .
    Her pen paused in moving across the page as she hesitated. Did she really want to go through with this? Suppose Sir found out he was being double-crossed? Besides, she had no reason to suppose Dr. Green was still revenge thirsty, and even if he was, who was to say he was willing to go to these kinds of lengths to see his desire realized?
    But then, as if to reassure her in her moment of wavering, snatches of the angry letter she had read from Dr. Green floated before her mind. Those hadn’t been the threats of a man content to let his anger go. They were the words of a man who meant business. One who might be willing to pay generously to see that business conducted.
    She returned to her work.
    By a strange twist of fate, I have come to be in a trusted position close to this man we both have cause to despise. I will be blunt. My financial circumstances are difficult. If you have some plan for avenging yourself of Mr. Rotham and if somehow my own efforts could benefit this plan, I am ready and eager to take part in it. For a price, I will do anything you ask, will provide any information on this man or his movements you want. If my offer interests you, if there’s any way we could come to a mutually beneficial agreement, you may respond to the below address.
    She signed her name hastily, before she could change her mind, and printed the address of her new post office box at the bottom of the note. She had to buy a whole box of envelopes from the clerk before she could slip her letter into one, seal it, then scribble the address she had previously memorized across the front.
    Back out on the sidewalk, she hunched her shoulders against the blast of the icy wind as she hurried away from what she imaginatively dubbed the scene off her crime. She shuddered to think what might happen if Sir were to find out what she had just done. But then, why should he, she asked herself. The man might be many things, but all seeing he wasn’t.
    Despite the dreariness of the day around her and the faint unease she still felt at what she had done, another more sensible part of her was relieved. With this new direction she’d taken, she need no longer rely solely on the good graces of a man she had little cause to trust.
    She stopped by her room just long enough to drop off her bags and change into some of her new clothing. She took the crinkled roll of cash out of her pocket and put some of it into the new purse she had bought, stuffing the rest under the